Let's knock off the crap!

Let's knock off the crap!

Greg Howell

After reading the posting by, Mr. Ralph Nobbe CPO I find it necessary to
help clearly identify what I feel is the major crisis in our industry and stop
blaming it on everyone else!

We are industry composed of approximately 3500 practitioners and we serve a
population of approximate 3 million amputees per year. Yet we are not able
to stand together as healthcare professionals but continue to cut each other
throats on a daily basis. Third-party payors are in hog heaven with our
industry is that we have been so greedy and territorial that we not have not paid
attention to properly organizing and demanding we be treated as healthcare
professionals. We and our associations have allowed our elected officials to
classify us as vendors. Have you ever wondered why the VA treat just the same
as the vendor who delivers little Debbie snack cakes to their facility, that
is not the way they treat their physicians, therapists, or any other
healthcare related profession. So why do we tolerate this? Why do we not demand to
be treated as a healthcare professional, to be paid for office visits,
consultations, and travel time to see patients in nursing homes hospitals or
homebound? When and is this going to stop. I can tell you this will not stop
unless each and every practitioner in this industry gets involved personally, and
stop to bitchin about it.

I have had the opportunity through various workers compensation insurance
carriers to review claims for them for orthotics in prosthetics for
approximately five year's I am amazed but not surprised to see patients still in the
hospital, 14 days postop, and the prosthetists is requesting a C-leg
authorization for $75,000. Too many people in our industry have raped and pillaged, and
we are now paying the price for that, we have not policed our own field and
everybody has just been fighting for themselves and among themselves, and it
is about time that we backed off on a masters degree programs, the ultra high
tech prosthetics, and the high tech orthotics and get back to the basics,(we
can refocus on these issues after we reestablish a sound foundation) we
will dye on the vine(we may already be dead), and am not sure that we can even
be saved at this point. Unless we go back to our basics , and reorganize
ourselves to invest in our futures stop the turf wars, the interprofessional
fighting, and demand that the organizations which we pay dues to represent our
industry's are accountable with a focused goal on getting our profession
reclassified as a healthcare professional instead of a vendor we will live day by
day and be ripped apart piece by piece like a patient with metastatic cancer.



I therefore challenge our profession to stop the creative billing, which I
have seen thousands in doing these reviews, stop focusing on seeing how much
you can squeeze out of a payor
and focus at least 10% of your time on trying to change our classification
from a DME vendor to healthcare professional. Get paid fairly for the work
that we do, spend the time necessary with each patient to make them feel
important and special, and let's All get back to a profession that we can enjoy
it on a regular basis not just caring for the patient but the entire
profession we are in.

I apologize if I've offended anybody as this is not my attention I have made
several postings with regard to this issue and I am surprised at the amount
of apathy which exists. If you just take a look at the way that the lawyers
in this country(which I have no love for, and I blame them for being the
major contributor destroying the ethics of this country), but they have banded
together in a way where are in control of their destiny.
Please comment to the server , as I feel is necessary for all to get
involved .

Respectfully .
Greg Howell CPO