Electric chair warning for Mcare denial

Electric chair warning for Mcare denial

Joan Cestaro

7/16/2001

Thank you, Mr. McFarland, for your warning and advice. I have recently
had a close call with an electric wheelchair incident. I delivered a
prosthesis to a bilateral lady who had lost her other leg one year
prior. She was doing well with her unilateral prosthesis and did quite
well during the fittings for her other side as a bilat. The therapist
called me as a follow-up one week later and inquired about payment for
an electric wheelchair. What electric wheelchair? I inquired.
Apparently, she had ordered the chair at the same time she ordered the
prosthesis just in case she needed it later. Thankfully, I was able
to stop/cancel the wheelchair order, otherwise, I may have lost
thousands of dollars on the recently delivered prosthesis.

Medicare definitely sees the electric wheelchair as the end to
ambulation. In the future, I will certainly ask this not often thought
of question. And yes, the prescribing MD has a letter on the way.

Sincerely,
Joan Cestaro, C.P.

-----Original Message-----
From: Orthotics and Prosthetics List [mailto:<Email Address Redacted>] On
Behalf Of Randall McFarland, CPO
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 11:06 AM
To: <Email Address Redacted>
Subject: [OANDP-L] Medicare denial

Hi List members,
   For your information we had an appeal recently denied because we
delivered
an elastic knee support to a client who has a Medicare-provided electric
wheelchair. Medicare states that the wheelchair was provided because the
person is not ambulatory, so it would be inappropriate for them to pay
for
something that is for ambulation.
    Be careful when providing certain services to clients who have
electric
wheelchairs!

Randy McFarland, CPO