I opened my email today to find this along with numerous companies soliciting to 'help' me with the credentialing process:
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http://www.abcop.org/News_Item.asp?news_id=1210200801
Many of you U.S. podiatrists are probably familiar with this bill and the pending mandatory facility accreditation that all durable medical equipment suppliers will eventually have to complete to bill Medicare. Personally I am all for mandatory accreditation if it is unilateral. In this case they recently gave DPM's and Cped's (among others) a pass while they rewrote this legislation. I believe a lot of their initial decision had to do with the strong lobbying effort of the APMA, good work!
Now they appear to have singled out the segment of providers least able to afford the process and who typically only benefit from the Diabetic Therapeutic Shoe Bill, as no insurers that I am aware of contract with pedorthists for their services, thus many in clinical practice (as opposed to retail) rely on the TSB to survive.
I provide services for a number of orthopedic and podiatric foot specialists for the TSB and other services as well. I don't know how this will affect me, as a chiropractor I have another means of income but I may not accredit my facility just because I find the logic behind their latest mandate so grossly unfair. I am concerned about my pedorthic colleagues who may not be able to afford the expense of accreditation. I know that most of the podiatrists here provide orthoses (whether Medicare or not) but there are those who focus on surgery and refer these services out to a Cped whose work they know and trust. Soon the only choice for referral outside of the DPM's that provide these services in office will be the conglomerates and franchise who can afford this nonsense. Perhaps they lobbied for this bill?
The loss of any of these valuable members of the allied health team due to financial hardship I consider a great shame and this legislation myopic and arbitrary. If pedorthists need to become accredited I find it only fair that everyone who bills Medicare should be burdened with an equal amount of paperwork and economic obligation (whether they be MD's, DPM's, DO's, DC's, PT's ATC's, CO's, CPed's etc).
Some of you may see this very differently and I understand and respect your opinion, I just felt compelled to speak my two cents and to bring some level of awareness to the subject.
Regards,
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