Posted 04 June 2008 - 04:06 AM
So Medicare won't cover anything? My husband got a new wheelchair. He actually got 2 in a year. Since so many people who don't really need wheelchairs/scooters are getting them covered by Medicare, my husband for the first time had to go to a wheelchair clinic and had an evaluation done by a PT who is an idiot. She should know better than to assume all people needing wheelchairs don't have the same requirements. As long as I've known my husband, he has always had a Quickie GP. The PT recommended a Ti Lite TA. It was way too light for him. About 30 lbs less than he's used to. He felt more disabled in the Ti-Lite than ever and it was a couple of thousand more than a Quickie GP. Everything on the Ti-Lite was so different and to add insult to injury we were dealing with an idiot salesman with the wheelchair company. He brought the wheelchair to our home because we got so tired of running all the way to downtown Phoenix due to the sales dude's mistakes. Well, when he brought the chair, it didn't have breaks, or push rims and instead of having independent foot pedals, he had one plate to rest his feet on and it was bolted on backwards. So the chair had to be taken back to get everything changed. After 2 months of trying to use this chair, we finally talked to the owner of this company mainly b/c the salesman wouldn't return calls. We got the owner to swap out the Ti-Lite for a Quickie GP. My husband was in the mode of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." He is used to getting himself dressed in the Quickie GP and couldn't get dressed w/o my help in the Ti-Lite. Finally after 2 months the Quickie was delivered and we think it might have been a reject. My husband tends to be passive and I am a bulldog. The times he went up to have things repaired, they would just tell him, "That's all we can do." On swing away foot pedal wouldn't lock in place unless it was swung hard, the push rims weren't spaced far enough and my husband couldn't get his thumbs in between to propel himself, instead of plastic clips to hold the back in place they were made of metal and scratching the crap his back. Finally, I went up to the co. with my hubby, got the owner and said, “this is bullshit.” “The chair needs to be repaired and work like a new chair should, and you guys made a lot of money by swapping this chair out, so we’ll wait while the repairs are made correctly.” They did some grinding so the foot pedal locks like it should, miraculously found some plastic clips for the backrest and found some spacers for the rims so my husband could easily put his thumbs in between the tire and push rims. So we thought everything was fixed. About 2 weeks ago, my husband who uses his push rims to push himself up to transfer almost fell out of his chair b/c one of the push rims came off. I took one look at the screws and saw they used the wrong type on one side. They used wood screws with a flared head. We were surprised they lasted this long. Luckily my husband works for a hardware warehouse and was able to get a coworker to put the correct screws on. But you can bet I called the owner about this crap.
Medicare is unbelievable when it comes to what they feel is a luxury vs necessity. They would not cover the push rims on my husband’s chair (they feel it’s not medically necessary) and we ordered an extra pair of push rims b/c they tend to get torn up fast. Also, we ordered an extra cushion cover for his Jay cushion. Sometimes he may have a bowel accident and I'm able to clean his chair and put a new cover on while cleaning the original. We live in AZ and I did a lot of research after we first moved here and found out Vocational Rehab (every State has one) would pay for anything my husband needed to be able to work. So Voc Rehab paid the remainder of what Medicare wouldn't pay. My husband's work insurance doesn't cover med. equip. or phys. therapy. You may want to check with Voc Rehab in your State to see if they can help you pay for your chair. If they don't do that sort of thing, I'm sure they can refer you to an agency that can.
When you order your chair, get a copy of the order and be sure everything you discussed is on this order form and be very specific, even if the salesperson has to hand write on all copies. Have the list with you when you get the chair to be sure everything is in order and inspect the chair for anything that may look goofy. I never imagined a repair dept. would use wood screws on metal push rims, so I never thought to check out the screws. Also, if there are any bolts that your skin may come close to coming in contact with, be sure they have plastic caps for them. You don't want to keep scratching yourself. It's hard enough to heal with poor circulation. Lastly, be sure the company you are working with is willing to swap the wheelchair with a different one in case your new one doesn't work for you. I believe Medicare will cover a chair every 5 years and you don't want to be stuck with a chair that's not good for you for that long.
Also in regards to Voc Rehab, we have a fantastic counselor who was able to pressure the salesman into getting my husband’s chair quicker. Voc Rehab is paying for the conversion of my husband’s new van, which is being worked on now. Hopefully we’ll get it in about a week. Hope this helps.
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