We have been posting all kinds of information about the proposed new policy regarding patient eligibility and reimbursement for Lower Limb Prosthetics which Medicare contractors recently sprung on the amputee community.  You can scroll down below to read previous news items on this issue, where there are a number of links to documents and action items.  While some constructive meetings have been held between the interested parties from both sides, the fight is not over and the proposed policy has not been changed or rescinded.  The debate continues on a number of levels.

Charles Dankmeyer, former CEO of Dankmeyer, Inc.  was recently featured in a editorial in the Washington Times.  His father, the founder of Dankmeyer, was an amputee and who worked tirelessly on behalf of amputees and changing the way they were regarded in society.  Charles, a Certified Prosthetist Orthotist and currently President of the American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association (AOPA), has been in the thick of the work against the policy.  He writes:

"It is very difficult to imagine any other aspect of American health care where millions of people would be denied available and appropriate treatment and devices that can speed their return to the fullest and most active possible life. Even worse, there is no medical or scientific justification for these unreasonable and inappropriate hurdles that would reverse advances in care for amputees. In fact, quite the opposite is true. There is medical and scientific evidence supporting today’s standard of care." ......

"The millions of people at risk deserve the standard of care they have now and the dignity it affords them. They have today what my father never had — and all fair-minded Americans should be intent on not letting Medicare turn back the hands of time."

For the full text of his article September 6, 2015, please click here.