Dear Colleagues:
I am sure that the following is not only an issue in the state of Washington, but it is a national issue. We have now had 2 major insurance companies pretty much give us a ‘NON NEGOTIABLE FEE’ policy with regard contract renewal. We either accept the fee schedule which is below Medicare, or we loose our preferred status and will not be able to regain it in the future. (Is this even legal I wonder?)
However, the major reason for this attitude, I believe, is because we are associated with DME and we are not seen as the professionals that we are. Every other specialty within the realm of Rehabilitation Medicine is seen as a professional and not DME although they do treat patients with Orthotic devices.
So how do we tackle this issue? Our national associations should have taken care of this issue many moons ago and maybe they have tried unsuccessfully, but we need to change this DME stigma if we want to see longevity of our profession. We are putting so much effort into raising the standard of education, introducing residency programs, licensing in many states, etc., and I am all for that. But what is the point if our profession is categorized as VENDORS!
We need to come together as a profession and employ a lobbyist, representative, I have no idea who can take care of this for us, but we need to get ourselves deforced from DME. My company will be the first to pledge funds for this purpose. If we all join in we can do this, as we did with licensure.
Lets come up with a solution.
John Hattingh LPO
