Re: usual suspects...
M. Britt Spears CPO
Description
Collection
Title:
Re: usual suspects...
Creator:
M. Britt Spears CPO
Date:
9/20/2003
Text:
Justin,
When I was young and just starting out in my education to learn the vocation that I had chosen, I was in disbeleif about the amounts of reimbursment likewise. After many years of practical experience-over 25, I decided to open up my own practice. For the few items that have the decent reimbursment, there are dozens that have the breakeven or worse than that-red-ink reimbursement. These include the items that we have to provide everyday such as prafo boots, spreading hand splints, orthopedic shoes the list goes on and on.
As a business owner, I have found that the majority of items delivered are of the low reimbursement variety. Furthermore, as a business owner and a ABC Certified practitoner, I feel that the patient is being put in harms-way whenever a sales rep touches a patient. The sales rep may have had a full 1 hour course on fitting their brand of knee brace, but they have no idea on how to PROPERLY fit a patient. Nor have they any business touching a patient. In some of the states, that sales rep would be in jail. The patient has no idea about the level of care that they are being provided. Would you let a physicians assistant perform surgery on any of your family? How about a sales rep fit you with a Halo? NICE....
As a business owner, I would also be looking at the attitude of a prospective employee towards the profitability of MY company. This is a small field and a lot of business owners look at the list server. You know I'll be willing to bet that you expect to make a decent salary, you want benefits, you want raises, you want a bunch of perks. In your little world, that cannot happen. ALL of those require company profitability. There are also people in the company that do not produce income such as purchasing, clerical staff, accounting, custodial staff, technicians and others. The ONLY people in an O&P facility that produce income are the practitioners by delivering a product. Somehow those HUGE shameful profits just seem to vaporize once the bills are paid. Sometimes you even don't get paid because one of your employees forgot to get a simple piece of paper signed or perhaps they neglected to check benefits. WAKE UP-YOU MUST BE SLEEPING!!!!
I'm in a rural situation, most of my patients are Medicaid and low income. I have to provide services to them at the Medicare price. Realize that I may never collect the remaining 20% of the balance. So my profit margin is relatively low to begin with. Maybe one day you'll see the true meaning of this field. It's not the profitability, it's the patient care. That's why most of us entered in the first place. The business actually puts food on my table. So if I do not make a profit, you may see me in the food line.
I wish you would take-up the offer for the plane fare, room and board, that was offered earlier. Once you get out of your protected environment, you may actually see what's really happening in O&P.
M. Britt Spears CPO
Spears Prosthetics and Orthotics
<URL Redacted>
Justin Foster < <Email Address Redacted> > wrote:
In my uneducated opinion,
Everything is not good in our profession. I think it would be smart to look
for ways to do things differently, instead of getting upset when a brace rep
fits a prophylactic ACL brace on a 20y/o football player at the local
college (guess what... they used the same brace and got the same result the
C.O. would have - only for less $$$, with better service. Gee I wonder why
this is happening). Mr. Joe Sansone wrote a great article about this a few
months back... Anyway, if that is what people really want to do, I am sure a
brace company would be glad to hire an orthotist to complete similar tasks.
They might even give you a year-end bonus for selling a certain quantity,
but I don't know for sure about that... (this is not meant to be offensive
to brace reps, I got a very nice reply from one assuring that they are not
all from the same mold - it IS meant to be offensive to certain orthotists!)
I will make a deal with the list and my entire chosen profession... there is
a food bank down the street from the office which I pass by on my way to
purchase a $5 lunch nearly every day. When I see an orthotist or prosthetist
in that line, because they can't make it anymore, and can no longer provide
for their family, on THAT DAY I will stop harping on our high reimbursements
and lack of value in our service. We are all privileged and I suspect doing
just fine. We do not need to rip people off for any more than that.
Most people want to be rich, but it is not fair to take advantage of the
captive audience which we work with every day. For a multitude of social,
economic and human reasons, we are in a position of too much power, and it
is too easy to abuse for $$$ gain. The future is certain, people will
continue to pay money for needed services, and those among us who provide a
needed service at a reasonable price will continue to have jobs... probably
even good jobs, we just may not be rich. I know from the 50/50 responses
from this list that there are good people out there who may not agree
(understatement of the year) with everything I think, but that do have a
heart and a passion for doing good work (whatever their motivation). To
those people, thank you for making the world a better place and inspiring
the youth in this profession to do the same.
