Hello Colleagues and Guests,
Recently, there has been some discussion about the use of videos from
practitioners and interviews with client/patients. We are in favor of
these videos and would suggest that you participate in these at the
speak4OandP.com website. Go to the website and sign up. While I can get
by with simple writing, I am not worth a darn in front of cameras or
audiences……sober. But I can be funny otherwise as long as I stay
awake. Many of you though are capable of giving a good interview and you
should participate if possible. Personally, I believe the most effective
videos will come from client/patient interviews with those who have been
denied important O&P care. But I also recognize that we practitioners
are the ones who are truly feeling the pain at this point with the
ill-conceived CMS regulations and audits. I think if HHS Secretary
Kathleen Sebelius would tag along with a couple of us for a few hours,
she would quickly see that the world of comprehensive O&P is far
different than she might now imagine. That is not likely to happen, so
the videos may eventually play a major role in our media distributions.
At the end of the day, we will get to the bottom of these problems and
corrective actions in our favor will have to be taken by our government.
Presently, there is some activity regarding a couple of questionnaires
that will be presented to our patients and physicians. The physician
questionnaire will be very short, but hopefully meaningful. The patient
questionnaire is limited to about 10 questions. I think you will see
this project underway in the very near future. The purpose of the
questionnaires will be to collect meaningful and honest data regarding
the provision of comprehensive O&P services. I’ll stop there for now,
but we believe these will serve a very useful purpose as we march toward
solutions to our current healthcare problems. There will be more about
this real soon, so stay tuned.
Our office was contacted by a U.S. Senator’s office last week and we
were told that there have been very few complaints about our O&P
problems. This is not surprising and I think it makes our efforts in
other ways even more important. Frankly, I don’t think many legislators
are aware of the impact to our economy when responsible care for
disabled citizens is denied. I did write to that Senator today though
asking them for an opinion about what constitutes a medical record and
what and, I believe, who is responsible for defining medical necessity.
At some point the buck must stop somewhere and we need to find out where
that somewhere is.
As you can see, although we may seem to change routes on a constant
basis, there are still things happening within our group that should
start to bear fruit in the not-too-distant future.
Wil Haines, CPO
MaxCare Bionics
Avon, IN 46123
