The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is at it again. Their preparing to allow the Lowest Bidder provide Complex Power Wheelchairs and Seating Systems!

This message was sent to me by my disability resource center. Please pass it along to as many people as possible.

I am asking for your help to stop a Medicare law that will devastate persons in wheelchairs. A competitive bidding law was passed that includes complex rehab equipment. On May 9th two reppresentatives introduced an Act that will make the Complex Rehab Equipment exempt from the law. It is imperative to "carve out" the Vomplex Rehab Equipment from this law because it allows the lowest bidder to provide a complex seating system or power wheelchair or speech generating device. This competitive bidding does not take into account any expertise from the vendor or skill level from the vendor let alone, the rapport that the wheelchair bound person may have developed over the years with their vendor. I can tell you from personal experience that some vendors may have "Medicare required credentials" but do not provide adequate equipment, follow-up, or service to their clients.

This competitive bidding is currently being trialed in 10 metropolitan areas across the U.S.! If this is not stopped, a person who requires a wheelchair cannot choose the best or most qualified or even use the same vendor that they have relied on throughout their life for their equipment.

Please go to http://www.ComplexRehab.org for complete background information and to access the tools to get this legislation passed. Click on the TAKE ACTION button to email your Senators and Representative asking for their support of Bill HR-2231. Follow up your email with a phone call to their local offices to get their commitment of support. Most importantly spread the word and get as many others to follow your lead.

Barb

Thanks, Barb! I'm on it! This is just wrong.

What a travesty! I will get on this as soon as I have a few minutes tomorrow. Thank you for posting.

All the best,
Chris

Why do you feel we are entitled to choose whatever medical device we want and have someone else pay for it?

Medicaid and Medicare are both welfare programs designed to provide medical care to either indigents or the elderly. Cost management is necessary as they both are growing faster than any other government entitlement. Do a google search and you can easily find unbelievable examples of fraud an waste in both programs and since the recipients pay little or nothing for coverage/benefits, they generally don't care about costs.

If you want full choice, buy your own.

Here is an interesting read on the entitlement mindset (which is on display in this forum by the many duplicate posts of this alert on chairs):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Mar23.html

Well, actx, first, I hope like crazy that you never find yourself in a situation where you are literally trapped in a helpless body and must depend on the nation to which you had once gladly contributed as a productive, functioning member.

The sense of "entitlement" is actually a matter of desperation for those, the vast majority of whom, never caused themselves to, nor elected to literally live their entire days in a contraption that serves as virtually their only hope of any semblance of life.

Frankly, I find your tone and brazen post offensive and inordinately political. Perhaps you'd like to introduce yourself to the community before you pepper us with your broadstroked, accusatory presumptions.

Welcome to NeuroTalk, a very supportive and friendly community.

TeeHee!! You have a gift from God for handling these kind of situations with grace, Cindy.

I nominate Cindy as our permanent Sentry. Do I hear an unanimous okie dokie??

Actx,

It's not just about 'choice'.

If you've ever worked in a business where the lowest bidder got the contract, you would know what a total disaster this will turn out to be. That's what we're dealing with now on "The Big Dig" (a road construction project in Massachusetts) -- early failure, death, injury, and unbelievable cost overruns.

There are some people, no, a lot of people who cannot take a straight-off-the-shelf wheelchair. I have a friend that has to be reclined at 45 degrees or he will pass out.

I've seen a teenager that has to be kept horizontal at all times.

Stephen Hawking, the scientist, does not use Medicaid or Medicare because he lives in another country. But, he's another example of someone who uses a highly specialized wheelchair due to his disability.

Do you honestly think that the lowest bidder is going to have the capability, or even the resources, to custom-design mobility equipment for people with similar situations.

It's extremely difficult for some people, specifically those with ALS, to use the computer at all, let alone, to surf around looking for a specific message that concerns them. That's why I posted this message in many different forums because the message can specifically apply to the participants in those forums.

For future reference, Medicare is not just a 'welfare' program for the elderly. The disabled also use that program.

Our society has gotten together and decided that Medicaid and Medicare should be provided to those people that qualify for it.

Yes, I total agree, there is fraud in both the Medicaid and the Medicare programs. That's because our society has not demanded that there be competent oversight. I have a mobility scooter and tried to notify both government agencies of an example of fraud committed by the vendor that supplied me with the scooter. Neither agency wanted to hear about it. I've stopped using that vendor and now use one that does not overbill.

I've just recently come out of the business world so I was aware of what was legal and what was not legal and how to handle it. I wonder how many times has this same vendor pulled the same trick on an elderly person who was not aware of what was being done to them.

I have a friend who has a disabled child. The boy will never walk or talk or feed himself or clean himself. Medicaid did not want to pay for the nutritional drink that contains fiber to keep him regular because it costs 16 cents a can too much. They'd rather give him a prescription, which will cost many times more than the equivalent of 16 cents per can, to keep him regular.

I did some research and found that Colorado is purchasing the nutritional drink at a much greater cost savings than 16 cents per can. If the states got together and did bulk purchasing, they'd save a lot of money.

You see, Actx, it's not about 'entitlement'. It's about 'quality' and 'efficiency' and 'costs savings'. If you hire a plumber to install kitchen cabinets in your house: (1) you'll be wasting the plumber's skills, (2) you won't get quality workmanship; and (3) in the long run, it'll cost more, because of the mistakes that have to be fixed.

I've worked in companies that use the bidding process. Low bidders are not always telling the truth about their skills and qualifications. Often, another company has to be brought in to 'fix' the problems, which increases the final costs.

Actx, I appreciate your wanting to discuss this. You could have done it in a less confrontational way. You don't know any of us. You don't live in our world. You don't 'walk in our shoes'; you don't have the right to judge us.

Thank you for giving me a chance to express my opinions.

Barb

PS: I agree that we, as a society, have stepped back and let "big government" handle things without keeping an eye on what they're doing. That's up to us, as a society, to solve that problem. It doesn't mean that you solve it by hurting the people that are less fortunate than you are.