Amputees challenge new Medicare plan
Proposal calls for tighter controls of high-tech devices
WASHINGTON — Famous people don’t often get involved with Medicare payment policy, but a Boston Marathon bombing survivor and a former U.S. senator who lost a leg in wartime service have joined an industry campaign to block new requirements for artificial legs and feet.
Medicare’s mounting cost for those items in the last 10 years — even as the number of amputees was declining — has prompted scrutiny from government investigators.
Now, Medicare’s billing contractors are proposing closer medical supervision of the independent technicians who sell and fit artificial limbs, as well as tighter rules for beneficiaries to qualify for high-tech devices that can cost as much as a car.
The industry says it will translate to diminished quality of life for beneficiaries at risk of being denied the latest technological advances.
With amputees protesting Wednesday at the Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington, the Obama administration was saying little.
A Medicare spokesman refused to answer questions about the proposed changes, issuing a statement that the agency “believes that Medicare beneficiaries will continue to have access to lower-limb prosthetics that are appropriate” and the payment overhaul “is not meant to restrict any medically necessary prosthesis.”
Taking part in the demonstration was Boston Marathon bombing survivor Adrianne Haslet-Davis. Although far too young for Medicare, the ballroom dancer and motivational speaker said it’s a cause “close to my heart.”
“I’m here because America rallied around Boston, and I’m rallying around America,” said Haslet-Davis, who lost her left leg below the knee.
Weighing in via a letter to HHS leadership was former Sen. Bob Kerrey. The Nebraska Democrat was awarded the Medal of Honor for combat in Vietnam after, on a mission in which he continued directing his Navy SEAL unit after he was gravely wounded. He lost his right leg below the knee.
“They are attacking problem that is nonexistent,” Kerrey said in a telephone interview.
The campaign is being led by the American Orthotic & Prosthetic Association, a trade group.
Although artificial legs and feet are a small part of Medicare’s $600 billion annual expenditures, a 2011 inspector general’s report found that Medicare spending for lower limb prostheses increased by 27 percent from 2005 to 2009, even as the number of beneficiaries getting them decreased by about 2,000 people.
The report documented billing irregularities and led to questions about whether elderly patients whose physical activity is limited were being fitted with high-tech devices intended for younger active people.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have spurred a revolution in the design of artificial limbs.
A public comment period on the proposed policy changes closes Monday.