'Difficult times make strange bedfellows'
By Liz Beaulieu, Editor
Updated Fri October 30, 2009
So I spoke with Simon Margolis this morning about yesterday's consensus conference on creating a separate benefit for complex rehab (if you haven't already read my story on the conference, click here). Margolis, executive director of NRRTS, believes it was a momentous occasion. Here's why:
Difficult times make very strange bedfellows. This is the first time—I mean you have to really think about what's happening here—you have AAHomecare, NCART, NRRTS, RESNA and the Clinician Task Force all sitting at the same table, all working toward the same goal in an effective, collegial manner. There's some partisanship, but that's natural, and it's not a partisanship that's affecting the outcome of the work that we're doing. It was just phenomenal. I looked out at the audience and there was Cara Bachenheimer, Seth Johnson, Wayne Grau, Julie Piriano—a whole group of people who aren't always on the same page and who serve very different markets. We had people from Alliance Seating & Mobility, who definitely aren't mainstream rehab yet, but they're working at it, and I give them credit for being involved in things. They weren't there to snipe; they were there to participate. Whatever the outcome of the conference, the process is pulling the industry together and not tearing it apart.
Maybe times aren't difficult enough for oxygen providers to become strange bedfellows (click here if you don't know what I'm talking about)?
Liz Beaulieu
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