Re: Federal Legislation

Jerry Levitt

Description

Title:

Re: Federal Legislation

Creator:

Jerry Levitt

Date:

12/8/2000

Text:

Ms. Marcel
 Your remarks are as vacuous as your apparent knowledge of Texas Law. If you are a practitioner I certainly hope you are well supervised.

ABC should not, nor should anyone in their wildest hallucinogenic dreams consider ABC and BOC credentials to be even similar, much less equal. The requirements for certification in prosthetics or orthotics are as follows:



                           ABC BOC (taken from Website)
Education BA or BS, Minimum No formal education required, all you need is one year supervised work experience

Training NCOPE/CAAHEP Program Two years experience providing specialized formal training patient care, supervision not
                                                               required

Examination Rigorous exams testing the An exam based on job analysis
                         applicant's knowledge of studies. This means can you
                         anatomy, kinesiology, fabricate. BOC brags of their
                         mechanical concepts, and high pass rate of over 82%.
                         clinical evaluation and High pass rates equate to low
                         application of principles. standards and expectations.

How anyone can equate no education, no formal training, and an almost guaranteed-pass lax exam to the ABC standard that is known throughout the industry as rigorous is beyond me. You created our own organization not because your credentials are equal but rather because they are inferior and were not accepted by the prevailing standard, ABC. Your assertion of equal is akin to saying I can afford the Caddy but I prefer the Yugo.

Your other fantasy, of being equal in Texas, is also foolish. If you were licensed in Texas with only BOC credential it is due to grandfather provisions, not because your credentials are equal to those of an ABC practitioner. Current Texas law requires at MINIMUM an Associates Degree, three years supervised experience, and an examination. This stop gap minimum expires in 2005. After that point the requirements are similar to ABC's. You may be licensed but you are not equal.

Your assertion that merely practicing for years makes you qualified is specious. Without an education and formal training you can not assimilate the rapidly changing technologies and are doomed to remained mired in the pit of ignorance.

You imply the discussion of credentials has to do with commerce, it does not. There being plenty work for both of us is immaterial to the goal of protecting patient safety by defining and applying a standard considered the minimum for competency. Years before BOC was formed, a group of concerned practitioners and physicians studied the needs of the disabled and ascertained what levels of education and training were required to achieve the stated goals of protecting the patient. This had nothing to do with competition between ABC and BOC, as BOC did not exist. They laid out the minimums and recommended an education pathway for the profession to grow into. We are now at the Baccalaureate stage. Unfortunately a group of individuals chose not to follow the enlightened path of education and training, rather these technicians and flat earth proponents banded together under the BOC banner. Because you have no education or formal training does not make that an enviable standard, and your desire to remain anchored to a group espousing this backward philosophy is damnable. Positions such as yours and BOC's are allowing other groups with an education but no training in prosthetics and orthotics to compete and displace trained O&P practitioners in our politically controlled third-party payor environment.

This is not a personal attack against you Ms. Marcel, but I could not stand by and allow you to malign the hard work and sacrifice ABC credentialed practitioners have made to ensure the patient's safety, their personal betterment, and the improvement of the profession.
--

On Fri, 8 Dec 2000 07:36:46
 PAM MARCEL wrote:
>It's about time ABC accepted BOC, as equal. In Texas we are equal due to
>legislation. If you eliminate BOC you will not have enough ABC people to go
>around. Second many of us have practiced for years and are just as competent
>or more so that some ABC professionals. Many of the ABC professionals were
>grand fathered in and have no degree. Yet they are accepted as equal. We
>were forced to create our own organization when refused the same opportunity
>from ABC.
>
>We both work for the same goal quality patient care. There is plenty of
>work for both of us.
>
>Pam Marcel
>
>_____________________________________________________________________________________
>Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : <URL Redacted>
>
>

Citation

Jerry Levitt, “Re: Federal Legislation,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 5, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/215462.