Does Medicare pay for an electric scooter, power wheelchair or lift chair ?
Medicare has certain coverage criteria that must be met before they will pay for equipment. For a scooter or power chair to be considered medically necessary, all of the following coverage criteria must be met: – Your condition is such that a wheelchair is required for you to get around in your home, You are unable to operate a manual wheelchair, – You are capable of safely operating the controls of the scooter or power chair, and – In addition, a patient who requires a scooter usually cannot perform functional ambulation skills and has limited strength or use of the upper extremities. The patient should also have adequate trunk stability to “hold” themselves upright in the seat. Note: An individual who requires a power wheelchair is totally non-ambulatory and has severe weakness of the upper extremities that prevents them from self-propelling in a manual wheelchair.
