Has anyone heard of medicare refusing to pay for push handles on a wheelchair?
I've been helping an online friend get her first wheelchair. An Icon. She received it today, but there are a LOT of problems. One of them is it showed up with no push handles. She was told 2 separate excuses, one of them was that the dealer didn't think she really needed them and removed them from the order. She was also told that since medicare only cares about wheelchair use in the house, they won't pay for them. They're around $235 I believe on the Icon order form.
She's really lucky she HAS an Icon considering the mistakes the dealer has made. She is SWIMMING in the chair, and she complained repeatedly when they delivered the chair and yet they kept telling her she was fine and only adjusted the wheel spacing, would not adjust the chair width. I think part of the reason may have been a combination of laziness and the fact they'd brought a size 16 cushion for her to demo, so maybe they had no other cushion options right now. Speaking with her she said she's swimming in the chair and expressed that she cannot propel it at ALL right now, and feels as if her shoulders are going to dislocate when she tries. The current seat pan on the chair is the narrowest at 14, but she's a size 0 and it sounds as if she may need narrower! She's now thinking she remembers the OT to have measured her around 12 wide. It shouldn't be an issue to swap out the seat pan with Icon, but of course if she needs such a drastic change the backrest will have to be swapped as well. She currently has a comfort company Acta back.
Any suggestions? She's going to email the OT about the problems and changes the dealer made from what was agreed upon. The chair was also supposed to come with a headrest and didn't. She's going to take photos so I can get a better idea of what parts are currently on the chair. And I told her she should contact insurance and tell them to not pay until this has been resolved, that the chair she has received is NOT the chair that was ordered.
I've been helping an online friend get her first wheelchair. An Icon. She received it today, but there are a LOT of problems. One of them is it showed up with no push handles. She was told 2 separate excuses, one of them was that the dealer didn't think she really needed them and removed them from the order. She was also told that since medicare only cares about wheelchair use in the house, they won't pay for them. They're around $235 I believe on the Icon order form.
She's really lucky she HAS an Icon considering the mistakes the dealer has made. She is SWIMMING in the chair, and she complained repeatedly when they delivered the chair and yet they kept telling her she was fine and only adjusted the wheel spacing, would not adjust the chair width. I think part of the reason may have been a combination of laziness and the fact they'd brought a size 16 cushion for her to demo, so maybe they had no other cushion options right now. Speaking with her she said she's swimming in the chair and expressed that she cannot propel it at ALL right now, and feels as if her shoulders are going to dislocate when she tries. The current seat pan on the chair is the narrowest at 14, but she's a size 0 and it sounds as if she may need narrower! She's now thinking she remembers the OT to have measured her around 12 wide. It shouldn't be an issue to swap out the seat pan with Icon, but of course if she needs such a drastic change the backrest will have to be swapped as well. She currently has a comfort company Acta back.
Any suggestions? She's going to email the OT about the problems and changes the dealer made from what was agreed upon. The chair was also supposed to come with a headrest and didn't. She's going to take photos so I can get a better idea of what parts are currently on the chair. And I told her she should contact insurance and tell them to not pay until this has been resolved, that the chair she has received is NOT the chair that was ordered.
Medicare and push handles?
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire