OKLAHOMA CITY, May 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — House Appropriations
Committee Ranking Member Congressman Norm Dicks, along with House
Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Congressman Adam Smith,
senior House Ways and Means Committee member Congressman Jim
McDermott, and Energy and Commerce Committee member Congressman Jay
Inslee, sent a letter late on Friday to Health and Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging the Department to approve coding
for Orthocare Innovations’ Smart Pyramid™ prosthetic device.
Smart Pyramid™ is an advanced prosthetic device that analyzes
forces in a prosthesis and recommends changes to prosthetic
components to reduce injurious forces that typically result in skin
breakdown, back pain, joint pain, osteoarthritis, and falls among
prosthesis users.
Members writing to Secretary Sebelius communicated support by
indicating that “… Smart Pyramid™ enables practitioners
to assess prosthetic function and minimize the negative effects of
suboptimal alignment, such as loss of balance, patient pain, and
other safety risks. This data has the potential to reduce
prosthetic misalignment and fit issues, allowing higher levels of
activity, reduced morbidity, and cost savings from avoided
refitting, socket replacements and preventing or mitigating
secondary complications.”
This communication follows on a prior bipartisan letter of
support led by Senator James Inhofe, a senior Member of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, along with Republican Tom Cole of the
House Budget and Appropriations Committees and Dan Boren of the
House Committee on Armed Services Committee, expressing their
support for a unique HCPCS code for Smart Pyramid™. In this
letter, members communicated Smart Pyramid’s™
benefits: “In addition to limiting unnecessary pain related to
skin breakdown, osteoarthritis, walking instability and muscle
activity, this device can result in medical cost savings for both
the patie
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