For Boston attack's amputees, road to recovery begins [View all]

[Poll_Blind]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/17/boston-marathon-amputation-bombing-recovery/2090679/

The process is long, arduous and challenging. But for those who lost limbs in the Boston bomb attacks — numbering at least 13 people as of Wednesday, including two double amputees — there can be a quality life ahead, say those in the military who re-assemble the hundreds damaged by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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One potential problem for the Boston victims will be whether the military's gold standard for treatment and devices will be available to them, given they will rely on private insurance plans that may have limited coverage.

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One computerized, artificial limb for an above-the-knee amputee — which include many of those injured in Boston — is waterproof, battery-operated, has a three-year warranty and provides the ability to run. Troops have used it to return to combat.

"It's a knee that can tell whether you're going uphill or downhill. It's a knee that can tell if it needs to stiffen up a little," Dromsky says. But it costs $70,000 to $75,000, and it's unclear whether private insurance plans would pay for it, says Fergason, who has studied the issue.

"It's all across the board depending on what kind of coverage you have," he says, adding that it's not a provision that most people worry about in their medical insurance plans. "If you ask 10 people, 'Do you have coverage for a prosthetic device?' ... I'm going to guess most of them probably couldn't tell you."

What could we do as a nation of 300 million to make sure 13 people can have prosthetic devices like this if they don't have insurance to cover it?

PB