Rescue who ?

Rescue who ?

BionicRehab

3/18/2020

I have a big question.

I hear about Cruise Ship bailouts, Airline help, help for Restaurants, all good and I suppose necessary, but I have to figure they have people speaking for them, asking the government for assistance.

What are we doing ?? Please someone tell me what realistic and constructive words are being sent to Washington or the media for that matter, on the behalf of O&P because I dont see anything or hear of anything other than what is in article announcements in our journals, which in my opinion frankly, means absolutely nothing to the general population masses. I NEVER hear a single word about O&P speaking out. Never in the news, never in the papers, never on social media; only in our journals which like I said, means very little. Very few people still even know what P&O is, and I think many will agree that to be true. I have to say, oh yeah, I make arms and legs for a living. And the response I get, “oh yeah that’s cool.”

As far as my neighborhood friends and town associates know, I should be living high on the hog. “Many people need your services, don’t they? What do you mean insurances deny coverage, what do you mean they take money back? Is that legal?” I just shake my head and laugh and I have to sit there and explain how they haven’t a clue.

Reading the latest article in the Almanac about how to clean my shop, and inform my patients of how clean we are, is embarrassing. Because I have news for everyone. The single Mom stuck in the Bronx with her disabled son, unable to work and pay her rent because she can’t go to work because her son is missing school because his brace is broken, couldn’t care less about how clean my office is. As a matter of fact, this is fact. I’m talking about an actual Mom who begged for an appointment in the hopes I could piece together her son’s brace, which of course I did, but couldn't bill for because there wasn't any time to get any paperwork, so that was just another freebie, so her son could go back to school and she could start her new Job this past Monday. Little did she know the schools would soon close. But she never asked about our cleaning practices. Please, she just assumed we were responsible. Point being, I don’t want to read articles like the one in the most recent almanac about how I should prepare for this mess! I want to read about a major uprising being started, and I want to hear about it not just in our journals, but on the 5:00 news, and again at 6,7, and 8 ! I want to see it on the front page of The NY Post, The News, and The NY Times ! And I want to see Oprah putting her 2 cents in and many other celebrities like they manage to do for WW, and St. Jude !!!! ( no offense meant to either one)

Where is the O&P assistance, before - during - and after this mess ?? When our clinics close up, and patients don’t show up, but the audits keep coming, where is AOPA or whoever we pay dues to, speaking to the US Government for us ?? How is it that Medicaid rates have not increased since the 70’s ?

I’m really fed up with the management of this field and the way we neglect to speak up. I hate that I have to pay ABC dues because know what ? In my 39 years of practice, not a single patient ever asked me if I was Certified. Nobody cares. Everyone knows what MD, DPM, NP, or CPA, NYPD, FDNY, means on license plates. But I guarantee nobody knows what CPO means.

So who is in charge ? Who lobby’s for us ? I was never a political person in this field. I’ve been lucky in that I was able to just practice. But now, I want to meet that person who is supposed to be speaking up for O&P because he or she isn’t doing their job. That’s that.

Thanks and have a great day,

From my iPhone

Andrew A. Cinque CPO
(914) 755 - 5145
Manager
JK P&O
699 North MacQuesten Parkway
Mount Vernon, NY 10552

AC Prosthetic and Orthotic Services Inc.
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