Posted on 03/09/2013 3:26:53 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Late Friday afternoon, The Scooter Store's chief executive notified employees that — effective immediately, but “with certain exceptions” — they'd been placed on unpaid furlough.
In an email, CEO Martin “Marty” Landon told employees not to return to work unless they receive notice from the company's human resources department.
The Scooter Store, one of the nation's largest suppliers of power wheelchairs and scooters, had about 1,800 workers as of last month. That's following the announcement in February that it had cut 150 positions.
About 1,200 employees worked out of its New Braunfels headquarters.
The furloughs came a little more than two weeks after federal agents executed a search warrant at the company's headquarters, presumably as part of an investigation into Medicare and Medicaid fraud....
(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...
Say what you want,but my mother needed one,couldnt afford one any other way,and they got her one.It has greatly increased her quality of life.Shame on all of you for castigating something that actually helped our seniors.
I have a problem with people who rely on government. I have a bigger problem with businesses that rely on government.
What exactly does a business do when it can't get enough income from tax dollars? They certainly do not know how to be competitive in the free market, so it must they must turn to fraud, graft or corruption.
I’ve been seeing these commercials for years and always suspected there was a lot fraud involved. People wanting scooters not because they needed they, but ‘cause they were “free”. And the Scooter Store is all too happy to help.
Any outfit with their apparent marketing strategy - ie 'selling' their stuff to folks predicated on YOUR money paying for it - is not one most of us can admire.
And any employee not having given the matter enough thought to understand that elemental tort is very likely someone I'd not tolerate much time around on an average day.
.. your mother’s case likely being one of the limited exceptions proving the rule, imho.
Yep, “no cost to you” ... I remember the unstated subtitle was “We’ll bill your grandchildren for it”.
Their advertising sucked, and I am sure we bought a lot of them with tax money, but a lot of people are going to miss them when they are gone.
As Dr. Walter Williams put it, “In order for one person to get a thing without paying for it, another person must pay for that thing without getting it.”
If your mother needed one, why didn’t you buy it for her?
Why are you making me buy it for her?
I don’t think the grandkids are going to be too happy when the bill for all this crap comes due. When they find out that 75% of their income (whether tax, inflation or whatnot) goes to service the debt, I wonder if eating or keeping Granpa alive at the home until he is 110 is going to seem like the most pressing problem
just wait, all the companies that advertise on tv for respiratory meds/supplies and diabetic meds/supplies will be the next ones to have the feds arrive at the door.
a neighbor got one of those scooters, the next month he had a massive coronary hear attack and passed away. the family got the bill and refused to pay it. the house and all his possessions are just sitting there, no heat, water or electricity, mail piling up and the scooter is still in the garage. taxes unpaid too.
Not that they didn't have hc providers who served as accomplices. Their systematic policies and procedures in clear violation of standards and practices established for contracting with CMS as a DME provider came from the top from the outset of their operations. And they, along with dubious immigrant opportunists, sullied and spurred consolidation of an industry once rife with small and medium businesses in the process.
That it took so long to move on this when evidence of their malfeasance was abundant, ought to cause people to ask a lot of questions. Especially of CMS and their various administrative agencies (there were three over this timeframe in just one jurisdiction in which they contracted), who were positioned to scrutinize every single claim before payout, many of which were flagged for audit. How I know that is a long story, but I knew what the provider guidelines and standards were and watched them systematically violate most of them.
My mother worked her entire life,her husband worked his entire life,Im working.Our taxes helped buy her scooter.I and my 5 children struggle to make it without governmant assistance.Youre a sick person to jump on my family because my mother needed a scooter and the scooter store got her one.ESAD “eat Sh@t and Di%”
I used to work for a supposed "Christian" home health care agency in central Indiana. I won't name it here (but I will FreepMail anyone with the name if they want to know) but they got an extra $120,000 one year and said it was a "blessing from God." The company president pocketed $100,000 of it and gave the rest to someone else I won't name here.
Turns out it was a Medicare/Medicaid billing error. When the US Government came asking for it back, instead of those two giving it back, they made the company take it out of it's earnings. Some employees were let go/fired/terminated because they knew the company president committed fraud/theft, confronted him/her on it, and they wouldn't own up to it. I was fired a few months later because I found out about it.
I know what ESAD means.
If your mother had stuck a knife in my ribs to demand money to buy herself a scooter, she’d rightly go to prison for robbery.
It’s no less dishonorable when she votes to have the government do it on her behalf.
Your mother is a recipient of stolen goods, and you heartily approve.
The scooter store didn’t get her a scooter; the taxpayers of the US got her one. At gunpoint.
I think most folks would rather be able to walk around normally under their own strength.
The fraud estimates for Medicare and Medicaid are both around $100 billion per year now, and that includes a hell of a lot more than scooters. Every aspect of those programs has been, is being defrauded, and the most guilty are those billing for services not needed or even rendered, and for some who are creating fraudulent paperwork to obtain scooters and a vast array of other medical products that won't really be used as stated on paperwork.
Sure, The Scooter Store tries to create a demand for their product through ads (ever seen any ads for drugs, people?), but I doubt many people who don't need them are applying for them just so they can ride around on one. I think most would prefer to walk normally.
Youre a sad excuse for a human being.Her scooter cost you exactly 1cent worth of taxes,give me youre address so i can mail you youre penny.ESAD Hoping someday you or a member of youre family needs help so we can send you a second penny you miserable excuse for a freeper.Again I say ESAD.
Thank you for making it abundantly clear you and your family are parasites.
You really need to stop before you embarrass yourself any more.
I doubt it. Those are pretty well legit and do save everyone involved money. It would basically be the same as a mail order pharmaceutical company. Some stuff in the way of medical supplies is easier to order on line. My wife orders ostomy supplies from a company we've doing business with over 25 years. We know the owner.
When she needs a wheelchair we do go to a reputable dealer. If you don't it can literally cost tens of thousands of dollars more in medical bills. We short cutted on a motorized wheelchair to try and hold down Medicare cost. One pressure sore caused by the wheelchair ate the cost difference up real fast then some.
Really anyone needing a wheelchair or a scooter for that matter should be professionally fitted for one by a Physical Therapist and let the therapist coordinate through your doctor & the dealer your needs. Wheelchairs should be built custom for the patient. My wife got a new chair about two years ago a Permobil motorized chair with a tilt back seat. The therapist and dealer told her it would likely last 20 years plus it was cheaper. She's 62. She got over ten years use out of a Jazzy. Most motorized wheelchairs 7 years is usually it as far as repair vs replacement cost.
Medicare/Medicaid should have been watching The Scooter Store closer. Any Medicare/Medicaid wheelchair even a manual one should be prescription only.
Most doctors have better things to do with their time than writing out mounds of paperwork required to justify the purchase. This is true even with doctors working at spinal rehab centers but they do it for patient necessity. I'm guessing Scooter Store may have had their own doctors perhaps?
How do you know how much it cost him?
There are other ways, I remember even seeing those commercials as a kid thinking it was wrong.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.