Immediate Call to Action-Contact your Senator

AOPA

Description

Title:

Immediate Call to Action-Contact your Senator

Creator:

AOPA

Date:

10/1/2002

Text:

Immediate Call to Action-Contact your Senator
The Senate Finance Committee this afternoon unveiled its Medicare reform
package that includes a nationwide competitive bidding program for all
orthotic services that are not custom fabricated.
AOPA is asking every O&P practitioner and facility or manufacturer employee
to contact their Senators by phone or fax to raise opposition to this Senate
proposal. Our goal is to send as many letters as possible to Senate
lawmakers by 5 pm tomorrow because this proposal could move very quickly. We
would also ask that you forward this request to any of your friends,
patients and co-workers who would be interested in weighing in on this
debate. We need to show a strong and united front in opposition to this
harmful proposal and tell our Senators that the current proposal, outlined
in the Senate bill, is unacceptable.
To assist you in this effort, please go to AOPA's Legislative Action Center
at < <URL Redacted>> At this site, you will be able to
identify your Senator and find his or her fax number. We request that you
cut and paste the letter below onto your company's letterhead and fax it
today.
Thank you for your immediate attention to this request.
Sincerely,
AOPA
________________________
October 2, 2002
Dear Senator -----:
I am writing to express my strong opposition to a provision in the
Beneficiary Access to Care and Medicare Equity Act of 2002 that would
subject a major portion of orthotic services to a competitive bidding
process (section 311).
While this provision does exclude orthotic services that are custom
fabricated, it fails to take into consideration many orthotic devices that
will require custom fitting and molding to patient needs. I can assure you
that subjecting these custom fitted items to competitive bidding will only
hurt the quality of care provided by orthotists in the State of -------, as
well as throughout the country.
In short, a competitive bidding program is not appropriate for prefabricated
orthotic devices that require customization to a patient, and I strongly
urge you to remove or improve this provision prior to its consideration in
the Senate.
Thank you for your consideration of this important issue impacting the
quality of health care for Medicare beneficiaries. If you have any
questions, or need further information, please contact Walt Gorski,
Governmental Relations representative for the American Orthotic & Prosthetic
Association, at (571) 431-0809.
Sincerely,

                          

Citation

AOPA, “Immediate Call to Action-Contact your Senator,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 2, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/219815.