With rising health care costs, fewer benefits, and higher copays for people fortunate enough to even have health insurance, Suppan Foot and Ankle Clinic has been thinking outside the proverbial shoe box.

Suppan Foot and Ankle Clinic in Orrville has seen many the changes that have occurred since the inception of HMOs (health maintenance organizations) in the 1980s. It is debatable what has caused health coverage costs to rise so sharply, but the fact is that people pay more in premiums, deductibles, and copays and seem to get less in return. This often leads to avoiding the doctor altogether.

The Foot Comfort Store at Suppan Foot and Ankle Clinic was created with this very problem in mind. It provides an opportunity for a person who has a foot or ankle issue that isn’t serious enough to see a doctor to get free information about the more common foot ailments and offers potential over the counter solutions. Pads, shoes, socks, ankle braces, toenail and skin care products, bandaging materials, and insoles are among the things that The Foot Comfort Store offer.

The most popular items are the socks and the shoe insoles. Custom orthotics can be expensive and sometimes insurances don’t cover the cost, so a good off-the-shelf shoe insole can be very helpful. A great deal of foot pain is caused by poor biomechanics (the way the foot functions). The support of a high quality shoe insole can be an easy solution. We have developed our own brand of off-the-shelf insoles, that are considerably less expensive than custom medical orthotics, known as “SoupCan Insoles.” No, they are not made of soup cans. “Soup can” is merely a nickname given to Dr. Suppan over the years.

With no end in sight of rising health care costs and a solution to the problem mired in debate, Suppan Foot and Ankle Clinic may be providing a small way to take things into your own hands, or feet rather.