Re: Ossur Affiliated Facilities
R Miller
Description
Collection
Title:
Re: Ossur Affiliated Facilities
Creator:
R Miller
Date:
7/9/2003
Text:
Funny thing, the name you are registered with OandP.com is automatically
posted as Matt Johnson and your web address claims you are a CPO, yet there
is no Matt Johnson in the ABC directory.
Did the Ossur PR and Marketing department write this for you? Or are you in
fact the Ossur PR and Marketing department making a posting under an assumed
name. You sound like an Ossur marketing employee in your communication
attempting to create a defense to justify the �lets sell ossur products at
any cost program�.
In fact, due to then numerous inaccuracies in your posting, one has to
wonder if you are even in the O&P Industry. Hanger is not 1/3 of the
industry and never has been, and although I also compete with Hanger, how
does Ossur pushing Ossur products to our patients and Ossur pushing the
Ossur name to our referrals compete with Hanger.
Do you really have the right to take a cheep shot at the integrity of Dr.
Smith when you are too cowardly to post your identity when you make your
outrageous claims and comments? One has to ask, would an educated and
respected member of the rehab as you claim to be demonstrate such childish
behavior as calling others names while hiding behind an assumed one?
This Ossur program is about Ossur pushing Ossur, it has nothing to do with
Hanger and it has nothing to do with helping the small independent practice;
it is about Ossur. You say O&P is a small and the Ossur program is there to
help compete against the big competition, read the list of who joined,
Wright and Fillipis, Dennis Clark and Associates, Benchmark Medical, SCOPE,
RDA, Sabolich, Lehneis, Harry Lewall, Leimkuehler, Winkley, ACTRA to name
just a few. These are all muti-facility MULTI-MILLION dollar practices.
Wright and Fillipis has about 25 practices in Michigan and Hanger has about
3, so how does this help Wright and Fillipis compete against the big guy,
Wright and Fillipis is the big guy in Michigan.
Ossur was at the ACA meeting in Boston last week telling all the amputees
that they would get better care if they used Ossur products and if they went
to an Ossur facility. I have now had two patients contact me to ask why I
was not an accredited facility, I told them it was because I would not pay
the Ossur ransom and that the only requirement to be a special Ossur
facility was to pay the Ossur fee of $6000.
I also told them that if they really wanted an Ossur product, that because I
was not an Ossur member, I could provide Ossur products at a lower cost
because I did not have to pay the marketing fees and did not have to meet
minium sales quotas. I sent both patients a copy of the O&P Business News
article so they could see for themselves that the high fees for Ossur
members would most likely mean that Ossur members would most likely charge
higher prices to make up for the added expense.
This should be a call to arms for everyone that has an issue about the Ossur
program, MAKE A POSTING AND MAKE YOUR OPINION BE KNOWN. This list serve
should be flooded with postings. This program is bad for our industry and
bad for our profession, and if you are a practitioner reading this posting
and you have not made your opinion known, good or bad, then you should
re-examine your commitment to your own industry.
And if you are afraid to use your real name or identity, is appears the
moderator of the OandP list serve has decided to allow annonymous posting to
be made, so feel free let your feelings be known.
Respectfully
R. Miller, CP
>From: Matt Johnson < <Email Address Redacted> >
>Reply-To: Matt Johnson < <Email Address Redacted> >
>To: <Email Address Redacted>
>Subject: [OANDP-L] Ossur Affiliated Facilities
>Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 19:21:57 -0700
>
>I have been observing all the discord regarding the Ossur issue over the
>past
>several weeks and am amazed by the attitudes of many practitioners.
>
>I am an ABC Certified Orthotist & Prosthetist and the owner of a medium
>sized
>ABC Accredited O&P facility. Our company is an AOPA member, our
>practitioners
>are, Academy members and I personally am a member of NAAOP. We have
>subscribed
>
>to the Ossur marketing program for a one-year trial period.
>
>I choose to post this without revealing my name, as I do not wish to be
>crucified publicly by zealots on this list. Believe me, this is not
>normally my
>
>style, but after reading the scathing knee-jerk response by Dr. William
>Smith,
>It seemed prudent to do so. It would seem to me that an educated and
>respected
>member of the rehab community would be above public flogging and punishment
>without due process. Someone should enlighten him about the Hanger Value
>Rite
>Plan!
