Pride Mobility recently launched a campaign to mobilize its provider network to urge Congress to preserve Medicare’s first month purchase option for power wheelchairs.
According to Pride, President Bush’s 2009 budget contains a proposal to eliminate the first month purchase option, as well as language for a provision mandating a 13-month rental period for power chairs. Nearly all power wheel chairs are purchased in the first month since the mobility limitations of their users are typically life-long conditions.
“The first month purchase option is important to preserve access to power wheelchairs for Medicare beneficiaries,” said Seth Johnson our vice president of Government Affairs for Pride. “We’ve talked to and been a part of various coalitions in the industry, and what we have heard loud and clear from the providers that if the purchase option is eliminated for these products it will be extremely difficult for them to provide these products and services. They don’t have the ability to wait 13 months to receive full payment”
Johnson said that the costs to provide power wheelchair, such as equipment purchases, providing evaluations, delivery and training, are all up-front. The providers, he explained, cannot function as a “not a bank for the government.”
To prevent that, Pride’s sales force has contacted the company’s network of providers to encourage them to contact their representatives and senators urging them to preserve the first month purchase option. Pride says this campaign resulted in more than 640 calls being placed to congress members.
Moreover, while the cut doesn’t make sense for providers, it doesn’t make sense for the government, either, according to Johnson, who explains that over the 13-month period, Medicare would wind up paying 5 percent more than if a chair were purchased in the first month.
This is not the first time the Fed has tried to eliminate the first-month purchase option. The Bush administration proposed replacing it with the 13-month rental period in for the past four years, according to Johnson, and it went as far as heavy Senate debate in 2005.
