ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is your responsibility to provide evaluation/justification"in response to a physician" requesting a wheelchair assessment.............not per request of a vendor. This vendor sounds very shady. If the vendor put the w/c out without funding......it is their loss and by no way your responsibility. I would educate the patient to complain to whoever their insurance/Medicare rep is if the vendor attempts to take their w/c away from them. May want to call Medicare Hotline and report suspicious vendor activity so they can be on the look out for possible fraud. It takes ALL of us to police this issue. Theresa
"Jenny Daup" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 02/05/2007 10:37 AM Please respond to OTlist To: <[email protected]> cc: Subject: [OTlist] ethical wheelchair question Here is an ethical question for all of you. -DME company dispenses a number of wheelchairs to clients with the promise that medicare or insurance will pay for them. - DME company then requests that an outpatient clinic send a therapist to evaluate clients for the wheelchairs that they already have and then file paperwork for medical necessity. Here is the clincher...the patients have had their wheelchairs for an extended length of time, anywhere from 6 months to 18 months! Many of the clients are openly hostile to the OT because they don't see a reason that she is there to do a "wheelchair evaluation". They are afraid she is going to take their wheelchair away. What do you think? Is it ethical to perform the eval "after the fact"? -- Options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] ************************************************************************************** Enroll in Boston University's post-professional Master of Science for OTs Online. Gain the skills and credentials to propel your career. www.otdegree.com/otn ************************************************************************************** -- Options? www.otnow.com/mailman/options/otlist_otnow.com Archive? www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] ************************************************************************************** Enroll in Boston University's post-professional Master of Science for OTs Online. Gain the skills and credentials to propel your career. www.otdegree.com/otn **************************************************************************************
