Rural Wheelchair Patients Will Be Hit Hard by Power Wheelchair Rental Policy; Providers, Advocates Ask Congress for a Delay

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WEST UNION, Iowa, Dec. 9, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Medicare beneficiaries residing in rural areas of the country may not be able to obtain power wheelchairs prescribed by their physicians if the Medicare program implements a mandatory rental policy as scheduled in January, according to home medical equipment providers and consumer groups.

Stakeholders are asking Congress to delay for a year the policy that would eliminate a beneficiary's option to have Medicare purchase the equipment during the first month the patient has it. In place of the first-month purchase option, a 13-month rental policy will be implemented for power wheelchairs. But that new policy will create financial burdens for providers, especially small businesses in rural areas, because they can't afford the upfront costs associated with supplying the power wheelchair and waiting more than a year for full reimbursement from the government.

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Rural Wheelchair Patients Will Be Hit Hard by Power Wheelchair Rental Policy; Providers, Advocates Ask Congress for a Delay

"What I'm hearing from providers in the smaller communities is that if they have to start renting power wheelchairs, they will have to quit the business," said Julie Weidemann, president of the Midwest Association for Medical Equipment Services (MAMES), which has 280 providers in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nort...

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