>
>You might ask, why did our company become involved with this promotion? We
>chose
>
>
>to do so because we as an independent compete every day with Hanger. In
>case you
>
>
>are not aware, Hanger is around 1/3 of the traditional O&P industry. If an
>entity owned 1/3 of the automobile, farm production, distribution,
>shipping,
>hospital, surgery or any other business, the public outcry would be
>enormous.
>Again O&P is so small that we do not garner much attention. Hanger
>attempted to
>
>strong-arm Ossur to sell to them at a much greater price break than any
>other
>O&P facility could command. Why Ossur chose to refuse the price pressure
>will
>probably never be known, but the result was that Hanger completely
>boycotted
>their products via financial penalties on their facility managers. Ossur
>has
>responded by going head to head in marketing with Hanger. I applaud Ossur
>on
>their fortitude!
>
>As a competitor to Hanger, I have to utilize all legitimate resources
>available
>
>to me to survive. We feel we will always win when we are allowed to compete
>on a
>
>
>level field, but the field is never level. We do not have the economy of
>scale
>HGR does, nor the IT people, nor the financial people, nor the benefits
>people,
>
>nor the billing people, nor the advertising budget and so forth ad nauseam.
>We
>do however have a fierce commitment to patient care that will never be
>compromised to fit into a 30% plan.
>
>If you as an independent cannot see this, you had better wake up and look
>down
>the tracks, as there is a freight train barreling right through our
>industry and
>
>
>you might just end up a casualty.
>To answer anticipated questions, Ossur has some excellent products, but in
>reality our facilities overall use very little Ossur product. We use what
>fills
>
>the prescription and will provide what we consider to be the best clinical
>solution for the patient. The numbers required to participate in the Ossur
>Facilities listing is small. Our practitioners are not pressured to buy
>from
>Ossur, or from any other supplier.
>
>I suspect Ossur has made a serious error in marketing, but then I also
>thought
>Bock made a serious mistake a few years ago when they pulled the rug out
>from
>under their long term distributors, only to make a deal later with SPS
>(Hanger).
>
>
>But who am I to know, I am just an old limb and brace maker trying to do
>the
>best for my clientele and survive in a very competitive environment.
>
>Again, I sincerely apologize to the group for the necessity of posting this
>without a recognizable identity.
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>You've heard it through the grapevine.
> <URL Redacted>
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>Express yourself with a super cool email address from BigMailBox.com.
>Hundreds of choices. It's free!
> <URL Redacted>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
posted as Matt Johnson and your web address claims you are a CPO, yet there
is no Matt Johnson in the ABC directory.
Did the Ossur PR and Marketing department write this for you? Or are you in
fact the Ossur PR and Marketing department making a posting under an assumed
name. You sound like an Ossur marketing employee in your communication
attempting to create a defense to justify the �lets sell ossur products at
any cost program�.
In fact, due to then numerous inaccuracies in your posting, one has to
wonder if you are even in the O&P Industry. Hanger is not 1/3 of the
industry and never has been, and although I also compete with Hanger, how
does Ossur pushing Ossur products to our patients and Ossur pushing the
Ossur name to our referrals compete with Hanger.
Do you really have the right to take a cheep shot at the integrity of Dr.
Smith when you are too cowardly to post your identity when you make your
outrageous claims and comments? One has to ask, would an educated and
respected member of the rehab as you claim to be demonstrate such childish
behavior as calling others names while hiding behind an assumed one?
This Ossur program is about Ossur pushing Ossur, it has nothing to do with
Hanger and it has nothing to do with helping the small independent practice;
it is about Ossur. You say O&P is a small and the Ossur program is there to
help compete against the big competition, read the list of who joined,
Wright and Fillipis, Dennis Clark and Associates, Benchmark Medical, SCOPE,
RDA, Sabolich, Lehneis, Harry Lewall, Leimkuehler, Winkley, ACTRA to name
just a few. These are all muti-facility MULTI-MILLION dollar practices.
Wright and Fillipis has about 25 practices in Michigan and Hanger has about
3, so how does this help Wright and Fillipis compete against the big guy,
Wright and Fillipis is the big guy in Michigan.
Ossur was at the ACA meeting in Boston last week telling all the amputees
that they would get better care if they used Ossur products and if they went
to an Ossur facility. I have now had two patients contact me to ask why I
was not an accredited facility, I told them it was because I would not pay
the Ossur ransom and that the only requirement to be a special Ossur
facility was to pay the Ossur fee of $6000.
