Politics in Podiatry

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Lee Rogers, Brad Wenstrup, and anyone else? Dr. Wenstrup looks like he has a great chance at winning, not to sure about Rogers. I found an article from '08 that said there are 11 MDs in congress. If Rogers and Wenstrup win, that's a pretty good ratio of DPMs to MDs in congress! (15k Pods, 700k MDs!)

I think the title should have been the other way around: Podiatry in Politics. Oh well...

Having an insider would be huge. All it takes is a DPM on the floor of every debate regarding medical issues saying "don't forget to add podiatrists to that bill." The parity issue at the federal level is due mostly to a lack of knowledge about our profession, as well as being a small enough profession to not really care about from a money-saving perspective. The government isn't deliberately trying to downplay our significance or keep us from being recognized as physicians. If that were the case, we wouldn't be considered as such under Medicare. The Medicaid issue will be resolved once we can get enough congressmen to understand our level of training, as well as prove to them that reimbursing our work equal to MDs and DOs will save money in the long run.

I'm not sure pods get reimbursed lower than MD/DOs do they? I think I said that once and PADPM said that I was wrong? I dunno, it was a while ago, so my memory might be off here.

I do agree it would be nice to have them lobby for our causes, but how do we know they are committed? Dr. Rogers could be NeilD's uncle!

Just because a congressman/senator is a physician, doesn't necessarily mean their platform has anything to do with helping their colleagues out. It MIGHT, but not for sure.

We hope that it would help our cause, but the Washington political wheel is a dangerous one. You become more concerned with re-election than change. One day, I will change that!

Originally Posted by MaxillofacialMN

I'm not sure pods get reimbursed lower than MD/DOs do they? I think I said that once and PADPM said that I was wrong? I dunno, it was a while ago, so my memory might be off here.

I do agree it would be nice to have them lobby for our causes, but how do we know they are committed? Dr. Rogers could be NeilD's uncle!

I also don't remember the details, but there was a post where I stated that there was parity in payments among DPMs and MDs. However, I believe I also corrected myself when I learned that in some states, some insurance companies do pay on a different scale.

Although it apparently does occur, I believe it's not common. Additionally, in the 3 states where I'm licensed the reimbursements have always been equal.

A politician is a self-interested crook first, a human rarely, a doctor never.

stick with lobbying, it will go farther.

Originally Posted by PADPM

I also don't remember the details, but there was a post where I stated that there was parity in payments among DPMs and MDs. However, I believe I also corrected myself when I learned that in some states, some insurance companies do pay on a different scale.

Although it apparently does occur, I believe it's not common. Additionally, in the 3 states where I'm licensed the reimbursements have always been equal.

Do you take Medicaid patients? I am only a student but I have met several podiatrists who complained of agreeing on a price for a treatment and then getting paid half the agreed amount with no real explanation as to why. The doctors would fight it and usually just get the response, "we never agreed on that price." This does vary by state, though, because currently the law allows states to decide Medicaid reimbursements for podiatrists, so at any time the government can just decide not to pay you. Again, as a student I have no first hand experience with this. I just hear these stories from podiatrists I have shadowed, met at conferences, etc. This is not usually a problem through Medicare or the big insurance companies, although those guys have some issues of their own that need resolving ...

Originally Posted by Madura

...so at any time the government can just decide not to pay you.

Yep. Pretty effed up, huh?

You mean a podiatrist on the committee that writes the bills. Once it's out of committee, it takes an act of congress (literally) to change it. It would be nice if we got paid the same for the same procedures.

Originally Posted by MaxillofacialMN

I'm not sure pods get reimbursed lower than MD/DOs do they? I think I said that once and PADPM said that I was wrong? I dunno, it was a while ago, so my memory might be off here.

I do agree it would be nice to have them lobby for our causes, but how do we know they are committed? Dr. Rogers could be NeilD's uncle!

Sorry I'm reading this so long after the fact. Actually, from what I hear from real world pods in practice YOU ARE CORRECT! At least through some insurance companies?
I've heard my brother and uncle complain that the fee schedules for a Bunion were less than for a Ortho before for the same procedure.

Also, my uncle is a conservative repub and the pods running, at least the one mentioned above is as a Dem. The pod running has an urban wound care situation going and if you think about it that is a lower socioeconomic community that would depend upon government healthcare, hence, Dem.

There are very few statesmen, rather, career polys who want to do nothing but line their pockets, look out only for their best financial interests in the name of "helping" sick people. Some docs makes careers out of establishing themselves in poor, depressed areas to create/manufacture a need for podiatry services. It's a shame, b/c some of those folk's main interest is financial not clinical; this does not elevate the profession nor help establish parity.