US-POLITICS: ALERT!! - HCFA Competitive Bidding Project for Orthotic Services

US-POLITICS: ALERT!! - HCFA Competitive Bidding Project for Orthotic Services

Dear US-OANDP-L Members

Thanks to all of you, who responded to my last post on this subject, your
input was helpful! This post is to bring you up-to-date on this important
and potentially far-reaching issue and to alert you to the potential need for
letters of support. If proceeded with, competitive bidding for orthotic
services will eventually have a significant negative impact on the quality of
care to those individuals in need of long-term professional orthotic and
prosthetic health care services.

Late yesterday NAAOP responded strongly with two letters, via fax
transmittal, speaking against HCFA's plan to include professional orthotic
services in a competitive bidding project, as announced in the Federal
Register on January 7, 1999, for what was termed as standardized orthotic
products. Since that announcement, we have sought to discern HCFA's
rational for this, as all previous communications and/or indications with
NAAOP from HCFA, were that orthotic and prosthetic services would be exempt
from this process due to the customized nature of these services.

We additionally sought to obtain a list of the Orthotic L-code procedures
they have classified as standardized orthotic products. HCFA shared this
list with NAAOP last week and the list included 142 L-Codes, which HCFA felt
could be competitively bid and sought our input. The list of L-codes were
comprised of a full complement of comprehensive, professional orthotic care,
including significant numbers of custom fabricated, custom-fit, and
molded-to-patient model orthoses. Only 5 of the L-Codes did not fall into
these custom categories. As a result of our concerns, we met via conference
call with HCFA officials late Friday following our analysis of this the
L-Code list and, again, expressed our concerns with orthotics being included
in this competitive bidding project.

NAAOP has followed up with two (2) comprehensively written responses, one
from NAAOP President, Jan Stakosa, CP, focussing on the clinical quality of
care concerns surrounding this issue. The other from NAAOP General Counsel,
Peter Thomas, Esq., addressing the chronology of HCFA's previous decisions
and assurances that orthotics and prosthetics would not be include in this
project. I urge you to take the time to read these comprehensive responses.
They can be viewed at the NAAOP Internet Site through either the following
hyperlink or URL:

HYPERLINK: <A HREF= <URL Redacted>>NAAOP -
Homepage</A>

INTERNET URL: <URL Redacted>

We are hopeful of getting a response from HCFA today or at the very latest on
 Monday as to outcome of our request..... to withdraw professional orthotic
services from this competitive bidding project. Should we not be successful,
your support may be needed to contact HCFA with your personal opinions
and/or concerns. The deadline, as we understand it for responses is on
Tuesday February 15, therefor you would have to react quickly. Once we have
had a response, NAAOP will notify all OANDP-L members immediately.

NAAOP is hopeful this will not be necessary!!

Sincerely,

John N. Billock, CPO, Co-Chairman
NAAOP Legislative Committee
Voice: 330-856-2553 Fax: 330-856-4619 E-mail: <Email Address Redacted>

National Association for the Advancement of Orthotics & Prosthetics
1875 Eye Street, N.W., 12th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20006-5409
NAAOP Voice: (202) 624-0064 Toll Free: (800) 622-6740 Fax: (202)
737-2517
NAAOP Web Site: www.oandp.com/naaop E-mail: <Email Address Redacted>