FW: [OANDP-L] Let the Games Begin
Description
Collection
Title:
FW: [OANDP-L] Let the Games Begin
Date:
8/19/2003
Text:
Couldnt resist to join in a revisited discussion..
I concur with my friend Phil Tamoush whom is a past director and cofounder
of ACA and has the guts and fortitude to denounce ACA's present track of
avoiding advocasy issues and maintaining industry conflict of interests by
representing industry .(See PT below)
Some info previously provided while we are revisiting the ongoing conflict
of close industry ties with our national patient/consumer
organization,ACA.
Not to stay ACA doesnt function in the area of patient education
empowerment.
That is all fine and good(comments below) but the reality is ACA mission
statement is to advocate. To advocate is to advocate.
If their mission statement is an illusion then say so and we will go on to
another possible source of influence and support for reform.
ACA, as the national amputee organization, I would hope would be a viable
resource to address,initiate and support regulation issues and legislative
initiatives that may help generate proper and affordable prosthetic coverage
to all amputees.
This is not possible when so many ACA directors are they themselves
representing manufacturing intersts.Kurt Collier(Ossur) and Brad Ruhl(Otto
Bock) and Maynard Carkhuff being some of them.
Such issues would include mandatory insurance coverage for prosthetics,
minimum educational requirements for providers of custom O&P services,etc.
Presently, there is just too many amputees that fall thru the cracks for
proper coverage and end up in the hands of unqualified providers!!
Our organization funded prosthetic rehabilitation to a lady who had
previously sold her car to pay for a prosthesis that was made in a van
parked for the day in her driveway.She did not have the very low income
required by Medicaid and too young to qualify for Medicare.An employed
person whose income is above the poverty level mostly does not qualify for
Medicaid,but their children may if they have no other health insurance. Read
Esther's AMP-L posted 7-3-01
There is a growing consensus that ACA is influenced by O&P manufacturers
whom generate major revenue in advertising to their publications, In Motion
and First Step, not to initiate or support real advocacy issues and reform
legislation. This represents a substantial portion of $900,000 annual
income, which is the amount listed as income outside of present annual
federal grants of an another $1.4 million.That's a total income and budget
of $2.3 million.
I would rather believe, as a life time member of ACA and supporter of their
other functions that this is not the case.
A subscriber recently shared with me something I believe is becoming very
relevant.
15 years ago ,there was the perception in the UK that the companies of O&P
providers, were on east street.
The government took a long hard look and brought in a horrific system of
competitive tendering (bidding) for service provision.
This is proposed presently here in the USA. The application in the UK
however did drive prices down but left the O&P practitioners with an income
range similar to US based provider as down and out!
The same beginnings are going on now in the US. I would suggest that the O&P
profession and consumer i.e. individuals,support groups and organizations
collaborate to look at reform and efficiency BEFORE these competitive
bidding proposals are imposed from the outside .It will benefit
professionals,industry and consumers in the long run.
My plea to ACA , the profession and industry is merely an extension of this
philosophy.
Tony Barr
-----Original Message-----
From: Orthotics and Prosthetics List [mailto:<Email Address Redacted>]On
Behalf Of Philip P Tamoush
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2003 7:46 PM
To: <Email Address Redacted>
Subject: Re: [OANDP-L] Let the Games Begin
Friends: I concur completely. This is bad pr for OSSUR, but most
especially for the Amputee Coalition of America. ACA is really supposed
to be an amputee-led organization. It has not been for a good number of
years. I usually don't make public my concerns about the future, but this
one should not be ignored. Phil Tamoush
==========================================================================
Are you ready to have an Ossur representative and Chairman of the
ACA evaluate your patient at these seminars and then tell them what is
wrong with the prosthesis you made and then recommend that they be fit
with an Ossur product from an Ossur facility?
>
>
> James Addams
> Prosthetist
>
> _________________________________________________________________
>
I concur with my friend Phil Tamoush whom is a past director and cofounder
of ACA and has the guts and fortitude to denounce ACA's present track of
avoiding advocasy issues and maintaining industry conflict of interests by
representing industry .(See PT below)
Some info previously provided while we are revisiting the ongoing conflict
of close industry ties with our national patient/consumer
organization,ACA.
Not to stay ACA doesnt function in the area of patient education
empowerment.
That is all fine and good(comments below) but the reality is ACA mission
statement is to advocate. To advocate is to advocate.
If their mission statement is an illusion then say so and we will go on to
another possible source of influence and support for reform.
ACA, as the national amputee organization, I would hope would be a viable
resource to address,initiate and support regulation issues and legislative
initiatives that may help generate proper and affordable prosthetic coverage
to all amputees.
This is not possible when so many ACA directors are they themselves
representing manufacturing intersts.Kurt Collier(Ossur) and Brad Ruhl(Otto
Bock) and Maynard Carkhuff being some of them.
Such issues would include mandatory insurance coverage for prosthetics,
minimum educational requirements for providers of custom O&P services,etc.
Presently, there is just too many amputees that fall thru the cracks for
proper coverage and end up in the hands of unqualified providers!!
Our organization funded prosthetic rehabilitation to a lady who had
previously sold her car to pay for a prosthesis that was made in a van
parked for the day in her driveway.She did not have the very low income
required by Medicaid and too young to qualify for Medicare.An employed
person whose income is above the poverty level mostly does not qualify for
Medicaid,but their children may if they have no other health insurance. Read
Esther's AMP-L posted 7-3-01
There is a growing consensus that ACA is influenced by O&P manufacturers
whom generate major revenue in advertising to their publications, In Motion
and First Step, not to initiate or support real advocacy issues and reform
legislation. This represents a substantial portion of $900,000 annual
income, which is the amount listed as income outside of present annual
federal grants of an another $1.4 million.That's a total income and budget
of $2.3 million.
I would rather believe, as a life time member of ACA and supporter of their
other functions that this is not the case.
A subscriber recently shared with me something I believe is becoming very
relevant.
15 years ago ,there was the perception in the UK that the companies of O&P
providers, were on east street.
The government took a long hard look and brought in a horrific system of
competitive tendering (bidding) for service provision.
This is proposed presently here in the USA. The application in the UK
however did drive prices down but left the O&P practitioners with an income
range similar to US based provider as down and out!
The same beginnings are going on now in the US. I would suggest that the O&P
profession and consumer i.e. individuals,support groups and organizations
collaborate to look at reform and efficiency BEFORE these competitive
bidding proposals are imposed from the outside .It will benefit
professionals,industry and consumers in the long run.
My plea to ACA , the profession and industry is merely an extension of this
philosophy.
Tony Barr
-----Original Message-----
From: Orthotics and Prosthetics List [mailto:<Email Address Redacted>]On
Behalf Of Philip P Tamoush
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2003 7:46 PM
To: <Email Address Redacted>
Subject: Re: [OANDP-L] Let the Games Begin
Friends: I concur completely. This is bad pr for OSSUR, but most
especially for the Amputee Coalition of America. ACA is really supposed
to be an amputee-led organization. It has not been for a good number of
years. I usually don't make public my concerns about the future, but this
one should not be ignored. Phil Tamoush
==========================================================================
Are you ready to have an Ossur representative and Chairman of the
ACA evaluate your patient at these seminars and then tell them what is
wrong with the prosthesis you made and then recommend that they be fit
with an Ossur product from an Ossur facility?
>
>
> James Addams
> Prosthetist
>
> _________________________________________________________________
>
Citation
“FW: [OANDP-L] Let the Games Begin,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 4, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/221566.
