OK, one more try…
This is not about hurting our own pocketbooks, or taking money away from our
families, or being a poor businessman. I think that reducing overhead, and
subsequently reducing O&P payments is a good goal…
If, as so many have pointed out to me, the reason we have to charge $3500 is
to keep the $1500 item on the shelf while we make the prosthesis, and so the
user can wear it for 90 more days until we get paid… then how about having
the person wear a demo or used foot until we get paid, then order the foot
and fit it. We can then reduce the reimbursement because we haven’t had to
prepay by 90-120 days on the foot…. even saving a few hundred dollars is
GREAT!!! That money only went to pay for the foot in advance, and served no
other purpose but to cover us on the next guy’s foot. That is the waste I am
talking about, and trying to find a way to eliminate. Additionally, that is
just the “foot of the iceberg” if you will… repeating this process on all
modular componentry might save us and our patients (through the
corresponding copay reduction) even a little bit of money, while still
providing the manufacturers with the incentive to develop new technologies
(as their prices would remain similar).
We are going to have to cut costs at some point, shouldn’t we at least
attempt to be proactive and dictate our own future?
Don’t tell me I am stupid, or childish, or that “this is not a chat-room”…
tell me I am wrong, and why, and give us all your ideas so we can run them
through. It is time to brainstorm, not to browbeat each other into silence.
Idealism is what keeps me going in a strange world.
Justin Foster
Prosthetic Resident
Unemployed?!?
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