ACTION ALERT! Restore Access to Wheelchairs
March 2004

RESTORE ACCESS TO WHEELCHAIRS FOR SENIORS AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, MAKE CMS RESCIND ITS POLICY CLARIFICATION

In a December bureaucratic reaction to fraud in the power wheelchair industry, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a new policy clarification that severely limits access to wheelchairs.

The policy instructs the Durable Medical Equipment Regional Carriers (DMERCs) that if a "patient is able to walk either without any assistance or with the assistance of an ambulatory aid, such as a walker," the patient is considered ambulatory and is not entitled to coverage of a power mobility device - or even a manual wheelchair. This decision does nothing to prevent fraud. What it does is threaten the access of beneficiaries with legitimate mobility needs to these essential technologies.

We need you to help make this happen!! In order to create change we need to:

1. Send letters to the decision makers; and
2. Identify people who have had problems obtaining access to power and manual wheelchairs.

We urge you go to the ITEM Coalition Web site to send a letter to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, Acting CMS Administrator Dennis Smith and your Members of Congress telling them that this policy is wrong and must be rescinded. We need to raise our voices and demand that our nation's seniors and people with disabilities who need power and manual wheelchairs to be healthy, independent and fully functional continue to have access to these important mobility devices.

In addition, we need to demonstrate the problem by finding individuals - you or people you know - who have had difficulty obtaining manual and power wheelchairs. We welcome stories that are not directly related to the policy change, including those that help people understand the barriers presented by the "in the home" limitation under Medicare coverage policy.

Please submit your story. If you are willing to share your story as part of this effort's public education campaign, please include contact information, including your name and a phone number where we may reach you.

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