patrick.net

Tagg Team: The Romney Family Recipe for Crony Capitalism

"Take Leder, Romney’s Boca Raton host, whose Sun Capital firm bought a stake in the Scooter Store last year. The company, known for its ubiquitous television ads promising seemingly free motorized wheelchairs for Medicare beneficiaries, has struggled as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that governs the programs, implements rules to curb rampant billing fraud. As a CMS report noted last year, 80 percent of the claims for scooters and power wheelchairs did not meet Medicare requirements, meaning that $492 million a year is being improperly spent."

I live about an hour away from New Braunfels. Looks like a scam to me.

Meanwhile my wounded warriors here at the Audie Murphy VAMC do without many things.

A scooter or motorized wheelchair can do wonders for a person who has extremely limited mobility. But they've handed out these puppies like they're free.

I guess they were... kinda.

I think any time there is a private company guaranteeing a Government benefit to anyone, should be investigated.
Let's face it, they don't get rich, by making sure it's all legit.

With no pay checks, how are all those Scouter Store employees going to pay their lawyers to stay out of jail?

I know someone who got one of these because it was "free" to them. they never used it.

CaptainShuddup says

I think any time there is a private company guaranteeing a Government benefit to anyone, should be investigated.

Let's face it, they don't get rich, by making sure it's all legit.

If we want Medicare and Medicaid fraud investigated and prosecuted seriously, we have to be willing to pay for it. That requires tax money. When libertarians talk about 'small government', the folks that do this type of work for the government are at or near the top of this list for furloughs and layoffs themselves.

Looks like they might go out of business. I wonder how their clients will get their warranties honored now?

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/Scooter-Store-could-close-its-headquarters-by-4382278.php

Not to mention the class action lawsuits over all of those squashed toes.

one of my patients (a long time ago) hit a couple of chairs in an ice cream shop and drug them down the hall. it was frickin' hilarious.

futuresmc says

When libertarians talk about 'small government', the folks that do this type of work for the government are at or near the top of this list for furloughs and layoffs themselves.

These are the people that should have all government jobs.
When an adult applies for a government job, the background check, should include how many times have lodge a complaint with police and value of the tip off they provided. The bigger the nosy do goodder bitch the better the chances they get the job. People that have 0 community minded activities, and let everything slide and have never lodged a police report of any type, should never once be considered.

Hall monitors from school should grow up to work in Government.
Especially the ones that had it rough in school and got a ton of shit from everyone. They really have a pious axe to grind.

http://news.yahoo.com/scooter-ads-face-scrutiny-govt-doctors-141816931--finance.html

Members of Congress say the ads lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary spending by Medicare, which is only supposed to pay for scooters when seniors are unable to use a cane, walker or regular wheelchair. Government inspectors say up to 80 percent of the scooters and power wheelchairs Medicare buys go to people who don't meet the requirements. And doctors say more than money is at stake: Seniors who use scooters unnecessarily can become sedentary, which can exacerbate obesity and other disorders.

The Scooter Store and Hoveround, both privately held companies that together make up about 70 percent of the U.S. market for scooters, spent more than $180 million on TV, radio and print advertising in 2011, up 20 percent since 2008, according to advertising tracker Kantar Media. Their ads often include language that the scooters can be paid for by Medicare or other insurance: "Nine out of ten people got them for little or no cost," states one Hoveround ad.

Sounds like more corporate welfare to me.

they're right; I've seen seniors become sedentary due to having scooters.

The other thing is that these items have non-transferrable warranties, rendering the items useless once the original owner dies. A used scooter (one that's been driven off the lot...) is worth about $250 or so due to the warranty issue.

So seniors will go for a scooter/electric wheelchair from a medical equipment company via Medicare/secondary insurance rather than to buy a used one. Even if the co-payment is $1,200 or so, as long as the companies take payments seniors are sucked into buying the new models.

Medicare/Medicaid should only provide motorized wheelchairs when a patient can't walk and can't propel a regular wheelchair. It's not just the physicians committing fraud by prescribing them, the physical therapy evaluation is also fraudulent. The providers (scooter store/hoverround) pay $$$ to therapists to perform evaluations.

The physical therapist isn't working for the patient, he's working for the scooter/wheelchair company.

Lovely.

Vicente:

You do have a point!!!!

elliemae says

A used scooter (one that's been driven off the lot...) is worth about $250 or so due to the warranty issue.

I'm pretty sure that the used value of a scooter is pretty close to scrap value. I've seen them on Craigslist and they don't seem to sell.

NO body ever accused Vincent of posting Photoshopped pictures.

Sorry I couldn't resist. ;P

They are mostly for people who never learned to stop eating.

zzyzzx says

I'm pretty sure that the used value of a scooter is pretty close to scrap value. I've seen them on Craigslist and they don't seem to sell.

Yea, they're lucky they sell at all.