Seniors 'brainwashed' by controversial scooter ads, doctor says

[The Straight Story]

TV ads show smiling seniors enjoying an "active" lifestyle on a motorized scooter, taking in the sights at the Grand Canyon, fishing on a pier and high-fiving their grandchildren at a baseball game.

The commercials, which promise freedom and independence to people with limited mobility, have driven the nearly $1 billion U.S. market for power wheelchairs and scooters. But the spots by the industry's two leading companies, The Scooter Store and Hoveround, also have drawn scrutiny from doctors and lawmakers, who say they create the false impression that scooters are a convenient means of transportation rather than a medical necessity.

Members of Congress say the ads lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary spending by Medicare, which is only supposed to pay for scooters when seniors are unable to use a cane, walker or regular wheelchair. Government inspectors say up to 80 percent of the scooters and power wheelchairs Medicare buys go to people who don't meet the requirements. And doctors say more than money is at stake: Seniors who use scooters unnecessarily can become sedentary, which can exacerbate obesity and other disorders.

"Patients have been brainwashed by The Scooter Store," says Dr. Barbara Messinger-Rapport, director of geriatric medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. "What they're implying is that you can use these scooters to leave the house, to socialize, to get to bingo."

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/28/17504698-seniors-brainwashed-by-controversial-scooter-ads-doctor-says?lite

[Cirque du So-What]

1. I blame Seinfeld

[tabbycat31]

2. I see those ads and think "scam" immediately

I read the comments in the article and they seemed to agree.

[patrice]

3. I wonder how many memberships to fitness clubs that do elder exercise programs all of that money

would have bought.

[ThoughtCriminal]

4. Scooters are important

for riding them to the Tea-Bagger rally and demand that "The government to stay out of MY Medicare!!"

[FLyellowdog]

5. I don't understand...

"Government inspectors say up to 80 percent of the scooters and power wheelchairs Medicare buys go to people who don't meet the requirements."

If these people don't meet the requirements, how are they getting approved?

[Auntie Bush]

6. I was wondering that too.

Don't they have to get a Drs. prescription saying they needed one?

Well this is one scam Obama can stop to cut costs on Medicare and medicaid.

[Codeine]

7. The Scooter Store fills out the paperwork for you,

and they know just what to say to get you approved. They exaggerate, obfuscate, and misrepresent the medical needs of their clients in order to make the sale -- the senior gets his chair, the Scooter Store gets a check, and the government pays the bill.

[olddots]

8. My step dad had one and it was too fast

I had to crazy glue the speed control because he flipped it twice going too fast on smooth floors .
I think they are sold in true scam fashion and they require expensive means to cart them around.

Its a sign of the times =scamming the aged .

[Codeine]

9. Too fast?

Damn -- now I want one.

[octoberlib]

10. There's a Romney connection , of course

Take Leder, Romney’s Boca Raton host, whose Sun Capital firm bought a stake in the Scooter Store last year. The company, known for its ubiquitous television ads promising seemingly free motorized wheelchairs for Medicare beneficiaries, has struggled as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that governs the programs, implements rules to curb rampant billing fraud. As a CMS report noted last year, 80 percent of the claims for scooters and power wheelchairs did not meet Medicare requirements, meaning that $492 million a year is being improperly spent.

In 2007, the Scooter Store gave up $13 million in Medicare payments and paid $4 million to settle with the Justice Department over allegations that it had overbilled for its electric wheelchairs. The company, which has been bleeding money over the years as regulators moved to curb waste, still faces challenges that could make or break its business model—challenges that could be mitigated by pressure from the executive branch.

Leder, who has donated nearly $300,000 to Romney and other Republicans in this campaign and another $225,000 to a pro-Romney Super PAC, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Disclosures, however, suggest that pressuring the government is the only way his investment in the Scooter Store can turn a profit.
Since Leder’s firm invested in the Scooter Store, the company has spent nearly $900,000 on lobbyists to push back on these two latest challenges to its motorized-scooter empire.

http://www.thenation.com/article/170470/tagg-team-romney-family-recipe-crony-capitalism#