AOPA Takes Steps Forward in Prosthetic Foot Coding

This past summer and fall, AOPA has been reaching out to its member companies for ideas on the complex issue of prosthetic foot coding.

SADMERC is working on revamping many L codes for CMS, and AOPA is eager to bring it suggestions for how to do so. Since prosthetic feet will be one of the first areas to be re-coded by SADMERC, AOPA decided to address that subject first.

AOPA sent a letter to all manufacturers of prosthetic feet, asking for input on AOPA’s suggestions for certain coding definitions. AOPA then sent a follow-up letter asking for ideas and feedback on development of coding standards.

After receiving replies, AOPA put together definitions based on all of the input, and invited the companies that had responded to the initial letter for a face-to-face meeting.

On August 15, AOPA hosted a meeting of 10 foot manufacturers. The companies came together for a day-long roundtable to debate the following items:

•    Possible “contextual-based descriptors,” or definitions of particular terms within a given L code descriptor
•    Brand-new L code numbers and descriptors
•    Guidelines on developing coding standards and procedures, so that future categories of coding will follow a good precedent set by the pedorthics category

Kathy Dodson, AOPA’s senior director of government affairs, said the gathering was productive and “a very cooperative effort” among the manufacturers. Walter Racette, AOPA’s past president, called it a “first historic step in getting the supplier nation to come together for the best of the profession.” 

A second meeting took place at the National Assembly in Las Vegas, with a third session planned for late 2007. After that, says Dodson, AOPA hopes to take its recommended codes and “go back to SADMERC and say, ‘This is something that the majority of the field agrees on.’”

AOPA feels we best serve our members by actively pursuing involvement in the coding definition process, to make sure our members’ needs, and those of their patients, are reflected in the official coding definitions. To become involved in this process, call Kathy Dodson at (571) 431-0876, ext. 210.