[skinnymedic]

hi
does anyone know the Medicare requirements for us to get a new replacement manual chair; is there a specific number of years you must wait before they will pay for a new, etc? mine is getting woree out from daily use and moving it in and out of my jeep. any help would be appreciated.
James

[hartcreek]

I dont know but I see chairs at the Goodwill for fifty bucks so if it was me I would pick up an extra. Usualyy they are the hard tired type floder chairs but it still would be better that being SOL.

skinnymedic, on Jul 12 2009, 04:36 PM, said:

hi
does anyone know the Medicare requirements for us to get a new replacement manual chair; is there a specific number of years you must wait before they will pay for a new, etc? mine is getting woree out from daily use and moving it in and out of my jeep. any help would be appreciated.
James

[Hapahowlee]

Medicare will pay for a new wheelchair every 5 years. My hubby finally decided (2 years ago) to get a new one after 8 years and he just expected to go to the shop and pick out what he's used to, but the rules changed and Medicare requires you to go to a Wheelchair Clinic to be evaluated by a PT and of course you need a prescription for a new wheelchair from your doc.

Medicare only pays 80%, but hubby was involved with Voc Rehab at the time. He was trying to get them to cover conversions to a new van and VR covered the 20% left on the wheelchair and also covered 100% of all van conversions.

[skinnymedic]

Hapahowlee, on Jul 26 2009, 07:43 PM, said:

Medicare will pay for a new wheelchair every 5 years. My hubby finally decided (2 years ago) to get a new one after 8 years and he just expected to go to the shop and pick out what he's used to, but the rules changed and Medicare requires you to go to a Wheelchair Clinic to be evaluated by a PT and of course you need a prescription for a new wheelchair from your doc.

Medicare only pays 80%, but hubby was involved with Voc Rehab at the time. He was trying to get them to cover conversions to a new van and VR covered the 20% left on the wheelchair and also covered 100% of all van conversions.

thats what i as kind of thinking but wasn't sure. when i had a tear in my cushion i took it to my supplier and was told they don't issue new cushions even though i had a new prescription and that Medicare would only replace if it couldn't be fixed. i didn't know if the chair had similar requirements.
thanks for the help
skinnymedic