Trimming Costs
CNN found a good candidate: One wheelchair — one lesson of problems in health care reform
SACRAMENTO, California (CNN) — Debbie Brown used to process medical and dental forms for a living before a debilitating illness forced her into early disability retirement and left her in a simple, no-frills wheelchair — a rented wheelchair that has cost taxpayers about $1,200.
Brown says the public should be outraged about her wheelchair.
Why? She says she could buy a comparable wheelchair on the Internet for $440 if she had the money. It sounded hard to believe that her rented, $1,200 taxpayer-funded wheelchair could be bought for $440, so CNN decided to check — and instead found an even better deal.
CNN went to the same company that charges Medicare for Brown’s chair, Apria Healthcare, and bought it for $349 — about a fourth of what taxpayers’ have paid for Brown’s rented wheelchair.
It is the same for almost everything that Medicare leases from these companies. I know because my Mother is on Medicare and they paid to lease a nebulizer for a month. My Mother thought the $75 was too much, so she asked me what it would cost to buy one. I found one made by the same company that was smaller, quieter, and more compact for $50 plus $5 shipping and bought it so she could turned the leased machine in before the month was out. She doesn’t use one every day, it is only necessary if she gets a bad cold. Paying $75/month was outrageous, but you can’t buy a serious nebulizer from anyone in town.
I went looking for a wheelchair after reading the article and a couple of sites marked the chairs that were “approved” for Medicare. While you can get a really good wheelchair for under $500, all of the Medicare chairs were twice that. Not only were the Medicare chairs more expensive, they were all heavier than modern chairs. I worked with a local advocacy group and have seen a lot of wheelchairs, including some very expensive carbon-fiber sports models. Folding wheelchairs don’t need to be heavy or uncomfortable.
The leasing of medical equipment is definitely an area where Medicare savings can be realized.
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The leasing of medical equipment is definitely an area where Medicare savings can be realized.
oh very definitely. and after listening to friends’ experiences, i’d say the buying of medical equipment is another area where savings can be found.
.-= ´s last blog .. =-.
How to cut healthcare costs? Easy – just check who is making the big profits. Then eliminate all the HBOs, insurance companies and all the other big business parasites in their shiny new office buildings who don’t actually treat patients or provide medicines but who are making billions off of the health care of American citizens – or just tax them at 90% to pay for universal health care for all citizens.
Healthcare in the US is controlled by greedy un-regulated (“free market”) big business profiteers like HBOs and insurance companies who are only interested in making lots of money for their bottom lines and paychecks and to hell with stupid US consumers.
The healthcare ‘industry’ is the only one still making billions in profits in this economy.
Unfortunatly, US politicians, on both sides, are controlled by big money.
This is the most one sided article I may have ever read. Here are the facts that Mr. Griffin does not want you to know. Home Medical Equipment companies are going out of business because of not being able to make a profit. American Home Patient has 350 stores nationwide and declaired bankruptcy several years ago. In the last quarter of 2008 they lost 6 million dollars. In the first quarter of 2009 they lost 4.5 million dollars. Apria which is the largest provider of Home Medical Equipment in the Nation has only been able to achieve a 5 percent profit. Both of these companies are public and the salaries and bonuses and expenses are public information. They are well managed and their executives are not overpaid. If the medical equipment companies are getting rich, then why is no one interested in buying a medical equipment company. Sleazy reporters such as Drew Griffin are looking to write articles that inflame. He is not interested in the truth. Home Medical Equipment represents 1 percent of healthcare. Home Medical Equipment keep people at home and help prevent the need for them to go to Nursing Homes. Home Health Care is part of the solution to the health care crisis. IT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT THE PROBLEM. Why are Home Medical Equipment companies going out of business? Why is the stock of Home Medical Equipment dealers and manufacturers on a downward trend and has been for years. The truth is that the Drew Griffins of the world are either stupid or cruel. They are definately not interested in the truth. The article was misleading. What about these facts: A Medical Equipment Company has to keep the product in stock, has to meet government regulations, has to be accredited with trained personnel, has to maintain repair facilities, has to maintain inventory, has to chase medical documentation, has to bill insurance companies, has to deliver, and has to maintain/repair the item for the entire time the patient has the item. How about the fact that the Home Medical Equipment Company has to wait months, at times, to get paid. How about the fact that the government is forcing the Home Medical Equipment Companies to rent the equipment and when the equipment disappears because it is lost or stolen, the Home Medical Equipment Company has to eat the loss. If the Home Medical Equipment Companies are getting rich, then why are you not in the business. The price from the internet are for cash and no ongoing support. The price on the internet is the cost that most Medical Equipment Companies have to pay for the product themselves. Did the guy on the internet give the patient with no insurance a free wheelchair when it was needed? I doubt it. But, the Home Medical Equipment Company provides free equipment on a regular basis. Before you buy off on an idiot journalist just looking for headlines, you might want to follow Paul Harvey and get “The Rest of the Story”
Based on the pricing of “Medicare approved” equipment, I have to agree, Hipparchia, especially since I also looked at review sites and the Medicare stuff wasn’t as highly rated as much of the cheaper competitors.
WS, I agree with you, that the government is the best corporate money can buy. It doesn’t matter what voters want, only what the money people want.
Joel, Paul Harvey is dead, so I’m not interested in following him at the moment.
I am well aware of the difference between leasing and buying equipment, and who has the responsibility for repairs, based on warranties and lease agreements, but that doesn’t change the fact that leasing is almost never a more cost effective option than outright purchase where possible.
I’m not interested in ever working for the Federal government again, as I had a contract with a Federal agency in Southern California and they didn’t live up to their side of the contract, so I refused to even bid on Federal jobs at the end of that contract. It is rare for the Federal government to pay in less than 90 days, and generally no one counts on it for 120 days, and that lag has to be added to the cost of doing business with them.
I have no interest in becoming rich, as the thought of spawning a child like George W. Bush or Paris Hilton is too great a threat.
I’m sorry that your business plan isn’t working out, but 50% of all small businesses fail in the first 6 months, usually from over optimistic marketing plans.
The writer offered the company involved the opportunity to respond to the situation and they weren’t up to job. That reflects on them, not on the writer.
The point the writer was making, and I have made is that leasing is a bad idea. As a taxpayer I have a right to expect that good money management principles will be used when spending tax dollars. The only thing that leasing may have going for it is a tax advantage that is meaningless to a government agency.
I’ve got a brain storm !! Why don’t we make it against the law to defraud the U.S. goverment. If the fines were 3 times the amount overcharged with possible jail time for repeat offenders we might get our costs down. It is so easy to tell the citizens what we can do and not do,, how about fines for these thieves and some good ole American jail time for these crooks ? We could start with ploiticians that arefailing to look out for our best interest,,why are we having voice votes on any bill? Maybe so the politicians can get away with the same stuff without being held accountable. We are getting it from all sides and our elected officials are to busy grabbing all they can to read what they are passing or to protect the taxpayers. correcting this should be fast, easy, and very simple to do.
Of course this fraud happens with private insurers too. Thus the $150 aspirins at the hospitals, the $500 knee brace that was issued to me when I hurt my knee (that I can buy off eBay brand new for $50), and so forth. Our whole healthcare establishment is corrupt from top to bottom, and it’s going to take a strong central regulator that all expenditures go through to get it back under control, because otherwise providers just game the system to hide the fact they’re defrauding payers.
– Badtux the Fraud Penguin
.-= ´s last blog ..Why is health care so expensive? =-.
Frankly, I think Medicare needs to increase its administrative costs by hiring more investigators to get rid of the waste and fraud from health care providers. Congress also needs to stop interfering by forcing Medicare to cover procedures that border on quackery, with no research to show they work or are effective.