Sincerely,
Justin Foster
Orthotist/Prosthetist
_________________________________________________________________
Get McAfee virus scanning and cleaning of incoming attachments. Get Hotmail
Extra Storage! <URL Redacted>
When I was young and just starting out in my education to learn the vocation that I had chosen, I was in disbeleif about the amounts of reimbursment likewise. After many years of practical experience-over 25, I decided to open up my own practice. For the few items that have the decent reimbursment, there are dozens that have the breakeven or worse than that-red-ink reimbursement. These include the items that we have to provide everyday such as prafo boots, spreading hand splints, orthopedic shoes the list goes on and on.
As a business owner, I have found that the majority of items delivered are of the low reimbursement variety. Furthermore, as a business owner and a ABC Certified practitoner, I feel that the patient is being put in harms-way whenever a sales rep touches a patient. The sales rep may have had a full 1 hour course on fitting their brand of knee brace, but they have no idea on how to PROPERLY fit a patient. Nor have they any business touching a patient. In some of the states, that sales rep would be in jail. The patient has no idea about the level of care that they are being provided. Would you let a physicians assistant perform surgery on any of your family? How about a sales rep fit you with a Halo? NICE....
As a business owner, I would also be looking at the attitude of a prospective employee towards the profitability of MY company. This is a small field and a lot of business owners look at the list server. You know I'll be willing to bet that you expect to make a decent salary, you want benefits, you want raises, you want a bunch of perks. In your little world, that cannot happen. ALL of those require company profitability. There are also people in the company that do not produce income such as purchasing, clerical staff, accounting, custodial staff, technicians and others. The ONLY people in an O&P facility that produce income are the practitioners by delivering a product. Somehow those HUGE shameful profits just seem to vaporize once the bills are paid. Sometimes you even don't get paid because one of your employees forgot to get a simple piece of paper signed or perhaps they neglected to check benefits. WAKE UP-YOU MUST BE SLEEPING!!!!
I'm in a rural situation, most of my patients are Medicaid and low income. I have to provide services to them at the Medicare price. Realize that I may never collect the remaining 20% of the balance. So my profit margin is relatively low to begin with. Maybe one day you'll see the true meaning of this field. It's not the profitability, it's the patient care. That's why most of us entered in the first place. The business actually puts food on my table. So if I do not make a profit, you may see me in the food line.
I wish you would take-up the offer for the plane fare, room and board, that was offered earlier. Once you get out of your protected environment, you may actually see what's really happening in O&P.
M. Britt Spears CPO
Spears Prosthetics and Orthotics
<URL Redacted>
Justin Foster < <Email Address Redacted> > wrote:
In my uneducated opinion,
Everything is not good in our profession. I think it would be smart to look
for ways to do things differently, instead of getting upset when a brace rep
fits a prophylactic ACL brace on a 20y/o football player at the local
college (guess what... they used the same brace and got the same result the
C.O. would have - only for less $$$, with better service. Gee I wonder why
this is happening). Mr. Joe Sansone wrote a great article about this a few
months back... Anyway, if that is what people really want to do, I am sure a
brace company would be glad to hire an orthotist to complete similar tasks.
They might even give you a year-end bonus for selling a certain quantity,
but I don't know for sure about that... (this is not meant to be offensive
to brace reps, I got a very nice reply from one assuring that they are not
all from the same mold - it IS meant to be offensive to certain orthotists!)
I will make a deal with the list and my entire chosen profession... there is
a food bank down the street from the office which I pass by on my way to
purchase a $5 lunch nearly every day. When I see an orthotist or prosthetist
in that line, because they can't make it anymore, and can no longer provide
for their family, on THAT DAY I will stop harping on our high reimbursements
and lack of value in our service. We are all privileged and I suspect doing
just fine. We do not need to rip people off for any more than that.
Most people want to be rich, but it is not fair to take advantage of the
captive audience which we work with every day. For a multitude of social,
economic and human reasons, we are in a position of too much power, and it
is too easy to abuse for $$$ gain. The future is certain, people will
continue to pay money for needed services, and those among us who provide a
needed service at a reasonable price will continue to have jobs... probably
even good jobs, we just may not be rich. I know from the 50/50 responses
from this list that there are good people out there who may not agree
(understatement of the year) with everything I think, but that do have a
heart and a passion for doing good work (whatever their motivation). To
those people, thank you for making the world a better place and inspiring
the youth in this profession to do the same.
Sincerely,
Justin Foster
Orthotist/Prosthetist
_________________________________________________________________
Get McAfee virus scanning and cleaning of incoming attachments. Get Hotmail
Extra Storage! <URL Redacted>
Citation
M. Britt Spears CPO, “Re: usual suspects...,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 2, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/221846.
