Posted on 08/16/2014 8:40:54 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The government has paid billions to buy power wheelchairs. It has no idea how many of the claims are bogus.
LOS ANGELES — In the little office where they ran the scam, a cellphone would ring on Sonia Bonilla’s desk. That was the sound of good news: Somebody had found them a patient.
When Bonilla answered the phone, one of the scam’s professional “patient recruiters” would read off the personal data of a senior citizen. Name. DOB. Medicare ID number. Bonilla would hang up and call Medicare, the enormous federal health-insurance program for those over 65.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Disney had to stop buses for 10 minutes EVERY time I went anywhere for these things.
Mostly they were for fat people apparently too lazy to walk. Sad to say, but it sure seemed like it. As it does in those sad times I visit Walmart.
Even for fat people, walking is a lot less unwieldy than a scooter — IF they can do it. Ever tried to get a scooter in the microscopically narrow aisles of a Wal-Mart?
Maybe the fatness brought on their disability but I would be loath to sling a too ready judgment at them.
Besides... in the fraud being discussed here, a whole lot of the scooters weren’t even getting used.
I guess I live a sheltered life, I had no idea this was a big scam. I have only personally known one person that had a scooter; she needed it and paid for it herself. I would help her go shopping when I went to visit her and she had a lift for it on her car. It was a pain but gave her mobility so was worth it. I don’t remember seeing other people with them, but I guess nearly all of them in the scams were not being used. My severely handicapped grandson had a motorized wheel chair but he desperately needed it. He had the motor skills of a barely crawling infant and never developed past that point.
In a small town near me there was a man that drove one all over town, he was dangerous because he would dart out in the street like a kid on a bike. His scooter was bright red and it was a good thing or someone would have mowed him down. I assume it was his only means of transportation so if his was part of the scam at least he did use it.
There is a guy in my neighborhood with one of these chairs who insists on driving in the street even though there are sidewalks with curb cuts.
Most annoying.
.
How wide the scooter/narrow the sidewalk?
If not annoying car drivers, then annoying pedestrians?
Sometimes you can’t win.
“It has no idea how many of the claims are bogus.”
Hey! Leave me outa this! I don;’t have a scooter!
Bogie
Very wide sidewalks-—and you are right.
Sometimes you can’t win.:-)
.
Now there’s a company that repairs these things and they advertise that Medicare will pay for the repairs.
I always HATED those ads. “No cost to you!” as if no one no where was being stuck with the bill. And I resented the seniors who thought that was a good idea.
Practically everyone I see riding these scooters are considerably overweight. The same goes for those using
the electric shopping carts in supermarkets.
They are a pain to use at W-M.
I have used them 3 times. The first was when I was 19 or 20 and had been sick for over two weeks and couldn’t even keep water down. The 2nd and 3rd times were 4 years ago. The 2nd was right after I got out of the hospital in April and the 3rd time was Black Friday about a month after I had spent two weeks in the hospital and I was still not able to walk/stand for long. That was a big mistake and I realized just how many rude assholes my town has that shop at W-M. I ditched the cart and suffered until I could get a normal cart to hang onto so I didn’t fall because my cane wasn’t enough.
That’s funny, I just went through trying to get a mobility scooter for my Mother, she was evaluated by her insurance medicare plan and approved. We were told that she would have to pay her share which would amount to $8oo. I told them to take a hike and got her a better scooter for $600. Ten or so years ago when we got my Dad one it cost them $200 out of pocket.
I bought my own scooter, and yes, I need it. As for blocking aisles I have to throttle back to keep from running over slow moving shoppers.
My scooter isn’t much wider than my shoulders.
” even though there are sidewalks with curb cuts”... I’ve always loved those as it relates to a waste of money. You see, they went in everywhere. It didn’t matter if there was a driveway every 30 feet. or less.
That would be the result of the Disability Act.
I know a Dr who’s giving everyone back braces. The cash price is $700 and medicare is billing $2500. Cam Walkers are $25 cash but is billed to medicare for $250-300. It’s a joke. Medicare will only pay a Dr $1500 for a hip replacement surgery.
That has been my experience as well.
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