There was a tell-all book published by an actual employee of The Scooter Store!!! http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Closed-Scooter-Employee-ebook/dp/B00BVMA58S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363570067&sr=8-1&keywords=behind+closed+doors+the+scooter+store

Actually, there are doctors and other providors that are not accepting new Medicare patients supposedly because they get reimbursed 30% of what they charge. My husband is on Medicare with Tricare for Life as a back up. Fortunately his doctor accepts both and we haven't had to pay another penny after the Medicare payment from the SS check.

Nurse Nick, I think you are delusional. The reason they will turn you away is because Aetna does not cover their cost. I'm involved in the DME business and Aetna is a useless insurance. For products that cost you $2,000 to acquire they want to pay you 1,800. You still have to maintain the equipment if something happens to it, pay personnel, technicians, yourself, taxes etc... It simply cost money to run a business and i think businesses should be reimbursed accordingly. The only this is a problem is because the government has to foot the bill and the funds are not there. There are some criminals out there, but we have been boxed into a corner so much that spitting on the sidewalk is illegal in DME.

NurseNick....you probably should research before you go listing DME companies as part of the problem. we have suffered a tragic loss due to companies like the Scooter Store & Hospice Agencies. agencies don't "seek out Medicare/Medicaid patient's b/c of higher reimbursements" either. Medicare/Medicaid patients are a nightmare to deal w/ b/c they have Medicare/Medicaid. there is no funding available for anyone needing help getting the supplies they need. most physicians don't deal w/ the hassle b/c there is little to very little reimbursements. we can thank all of the addicts, lazy non-working & the illegal aliens for fraudulently "milking the system for all its worth" & taking advantage of a broken system; that should have been restructured & reorganized years ago for this. DME companies nationally are suffering & taking a huge loss on repairs for equipment, providing equipment & maintaining equipment & NOT being reimbursed at all for some of it. the system itself is broken & by broken i mean broke. now the "obamacare" intrusion on healthcare is not at all going to make it any easier. there should be 1 allowable on all equipment (rental or purchase) & 1 allowable for repairs/maintenance. so many times i have seen people not care for their equipment paid for by medicare, & they fraudulently go to a company like the Scooter Store. they provide a new chair then in a year, they call my company back for repairs to their new chair. & we can't do anything for them, b/c they can't/won't pay out of pocket for a repair that is non covered. its sad its come to this, but DME providers (there are some, but not all) are NOT the issue, its people in general taking advantage

Unfortunately the "real" losers in this situation are the elderly and handicapped that depend on these scooters for mobility. My relative is on a fourth scooter--NOT from The Scooter Store--in about a dozen years simply because repairing the scooters isn't as affordable as buying a new one IF you can even find parts for the "older" model! Plus the additional requirements for vehicle lift, etc. And yes, I've been there when salespeople just push the new ones as they don't have the time/qualified staff/parts/etc to repair a used scooter. THAT's if they still carry the brand they carried 2-3 years ago! The Scooter Store started out as a real benefit to those who needed these devices. Somewhere along the line they forgot about those that put them on the map and started concentrating on ways to scam the system. Really too bad for those whose mobility has been immeasurably improved!

Socialism and croney capitalism go hand in hand. Companies like the Scooter Store sprout, grow, and become a cancer in our neo-socialist environment. Regardless of what is happening now the damage is done and the cash they stole from Medicare and taxpayers will never be recovered. It's spread amongst MILLIONS of persons at this point.

thats whate happen when you steel from your govermen! eric holder will go after you!

My prophesies come to pass. Maybe the feds read my post? Love it. http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/The-Scooter-Store-announces-more-layoffs/LgwUrxZxXUG40BK-akKVKw.cspx

And I should add, obviously the government has some culpability in this as well. They should analyze the average reimbursement rate and adjust there payments to stay comparable to private insurers. If I am paying $500 a month for my family's health insurance and a Physical Therapist would rather see a Medicaid patient than my child..... there is a problem!!! That child deserves good care just as much as my child no matter who the payor source is, but don't turn my family away because you get paid twice as much for the family that doesn't spend a penny on health care.

It's businesses such as this that made Medicare/ Medicaid reform necessary. As a nurse, voicing that opinion makes me quite unpopular, but unfortunately, it's true. If the home health & hospice agencies, hospitals, MDs, therapists and DME companies didn't milk the system for all it's worth, we wouldn't be in this mess. Most agencies seek out Medicare and Medicaid patients because they can pay up to 3 times the amount a private insurer will. Think about that..... THREE times as much!!! An OT bills the agency maybe $40- 55 dollars per visit. You have an insurance agency like Aetna or Humana that will pay 60-70 dollars for an OT. Medicaid will pay as much as $120 for that same visit. The agency is providing the same service, but making much more of a profit. An LVN can go out for a skilled nursing visit and get paid $20- 25 for a 30 minute visit. Humana differentiates between an LVN and RN and pays out about $35. Now, Medicare pays the same rate for ALL skilled nursing visits, it's about $90 per visit!!! Even if it is an LVN versus an RN (who gets $30- 35 per visit). The you have the fraudulent documentation there as well. Directors will instruct their employees to make sure there is an ongoing diagnosis to keep them eligible for assistance. They can hang on to these patients for years! I resigned from a position in a Post Acute Rehabilitation Center for that reason. The MDS Coordinator would review the cases as they were coming up on their 30 or 60 day certification periods. She would then ask the nurses to "reword" notes in order to recertify the patients. Many of these patients were healthy enough to go home and would benefit from outpatient therapy. However, the facility was so desperate to cling on to those high paying Medicare dollars, they kept them there way longer than medically necessary. If these companies weren't sponging the system dry, there wouldn't need to be the changes that are causing many to go uninsured.