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Lynn Gonzales
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HHS OIG Omits Data Essential for Accurate Evaluation of Medicare Program's Power Wheelchair Costs:
Recently, the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a study entitled "Power Wheelchairs in the Medicare Program: Supplier Acquisition Costs and Services." 
In its study, the OIG suggests that because Medicare pricing for power wheelchairs is nearly four times the supplier?s acquisition cost, suppliers must be realizing excessive profits. Unfortunately, the study ignored the substantial costs related to providing power wheelchairs to Medicare beneficiaries.
The OIG report should have been conducted to help better understand all the costs suppliers incur to provide Medicare beneficiaries with power mobility solutions. Armed with that type of insight, CMS and the suppliers could potentially make changes that would lower the cost of providing healthcare. That would represent true health care reform.
Our criticisms include:
- There was no analysis of benchmark or average gross margins in healthcare or other industries to determine whether the findings of the report were normal or atypical.
- There was no attempt to understand the profitability of the providers or the efficiencies of providers to highlight opportunities.
- The report was not inaccurate, but it was incomplete and misleading.
The report ended up being of little value to CMS or suppliers; therefore, it was a waste of taxpayer's money. It succeeded in providing critics of power mobility a sound bite to sensationalize in today's healthcare debate.
Here are links to responses from industry leaders:
