Rescind the Medicare proposal restricting access to prosthetic limbs and returning amputees to 1970’s standards of care.

Medicare, through its contractors, has proposed new coverage, coding, and clinical care guidelines that would have a profoundly negative impact on amputees across the United States.

If implemented, the policy installs new barriers that would limit and potentially deny access to appropriate prosthetic care. It eliminates coverage for certain prosthetic devices that amputees depend on for every step they take every day. It even would preclude amputees from using a prosthesis if they failed to meet the entirely nebulous and subjective standard of “the appearance of natural gait” while using the prosthesis.

Equally troublesome, the proposed policy contains no references to clinical or medical evidence supporting the changes.

For all of these reasons, the draft policy should be rescinded.