ABC - BOC: What Would You Have Done -- What Would I Have Done?
Sam E. Hamontree
Description
Collection
Title:
ABC - BOC: What Would You Have Done -- What Would I Have Done?
Creator:
Sam E. Hamontree
Date:
3/8/2004
Text:
Regarding the steps now being taken by ABC -- Offering ABC certified status
to BOC certifees -- WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?
1. Assuming you were on the Board of Directors of ABC, and
2. Assuming you were an ABC board member which, after in depth study and
soul searching, determined it was in the best interest of the entire O&P
field to enter into discussions with BOC for the consolidation of the two
organizations, recognizing that with the field wide announcement of those
intended discussions there was not significant opposition to moving forward
with the discussions, that when those discussion broke down -- regardless of
who says who was at fault -- there apparently remained two options, the one
ABC has taken or drop it.
3. Assuming, from years of study by this and previous boards, that you had
no doubt in your mind the insurmountable problems (a-e below) faced by the
field as a result of two recognized credentialing organizations (ABC & BOC),
and
a. Federal and state programs, (such as but not limited to, Medicare
and Medicaid) regulators for those programs, legislators who write laws
relative to those programs, and
b. Insurers/pay sources, etc. who try to responsibility understand who
is what in the field of O&P and who is qualified and to what extent, etc.,
etc. In most instances, just more than they want to deal with for the size
of O&P, and
c. The continual chirping of many certifees about BOC and what ABC is
not doing which these folks felt it should be doing relative to BOC, and
d. Proponents of state licensure continually voice negative statements
to/about ABC relative to BOC in the licensing process, and
e. etc., etc., etc.
4. Assuming that you clearly determined, in your mind, that the long term
future of the field could best be addressed by moving into one certifying
body. This even though you know without a doubt that you are going to take
an absolutely tremendous about of heat from many ABC certifees -- many of
whom are close friends. And certainly from the posting on the ListServ the
board is getting the heat.
I clearly understand that you might not agree that the above assumptions are
correct assumptions. However, I have no doubt that those are assumptions --
and more -- under which your board was and is operating.
If your board members did not clearly believe that on-balance (when all
issues were addressed and weighed) the course they were taking was the right
course for the future of O&P, why on gods green earth would they have taken
this step -- knowing the heat they were going to take.
Keep in mind, your board has more in-depth and broad information about what
is going on throughout O&P's related world than does any of us in our own
small worlds.
WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE?? -- I would like to think that I would have had
the strength of character and mature foresight these ABC board members have
shown and would have taken the same action they did.
Finally and definitively, I personally and professionally wholeheartedly
agree with and support this decision of the ABC Board of Directors.
Sam E. Hamontree, CP
(ABC Board Member 1968-1970 President 1970)
OrPro, Inc.
Irvine, CA
to BOC certifees -- WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?
1. Assuming you were on the Board of Directors of ABC, and
2. Assuming you were an ABC board member which, after in depth study and
soul searching, determined it was in the best interest of the entire O&P
field to enter into discussions with BOC for the consolidation of the two
organizations, recognizing that with the field wide announcement of those
intended discussions there was not significant opposition to moving forward
with the discussions, that when those discussion broke down -- regardless of
who says who was at fault -- there apparently remained two options, the one
ABC has taken or drop it.
3. Assuming, from years of study by this and previous boards, that you had
no doubt in your mind the insurmountable problems (a-e below) faced by the
field as a result of two recognized credentialing organizations (ABC & BOC),
and
a. Federal and state programs, (such as but not limited to, Medicare
and Medicaid) regulators for those programs, legislators who write laws
relative to those programs, and
b. Insurers/pay sources, etc. who try to responsibility understand who
is what in the field of O&P and who is qualified and to what extent, etc.,
etc. In most instances, just more than they want to deal with for the size
of O&P, and
c. The continual chirping of many certifees about BOC and what ABC is
not doing which these folks felt it should be doing relative to BOC, and
d. Proponents of state licensure continually voice negative statements
to/about ABC relative to BOC in the licensing process, and
e. etc., etc., etc.
4. Assuming that you clearly determined, in your mind, that the long term
future of the field could best be addressed by moving into one certifying
body. This even though you know without a doubt that you are going to take
an absolutely tremendous about of heat from many ABC certifees -- many of
whom are close friends. And certainly from the posting on the ListServ the
board is getting the heat.
I clearly understand that you might not agree that the above assumptions are
correct assumptions. However, I have no doubt that those are assumptions --
and more -- under which your board was and is operating.
If your board members did not clearly believe that on-balance (when all
issues were addressed and weighed) the course they were taking was the right
course for the future of O&P, why on gods green earth would they have taken
this step -- knowing the heat they were going to take.
Keep in mind, your board has more in-depth and broad information about what
is going on throughout O&P's related world than does any of us in our own
small worlds.
WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE?? -- I would like to think that I would have had
the strength of character and mature foresight these ABC board members have
shown and would have taken the same action they did.
Finally and definitively, I personally and professionally wholeheartedly
agree with and support this decision of the ABC Board of Directors.
Sam E. Hamontree, CP
(ABC Board Member 1968-1970 President 1970)
OrPro, Inc.
Irvine, CA
Citation
Sam E. Hamontree, “ABC - BOC: What Would You Have Done -- What Would I Have Done?,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 1, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/222541.
