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Today, Fight for your Medical Equipment Rights by listening to a Webinar about Drastic Medicare Cuts,
ON THURSDAY, Call Congress!
Marilyn Hamilton (The founder and inventor of quickie wheelchairs) is leading a national campaign to stop the cutback for Medicare Reimbursements on Power Wheelchairs. This drastic budget cut is targetted at the most basic needs of any human being - the right to move, independently. While the cost of everything - from Gas to Food, the government wants to cut spending for the most severely physically disabled folks. The people who need and benefit the most from powered mobility, are often the least able to afford it, due to disability, poverty, or other factors. The fact that most powered chairs are priced at over 10 grand, (A manual lightweight chair can easily cost 5 grand.)
Medicare dispursement rates are often used by private insurance (and state run, like Maine's Dirigo Plan) to set their own reimbursement rates. So it will effect other folks besides those on Medicare. It will also stunt future research and development on a myriad of other Adaptive or Assistive Mobility Equipment. Critical technology which would filter down in subsequent generations of cheaper chairs will not be developed,
This may afect you now, but as we all age, even those paralympians are going to want to give their torn rotator cuffs a break. Sunrise Medical (the company which now owns Quickie and some other chair brands) is sponsoring the event, but Marilyn Hamilton (who actually retired from Sunrise) is one of the disability rights movement's legends and whose history mirrors the DRM's history.
The webinar is Today at 2 pm - But there will be an archive of the Webinar on sunrisemedical.com and probably on my site as well as others, (still pending...) For info on the webinar about how Competitive Bidding will impact consumers
Register Here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/144768277
-May 21st, National Call in, voice your concerns and request help to
carve out complex rehab from competitive bidding
The webinar will more than likely give this out - but the # is (202) 224-3121.
The sponsor list may be completely out of date - but a bunch of good folks are partnering with Sunrise Medical.:
-ADAPT
-American Association of People with Disabilities
-America Paraplegia Society
-Boston Medical Center
-Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation
-Kennedy-Krieger
-National Council on Independent Living
-National Spinal Cord Injury Association
-United Spinal Association
-Self Advocates Becoming Empowered
-Shepherd Center
-Paralyzed Veterans Association
-Uppity Disability dot Net
-ILUSA.com
for more detailed info check out Sunrise Medical's website.
More Info soon.
