Thursday, February 20, 2014

Thursday Morning Beach Report/Report from Pillville


Sanderlings before flight

Sanderlings take flight
white bellies flashing, then swoop
A turn to gray backs.

I learned the ins and outs of medical equipment rental today. Medicare awards contracts through a bidding process to the businesses that provide this stuff. I thought I could swoop into any medical equipment rental place with the prescriptions that the doctor had written and simply make arrangements to have a hospital bed, a bedside tray table, and a wheel chair delivered, and Medcare would cover it. Nope. And it turns out that the place with the Medicare contract in my area has beds, but no wheelchairs. They have the contract for both, but are "out of chairs and won't get any more." I'm still trying to unravel what that means--and will find out--if the place calls me back. They've never heard of anyone getting a bedside table.

The way we handle health care in this country never ceases to puzzle me. How do old people ever figure this stuff out?




5 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Oh, Lord. Cue Karen Carpenter: "We've only just begun!"

A said...

Elizabeth's correct, though I'd rather cue Patti Smith singing the too rarely proven People Have the Power; there's an awful lot that needs fixing. There are online wheelchair sites(eg spinlife dot com) with many models for which Medicare can be billed, but it's really nice to have some input about what to choose, and sources for repairs.

ain't for city gals said...

That is the one difference of Hospice and home health care...we had hospice for my dad for six months...they took care of all of that for us! They even had a little place you could go and get what you needed. They just couldn't do enough for us! The one thing that came in super handy is a bar (that the base slips in between the mattress) and it helps the person get out of bed by them self.

Ms. Moon said...

How does ANYONE figure this stuff out?
Oh honey.

N2 said...

A-mazed once again by the American "Health Care" System. And not in a good way. Stay strong. x0 N2