Manufacturers Becoming Our Direct Competitors Comments Part 4

Manufacturers Becoming Our Direct Competitors Comments Part 4

Jon Hess

4/22/2014

Part 4

 

 

 

Actually Jon,

I heard that Ossur opened a prosthetic-orthotics providing company not long
ago & that Otto Bock (...has wanted to for years, but didn't want to be the
first ) is following suit!!! What a better idea than that???! Think of the
profit margin when you can get most of your components at cost instead of
the ridiculous mark up values we all have to pay!!!

 

Here's another one for you... The rumor is Obama admin wants to push all
small O&P &/or DME businesses out of business so that there ends up being
2-3 very large companies that are billing Medicare. There's already one in
place & I hear is working hard to make this happen as well. Look how much
easier it would be for the gov't IF they only had 2-3 suppliers to worry
about vs thousands! AND...how much nicer for a company to only have 2
competitors! Brilliant, actually.

 

I have not had the time or inclination to investigate the above, but the
source has been right with info provided before.

 

 

Good morning

Hope you've been well.

We are certainly encountering the same in NYC. As we all know, Donjoy and
Ossur are the greatest offenders. However, our newest competitor is the
physician. Many of our physician's are dispensing non custom orthoses. I
suspect these physicians are experiencing insurance fee reductions and are
expanding their revenue base. Donjoy, Bio Met and Bledsoe are double
dipping selling their orthoses to both the physician and Orthotist.

We have observed these changes in our practice for the last 5 years. My
question, how should we modify our business model to adapt to these changes?
We certainly need to broaden our referral base.

What are your thoughts.

All the best

 

 

John,
Don Joy started doing this years ago. This sounds like it is on a larger
scale and Ivan Sable being behind it makes it more upsetting.



 

Ivan Sabel has been a thorn in O&P for many years too bad you just found out

 

 

Jon,

 

Thank you very much for posting on this. I think will continue to be a
greater issue and may not be limited to orthotics soon. Donjoy would be a
good example of this.

 

 

Hi Jon!

Right on, this chaps my ass too. Heard last week that Aspen is delivering
direct to patients.

 

 

 

DJO is certainly a significant competitor in the Northeast. Under the
company name Surgi-Care. They are the DJO reps in New England and will send
CFO's directly into Dr's offices and fit orthotic devices. They are also the
same people who you get in your O&P office if you have a DJO rep coming into
see if you need support. Word is they find out who you have as referral
sources, then hit them directly. I was told they were a major factor in the
demise of New England Brace, based in Manchester, NH by using this tactic.

Jon, did you attend NWU during a spring semester in the early 2000's? We may
have been classmates.



 

 

 

 

Jon:

I haven't come across anything like what you describe but did have a recent
experience which makes me think some manufacturers are looking to get into
patient care.

Our office become aware of very large manufacturer/distributor had been
corresponding with a patient of ours for several months. The situation
developed from the patient submitting an on-line inquiry about a newer
version microprocessor knee. Instead of the manufacturer referring the
patient back to their prosthetist for information on the knee, the
manufacturer offered a test drive (their words) of the knee and stated it
could be done by one of their prosthetic specialists.

The patient had one of the manufacturers MKP's which was less than 2 years
old and had used their MPK products for several years. The patients name was
in the manufactures data base as a result of that history so it would have
been very easy to have cross referenced the name from the inquiry with
records of users to determine where the patient received services. We
eventually learned of the situation as the patient brought it to our
attention.

 

 

 

 

Aspen and other TLSO/LSO manufacturers have been doing this for years. In
fact just this week I had a conversation with a rep from aspen that tells me
they are going to introduce a scoliosis brace this year that they intend
to market to physicians as a pain management brace for older pt's suffering
scoliosis. Optec is currently selling directly to a local orthopedic
physician with spine specialty and putting the physicians name on it. DonJoy
has been performing stock and bill in dr's offices for years. I'm not sure
if this is the type of thing that you're referring to but I've been trying
to boycott these companies for a long time. Problem is, others in our
profession will not. I fault our own organizations for this problem. I am
forced to pay state liscensure and continue to pay certification and
accreditation fees as well as surety bonds and countless other fees to stay
in good standing but these other companies seem to be able to do he same
things that I do without the hassle of overhead fees. Maybe I'm wrong but
something seems amiss. I'd be interested to see other posts/responses as
well.