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Licensure: If There’s a Small Population
By Judith Philipps Otto Pursuing licensure is more difficult in a state
which has a very low population of O&P providers, and hence has
less dedicated manpower to support the legislative initiatives and
fewer members to share the costs, which are considerable. However,
there still are ways to successfully pursue a licensure program or
its equivalent.
"Even in the least populous states, with a small percentage of
practitioners to patients, there is still a need to protect the
consumer and insure that competent professionals are providing
their care," points out Jim Rogers, CPO, FAAOP, Orthotic &
Prosthetic Associates, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and head of the
Licensure Task Force of the American Academy of Orthotists and
Prosthetists (the Academy).
"Patients should always be assured that they are getting
competent care in such an important medical specialty." Rogers
continues, "Now, is it financially cost-effective--? Perhaps those
are the states that wait until the completion of the process in
other states and then rely on the experienced states for help.
Right now it's a state-by-state issue. I would like for licensure
to be embraced by the profession, creating a movement gaining
enough momentum that there is a commitment to accomplish this for
everyone; we're all in it together."
Joseph Elliott, CP, BOCPO, Hanger Prosthetics & Orthotics,
Birmingham, Alabama, suggests that even if a state has only a very
small number of practitioners, making the licensure effort more
difficult, it can be accomplished by other means, perhaps by
aligning with some physicians' group. "Licensure is beneficial to
the individual practitioner and to the profession--and therefore I
can't see any reason not to do it. The mechanics of doing it may
differ, but I can't see any reason not to do it."
He admits that with only 140 licensees, Alabama finds the cost
per practitioner very expensive. "That's controlled, however, by
the way your state sets up the board. In Alabama, every board has
to be independent, and yet every board has to be established and
run under the administrative code of the state of Alabama."
Mike Allen, CPO, LPO, FAAOP, Allen Orthotics & Prosthetics
Inc., Midland, Texas, notes that there are alternatives to
licensure that would offer the same public protection: mandatory
certification in the form of a registration program, which mandates
certification as the prerequisite or the requirement for registry.
"Those are inexpensive programs that can be established within
existing state agencies, for example, through the state's
department of health and human services, or whatever that agency's
name may be. The agency can simply promulgate rules requiring
specific educational training and experience standards, without the
cost of boards, etc." 
Table Of Contents - January 2006
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