Ans to $3000.00 OrthoTech Fine

Ans to $3000.00 OrthoTech Fine

Jacob Nudelman

3/4/2002

This reply was the best out of the 20 or so. I left the senders name out.


Jacob,

Here's my $0.02 on your predicament. My prediction is that incidents like
this will lead to your licensure bill being watered down to where it should
be. I am a certified athletic trainer, and I have lived and worked in two
states while they were lobbying to get their licensure bill passed (both
successfully, by the way). The difference between our bill and yours is
that we (trainers) didn't try to use it as a method of eliminating our
competition. Ours establishes the profession as officially recognized,
establishes a board, and sets up a system so that no one can call themselves
an athletic trainer without meeting the state's requirements (national
certification in every state but one, who has their own licensure
examination and has since the 1960's). We didn't try to make it a penalty
for anyone to make an icebag tape an ankle or stretch a hamstring.

That being said, I do agree that there should be some limits on who can do
SOME of the things you do every day in your profession. Do I think any
wannabe should be able to fit an artificial limb? No. However, my
prediction from reading all the posts about your state board is that you
would never be able to reach a consensus on where that line should be drawn.

And save the rhetoric on what a hack job unqualified providers are out
there doing. If and when that happens, the doctor won't send their patients
there any more! Your profession's painting of the brace reps as hacks out
there fitting braces that could cause irrepairable harm at amy moment is
laughable. Who came in to your facility and inserviced your staff on how to
properly measure and fit those braces in the first place? I am a former
manufacturer's rep, and for every nightmare story you can recite I can tell
you about a doctor or PT who called me in to repair/redo/re-educate a
patient who came back from the O&P shop with a poorly fitting orthosis.

I can't believe your profession hasn't figured out yet that the best way to
get referrals from doctors is not to try to forcibly eliminate all your
competitors but to provide a top quality product with top quality service at
a reasonable price. 99% of doctors couldn't give a rip where a patient gets
his or her brace, as long as he doesn't have to hear any grief about it.
Few things tick doctors off more than having to listen to a patient complain
about something that he or she (the doctor) had no control over. If the
brace reps weren't doing a good job, guess what, THEY WOULDN'T BE GETTING
THE SCRIPTS!!!

If you guys (and gals I presume) were out there curing cancer
single-handedly, I am sure you would deserve the exclusivity your bill
currently provides. However, now that your cat is out of the bag, I think
the formerly sleeping giants will knock you guys down a peg or two!





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