Prosthetics and orthopedic devices: free or at the lowest possible cost

It is a short 1958 law, still in force, that almost nobody mentions. The government has its own laboratories where orthopedic devices and prosthetics are made, and this Act requires two things: that they be provided free or at the lowest possible cost to low-income persons with disabilities — children, young people, adults and older adults, the Act names them all — and that the sale of that equipment not be limited to vocational rehabilitation cases.

For the free or lowest-cost benefit, the Act describes “low-income persons with disabilities,” and clarifies who is included: “Children, young people, adults and older adults shall be included in this section’s benefits.” The Act publishes no income threshold and does not define “low income,” so we publish none. For purchase, Section 1 is broader still: the sale “shall not be limited to vocational rehabilitation cases,” meaning you need not be a programme client to buy.

Information pending verification.

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Free or at the lowest possible cost, if resources are scarce

   It is the heart of the Act and fits in one sentence. Section 2 empowers the Vocational Rehabilitation Program “to provide orthopedic and prosthetic devices manufactured in the Program’s Prosthetic and Orthotic Laboratories free of charge or at the lowest possible cost to low-income persons with disabilities.” Two alternatives: free, or at the lowest possible cost. It does not say “at a reduced price” or “at a discount.”

2. 2

   Step 2: All ages, and the Act names them

   This sentence exists precisely so nobody is left out by age: “Children, young people, adults and older adults shall be included in this section’s benefits.” If you are told the programme is only for people of working age, that sentence is the answer.

3. 3

   Step 3: You need not be a vocational rehabilitation case

   Section 1 authorizes the sale of devices made in the Laboratories and closes with a sentence that widens access: “The sale of such equipment shall not be limited to vocational rehabilitation cases.” That is, buying from the government laboratories is not reserved to existing programme participants.

4. 4

   Step 4: If the laboratory cannot make it, buying is authorized

   Section 3 covers equipment the in-house workshops cannot make: the Program is authorized “to purchase orthopedic and prosthetic equipment that cannot be manufactured in the Program’s Prosthetic and Orthotic Laboratories in those cases where acquiring such equipment is truly necessary for persons with disabilities.” The written condition is that the acquisition be truly necessary.

5. 5

   Step 5: Whoever pays in full funds the ones given free

   The circuit is worth understanding. Section 4 provides that “The amounts received from the sale of orthopedic and prosthetic devices authorized in subsection (a) of this section shall go into a special fund known as the ‘Orthopedic Laboratory Fund,’” and that fund is used “for purchasing the materials, tools and equipment necessary to manufacture those orthopedic and prosthetic devices and for purchasing orthopedic and prosthetic equipment that cannot be manufactured” in the laboratories. Sales sustain the manufacturing and the purchases.

6. 6

   Step 6: Which agency it is today, and where that comes from

   It is worth separating the text from the annotation. The 1958 Act names “the Vocational Rehabilitation Division of the Department of the Family” and “the Vocational Rehabilitation Program of the Department of the Family.” OGP’s compilation adds at each mention a bracketed note: “Replaced by the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration attached to the Department of Labour and transferred by Act No. 97-2000, as amended.” Those notes are OGP annotations, not the legislature’s text. We did not read Act 97-2000.

7. 7

   Step 7: About this Act’s language

   The Act is nearly seventy years old and uses “personas impedidas” and “envejecientes.” That vocabulary is not that of recent laws. We quote the Act in its own words when we quote it, because changing a quotation falsifies it, and we do not use it in our own prose.

The 1958 text names the vocational rehabilitation division and programme; OGP’s compilation notes that today this corresponds to the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, attached to the Department of Labour and Human Resources. The Act publishes no address for the Prosthetic and Orthotic Laboratories, no telephone, no form and no price list, and we do not invent them. If what you need is another kind of assistive equipment — a wheelchair, a communication device — the Technological Assistance Program is a different Act and has its own guide.

• Believing you must be a vocational rehabilitation client to buy: the Act says the sale is not limited to those cases.
• Thinking the benefit is only for people of working age: the Act expressly includes children, young people, adults and older adults.
• Assuming something must always be paid: the Act contemplates providing it free or at the lowest possible cost according to the person’s resources.
• Ruling it out because the device you need is not made there: the Act authorizes buying equipment the laboratory cannot manufacture when truly necessary.
• Looking for the programme at the Department of the Family: the compilation’s annotation indicates it moved to the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration under the Department of Labour.
• Expecting to find prices in the Act: it publishes none, and neither do we.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento del Trabajo y Recursos Humanos (DTRH)

  Departamento del Trabajo

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov