Wheelchairs And Scooters

[Broken_Shell]

Hi,

I have gotten substantially more symptomatic and less able to stand and ambulate in the past year. Yesterday I went to look at frames for a new pair of glasses I need. I wasn't haven't one of those rare "good" days and wouldn't have gone out of the house except for the fact that my vision insurance benefits end on the last day of April, so I don't have much time to get the glasses ordered. I made a good attempt. I managed to practically crawl into the store and try on a few frames sitting in a chair, but then I started feeling too unwell to continue. It took me almost a half hour to make it back to the car (the glasses store unfortunately was in a mall without a door directly from the parking lot to the store, so I had to walk about 1/4 length of the mall). It was really scary and I have no clue how I made it out of the mall, but somehow I did. I was praying and walked a few steps at a time before resting and then trying again to go a little further. Once my mom and I managed to get me outside the mall, I crouched down and leaned against the wall while my mom pulled the car up to where I was waiting. I hate that it has come to this, but I think that I need to look into getting a wheelchair or scooter so that I can have a better chance of managing short errands because what I'm trying to just not working.

I am wondering, for those of you with wheelchairs or scooters...

Did you get a prescription from your doctor that was covered by insurance or government disability?

What was the out of pocket cost to you?

What type of wheelchair or scooter do you have?

I am looking for something that would be light or portable because my mom is my caretaker and she has physical limitations with her arm and back and won't be able to manage anything heavy or difficult to store or get in and out of the car.

Thank you in advance.

~ Broken_Shell

[jdqm]

I did get a script for both my wheelchairs. My insurance paid for both, but remember this. if you get the travel or manual first, the insurance will not pay for a scooter or power chair for at least one year possibly more depending on you r coverage. i am not sure what happens if you turn them both in at the same time though. i went to the local medical supply and left with my manual chair that day, but the power chair that i also have took a year to approve. that means if you have a down turn and need the power one sooner than you thought it could b a while before you get it. message me if im not clear enough on this im really tired today.

[morgan617]

Broken shell,

If you are on disability, you have to have part B. You need to go to a durable medical equipment store and they are very helpful. You must need to use a power chair in the home, not just for outside excursions. They assume someone can push you in a wheel chair.

I have a little tiny transport chair that weighs 15 pounds, folds up very small to fit in any car, and rolls really well. My insurance would not cover it, like they did the power chair, but they only cost a couple hundred dollars. For people like us, that's no small amount, but it has been well worth it. A transport chair has all small wheels, so someone has to push you. I do not have the stamina to push myself, so someone has to push me. But it has been a life saver more than once. The medical supply store you go to will have both things and have a lot of experience, as a rule, workng with insurnace, SSDI, and doctors. Good luck sweetie! morgan

[EarthMother]

My decision this year was to try a manual chair and see how much I can do on my own in a year's time. My SSDI was approved last month, so it will be another year until I qualify for medicare in any event.

The first thing I did was to rent a chair for a month. Then I could make notes and discuss it with my primary care physician. He agreed that a lightweight chair was something I should try, so he wrote a prescription for one to my medical insurance (HMO). The request was approved in another couple of weeks and my insurance arranged for a long term rental on a new manual chair.

As fate would have it, I lost my HMO insurance a couple of months after that and had to move on to a new plan with a very high deductible. At this point I had a few months under my belt with a manual chair and knew it was something I wanted to have for my own. So we decided to purchase a new chair out of pocket and then apply the cost to the high deductable on our new insurance plan.

Next year, I'll make another assessment to see if I the manual chair is working well for my needs. As my current home is two story with lots of levels (a step down here and there from kitchen to dining room to living room etc.) Neither a manual or power chair is an option for me inside the home. And given our tiny prius, I rather doubt we'd be able to fit a scooter or power chair in the hatch.

But as we all know ... there is no KNOWING what the future may bring! We just sit back and enjoy the ride (or wheelchair as the case may be) as best we can.

Good luck in your research and getting what you want that works for you!