Why motorized wheelchairs?
Because big profits make the motorized wheelchair a high fraud item. Companies like MME who buy in bulk can make thousands of dollars in profit on the chairs in Medicare reimbursement. The more chairs they sell, the more money they make. How did they find customers? Illegally, of course. The reps would buy confidential patient information from medical facilities, then literally show up at a patient’s doorstep claiming their equipment will help the person’s medical condition. And a number of doctors, including one with a suspended medical license, reportedly received kickbacks for either referring patients to the reps, or for unlawfully signing a certificate of medical necessity after patients’ primary physicians refused to sign one. Who alerted the feds? An on-the-ball CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) contractor, Palmetto GBA, charged with overseeing Medicare durable medical equipment claims discovered that MME had jumped from 1882nd to 358th place nationwide in motoriz
