Protect Turf?

Protect Turf?

12/22/2000

It seems that Mr.Michael Schuch, (CPO, FAAOP ,Immediate Past-President, AOPA) has the answer to dealing with competent competition. Practice in an institutional ivory tower with a built-in referral system and no competition. As for the rest of us whiners, we would welcome the ability to compete fairly with other allied health professions. All things considered, Mr. Schuch, the usual treatment continuum places the MD, PT, OT, cast tech and others before the P&O practitioner regarding access to the patient. More the rule rather than the exception is the scenario where a patient presents to our clinic with a history of inappropriate orthotic or prosthetic management by their PT. A lot of energy is then consumed navigating through letters of justification, authorizations, patient education on why their PT has billed for something that can't be used (energy that could have been better spent on, say, OPLAN, O & P PAC, and the Policy Forum?).
    I personally don't consider the recently passed legislation a protect your turf bill and I also recognize that there were provisions that benefited the P&O profession. Those comments aside, I still think that by diminishing O&P-specific educational standards in order to placate dissenting voices resulted in a flawed bill.

Bernard Hewey, C.O., L.O.