I also told them that if they really wanted an Ossur product, that because I
was not an Ossur member, I could provide Ossur products at a lower cost
because I did not have to pay the marketing fees and did not have to meet
minium sales quotas. I sent both patients a copy of the O&P Business News
article so they could see for themselves that the high fees for Ossur
members would most likely mean that Ossur members would most likely charge
higher prices to make up for the added expense.
This should be a call to arms for everyone that has an issue about the Ossur
program, MAKE A POSTING AND MAKE YOUR OPINION BE KNOWN. This list serve
should be flooded with postings. This program is bad for our industry and
bad for our profession, and if you are a practitioner reading this posting
and you have not made your opinion known, good or bad, then you should
re-examine your commitment to your own industry.
And if you are afraid to use your real name or identity, is appears the
moderator of the OandP list serve has decided to allow annonymous posting to
be made, so feel free let your feelings be known.
Respectfully
R. Miller, CP
>From: Matt Johnson < <Email Address Redacted> >
>Reply-To: Matt Johnson < <Email Address Redacted> >
>To: <Email Address Redacted>
>Subject: [OANDP-L] Ossur Affiliated Facilities
>Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 19:21:57 -0700
>
>I have been observing all the discord regarding the Ossur issue over the
>past
>several weeks and am amazed by the attitudes of many practitioners.
>
>I am an ABC Certified Orthotist & Prosthetist and the owner of a medium
>sized
>ABC Accredited O&P facility. Our company is an AOPA member, our
>practitioners
>are, Academy members and I personally am a member of NAAOP. We have
>subscribed
>
>to the Ossur marketing program for a one-year trial period.
>
>I choose to post this without revealing my name, as I do not wish to be
>crucified publicly by zealots on this list. Believe me, this is not
>normally my
>
>style, but after reading the scathing knee-jerk response by Dr. William
>Smith,
>It seemed prudent to do so. It would seem to me that an educated and
>respected
>member of the rehab community would be above public flogging and punishment
>without due process. Someone should enlighten him about the Hanger Value
>Rite
>Plan!
>
>You might ask, why did our company become involved with this promotion? We
>chose
>
>
>to do so because we as an independent compete every day with Hanger. In
>case you
>
>
>are not aware, Hanger is around 1/3 of the traditional O&P industry. If an
>entity owned 1/3 of the automobile, farm production, distribution,
>shipping,
>hospital, surgery or any other business, the public outcry would be
>enormous.
>Again O&P is so small that we do not garner much attention. Hanger
>attempted to
>
>strong-arm Ossur to sell to them at a much greater price break than any
>other
>O&P facility could command. Why Ossur chose to refuse the price pressure
>will
>probably never be known, but the result was that Hanger completely
>boycotted
>their products via financial penalties on their facility managers. Ossur
>has
>responded by going head to head in marketing with Hanger. I applaud Ossur
>on
>their fortitude!
>
>As a competitor to Hanger, I have to utilize all legitimate resources
>available
>
>to me to survive. We feel we will always win when we are allowed to compete
>on a
>
>
>level field, but the field is never level. We do not have the economy of
>scale
>HGR does, nor the IT people, nor the financial people, nor the benefits
>people,
>
>nor the billing people, nor the advertising budget and so forth ad nauseam.
>We
>do however have a fierce commitment to patient care that will never be
>compromised to fit into a 30% plan.
>
>If you as an independent cannot see this, you had better wake up and look
>down
>the tracks, as there is a freight train barreling right through our
>industry and
>
>
>you might just end up a casualty.
>To answer anticipated questions, Ossur has some excellent products, but in
>reality our facilities overall use very little Ossur product. We use what
>fills
>
>the prescription and will provide what we consider to be the best clinical
>solution for the patient. The numbers required to participate in the Ossur
>Facilities listing is small. Our practitioners are not pressured to buy
>from
>Ossur, or from any other supplier.
>
>I suspect Ossur has made a serious error in marketing, but then I also
>thought
>Bock made a serious mistake a few years ago when they pulled the rug out
>from
>under their long term distributors, only to make a deal later with SPS
>(Hanger).
>
>
>But who am I to know, I am just an old limb and brace maker trying to do
>the
>best for my clientele and survive in a very competitive environment.
>
>Again, I sincerely apologize to the group for the necessity of posting this
>without a recognizable identity.
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>You've heard it through the grapevine.
> <URL Redacted>
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>Express yourself with a super cool email address from BigMailBox.com.
>Hundreds of choices. It's free!
> <URL Redacted>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
Citation
R Miller, “Re: Ossur Affiliated Facilities,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 6, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/221484.
