White House Responds to "We the People" Petition

In August of this year, Dankmeyer asked for patients, friends, family and other interested parties to protest a new proposal for Medicare coverage of lower limb prosthesis wearers.  As part of that movement, we asked that you go and sign a WE THE PEOPLE Petition in protest. If 100,000 people signed this petition in one month’s time, then by law, the White House would have to respond.  Over 100,000 signatures were received in two weeks time - a record by some accounts.  That in itself caused some to sit up and take notice.

In the meantime, AOPA (American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association) organized a patient rally of 150 amputees at Health and Human Services headquarters. A meeting of Medicare top officials, AOPA and other stakeholders followed to discuss the areas of concern. Four AOPA representatives gave statements at the Medicare contractor’s open meeting. Over 350 news stories nationally were generated from these efforts! Your support was essential to this success.

Since that petition was submitted, we have been waiting to see just what the White House response would be.  And finally, on November 2, we got a response.  From the AOPA article:

“The White House just announced that CMS “will not finalize” the July 16, 2015 Draft LCD. That may be clarified further when comparable announcement text from both CMS and from the DME MACs are released and can be analyzed.  The White House report appears to confirm the information that AOPA shared at the recent San Antonio National Assembly that O&P could be confident that the July 16 proposed LCD for Lower Limb Prosthetics would not be enacted in anything close to its proposed form.

Unfortunately, there are aspects of this document which raise concerns…”.  For the full text of the article and analysis, click here.

We had all hoped for the Medicare contractors to completely rescind the policy.  This did not happen.  However, the response can be regarded with some optimism as a partial win.  What does happen next?  AOPA will continue to work with other professionals to monitor the situation and advise on any action that must taken to protect the interests of our patients.  We will keep you informed, and thank you for your contribution to the fight.

(For more much more detail about the policy, you can scroll through our earlier news here and click on a variety of links.)

Patient article appears in the Amputee Coalition's magazine InMotion

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Lena Gill, one of Jed Newhardt's patients, let us know that her article appears in the September/October 2014 issue of the Amputee Coalition's InMotion magazine.  The regular feature is entitled "Who is your Amputee Hero?"  Lena submitted a story about her hero.  She writes about World War II British fighter pilot Douglas Bader.  Bader lost both of his legs as a stunt pilot, and was retired from the Royal Air Force when WWII rolled around.  He was accepted back to active duty because experienced pilots were needed.  He learned to fly the new Spitfire and eventually became a Flying Ace.  When he was shot down over Germany, one of this prosthetic legs was destroyed, and.... well, go here to read the rest of Lena's fascinating story!