O&P Parity: More than a Dream
ACA and AOPA push for awareness, vital legislation
One plus one makes two in all things except political leverage in securing public policy goals. When it comes to leveraging political clout to achieve passage of the federal orthotic and prosthetic parity legislation (H.R. 2575), one plus one makes three or more. The Amputee Coalition of American (ACA) and AOPA have partnered to secure passage of this important legislation that goes to the heart of assuring quality patient care.
If passed, H.R. 2575 would require private payers offering orthotic and prosthetic coverage to make those benefits comparable with the other medical and surgical coverage they offer. Today, many private insurers cap prosthetic benefits at grossly insufficient levels and limit coverage to one device in a lifetime, depriving young people in particular from the kind of care that addresses their growing bodily needs. The problem is further compounded by the fact that most insured patients have no idea how meager their benefits can be for lifetime O&P treatment. Requiring O&P benefits be on par with other health-care coverage is a first step in creating wider public awareness.
Previous parity legislative efforts were confined to prosthetics at the federal level. But as more states adopted orthotic and prosthetic parity, it became more and more logical to include orthotics in federal legislation. Because of that, AOPA and ACA were in the best position to advocate as partners for this solution on behalf of patients and the O&P community. AOPA supported ACA's Lobby Day on March 10 by providing transportation to Capitol Hill for ACA members' Congressional appointments. ACA members also participated in AOPA's Policy Forum April 22-23.
In further collaboration, the two groups partnered to create a hard-hitting advertising and public relations program that blitzed Washington policy makers in July. Ads appeared in Business Week, Forbes, Time, Newsweek and Fortune magazines. The most poignant visual message was conveyed in the photo of President Obama comforting a double amputee with the caption "Limbs are not a luxury."
While initial advertising and messaging focuses on federal level and the prosthetic side of O&P, future ad campaigns and PR messages will feature graphically arresting orthotic imagery to buttress the parity issue for orthotics. The collaboration with the ACA is helping shape these messages, which can then be transitioned to statewide efforts.
All of these ads, future public service announcements, and public relations messages combine to create O&P branding that can distinguish the industry as a very distinct part of the health-care community. This status will be vital as lawmakers wrestle with the president's health-care reform agenda.
Moreover, O&P parity also has gained importance across the country at the state level. Iowa, Maryland, and Texas have recently passed parity legislation. They join 18 other states that have enacted parity laws to ensure access to prosthetic and orthotic devices. Those states have found minimal or no increases to insurance premiums and have reduced Medicaid and Medicare costs. Thirty other states are actively considering prosthetic and custom orthotic parity legislation.
Reprinted from O&P Almanac, July, 2009