Click Medical Prosthetics Consultations in ID

What To Expect During Your Prosthetic Care

OrthoPro wants to make your experience being fitted with a prosthetic device as easy and painless as possible. As a Licensed High Fidelity Interface Prosthetics Provider ID, we are dedicated to you and strive to provide the superior patient care that you deserve. Most prosthetic limbs are covered by insurance but there are some exceptions and limitations.

Receiving Your Custom Prosthesis

These six basic steps will help you better understand the process of getting your prosthesis: Evaluation, Authorization, Casting, Diagnostic Fitting, Fit and Delivery, and Follow-up. Visits typically occur in two-week increments, but your actual visit timing may vary.

Keep in mind that your experience will be different from anyone else’s and that your process and progress will differ due to various factors including the severity of the injury, prior functional level, and compliance with the treatment program. You have a challenging journey ahead of you, but with desire, commitment, and proper treatment, you can attain results you never thought were possible.

You and your doctor will decide when you have healed sufficiently to begin this process. They will ensure you have the documentation necessary to comply with your insurance company’s policy guidelines. To help ensure the best possible outcome, your physical therapist will be included in the treatment team.

Visit One - Evaluation

Your first visit will be an opportunity for us to learn more about you and provide you with answers and directions as you begin this process. We will gather background information from and about you, including details like your height, weight, age, prescribing physician, and a medical history. We will discuss your goals for functionality and our plan for you in detail. Please be prepared to engage in a conversation about what you would like to accomplish, as this will help us to help you.

Be willing to speak about your concerns because we are here to provide answers and be a source of guidance and direction in your journey. If your insurance company requires pre-authorization before we create your custom prosthesis, we will do only the evaluation during this first appointment. Once insurance authorization has been given, we will schedule with you an appointment for your Casting Visit.

Insurance Authorization

Upon formalization of your treatment plan, we take administrative steps before we create your prosthesis and move through the rehabilitation process. Firstly, we verify insurance coverage. Typically, prosthetic services are listed under the Durable Medical Equipment clause of most insurance policies.

We work directly with your prescribing physician to create a prescription detailing the patient care services that you will receive. It is your physician’s records that are used by the insurance company to establish medical necessity, not ours, so it is very important that we receive this information from your doctor in a timely manner, because without it we will be unable to create your prosthesis. The following is a list of the information we will be requesting from your physician before starting the process:

• The full history of your amputation.
• Quantitatively assess your functional potential.
• Review of your commitment and desire to be active in your daily life.
• Evaluation of the current condition of the limb.

After receiving this documentation, we will submit an authorization request to your insurance company (if required). The review process varies with each payer from a few days to a few weeks. If authorization is denied, we will appeal on your behalf to the insurance payer.

Because we are committed to serving you, we will verify your prosthetic coverage and review the information with you. Insurance authorization is not a guarantee of full payment by your provider, but our office will provide you with an initial estimate of the costs of our prosthetic services, including any cost that you might incur, which is subject to change based on final claim determination by your insurance provider.

Visit Two - Casting

After evaluating your residual limb for prominent bones, sensitive areas, and swelling, we then capture the shape of your limb using either plaster to “cast” or digitally with our Computer-Aided Design (CAD). It is very important that there be no swelling when we take a cast of your leg or arm to make the socket. If necessary, fabric “shrinkers” will help reduce swelling, but we will need to make another appointment to cast your residual limb.

If there is no swelling, and verification from your insurance has been received, we will capture your limb shape through our casting process. We will also take measurements of your sound limb to ensure bi-lateral symmetry. We are confident in our ability to design and create a prosthetic socket that is customized to your specific anatomy.

Visit Three – Initial Fitting & Alignment

Using the cast we’ve created, we will make a “check socket,” a clear, plastic socket that matches the shape of your residual limb. This will allow your clinician to determine the fit of the prosthesis on your residual limb. A correct fit of the socket is critical to achieving for the amputee the most active life possible.

Please bring to this appointment any daily work or living devices that you use routinely. Sharing with your prosthetist those things that are challenging for you, along with things you do on a daily basis will help them to provide you with a prosthesis that meets your functional needs.

An additional visit and another socket may be required depending on what transpires during this appointment.

Visit Four – Fitting & Delivery

During this appointment, you will be fit with the new, final prosthesis that you will be taking home to use every day. Your prosthetist will spend time educating you on how to properly wear your prosthesis and how to use the features of your new device, providing you with introductory usage training, and teaching you how to determine if your socket is no longer fitting well.

Our recommendation is that you wear your custom device for 1-3 hours the first day and gradually increase that time by an hour each day. You should check the skin on your residual limb often for signs of irritation or redness. It is usually normal to have redness over a large area that dissipates after removal of the prosthesis. Localized redness caused by pressure is more concerning, so if this occurs please contact our facility for an appointment. We can then make changes to the prosthesis.

We will provide you with initial daily use training to help you to perform daily activities while wearing your prosthesis. We do recommend additional support for first time prosthetic wearers and that you begin to work immediately with a local physical or occupational therapist.

If at some point you begin to experience discomfort from your prosthesis, it is likely that your residual limb has undergone a physical change. Your prosthesis was designed to fit your residual limb’s unique shape so if this changes it can be uncomfortable. Usually, this discomfort can be relieved by adding or removing prosthetic socks or padding.

Follow Up Visits

We will schedule your first follow up for 1-2 weeks after the delivery of your definitive prosthesis. These appointments help your clinician to continue assessing the fit and function of your new prosthesis as you begin using it and your activity level changes over time. As a Licensed High Fidelity Interface Prosthetics Provider in ID, this is an opportunity for you to discuss with us what may or may not be working, and allow us to make adjustments to ensure your comfort and satisfaction.