Tag: PA

Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists and naturopaths have gained the right to prescribe medications traditionally only done by a physician. But the Medicare Therapeutic Shoe Bill requires that the physician managing the diabetic condition certify the need for footwear and inserts.

So although the podiatrist truly has the expertise in this arena, it falls on the patient’s primary care physician or endocrinologist to do the paperwork. Congress might have been concerned that because podiatrists profit from selling inserts or shoes, that someone else should determine whether it’s really needed. In fact, though, us primary care docs are overworked and don’t have much time to deal with such paperwork. If we deny that the patient needs it, especially after their podiatrist already told them they do, the patients get mad at us.

I think the best way to minimize fraud would be to have patients pay a portion of the cost, say 25%. That way they are less likely to get a shoe or insert unless they feel they really need it. Actually Medicare pays 80% of the allowable amount so patients pay up to 20% if they don’t have secondary insurance. Since most patients are going to buy a pair of shoes in any case, I think they should pay what a similar non-medical shoe would cost, and Medicare would pick up the difference. That way there would be no financial incentive for patients to get shoes they don’t really need, and doctors could stop being the watchdog.

At the very least, Congress should allow nurse practitioners and physician assistants to do the paperwork.