WASHINGTON – 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 critics who say they convince some seniors that they need a scooter to get around when many don’t.

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 as a medical necessity 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 that 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.”

The scooter controversy, which has escalated with a raid by federal authorities on The Scooter Store’s New Braunfels, Texas, headquarters last month, underscores the influence that TV ads can have on medical decisions. Like their peers in the drug industry, scooter companies say direct-to-consumer advertising educates patients about their medical options. But critics argue that the scooter spots are little more than sales pitches that cause patients to pressure doctors to prescribe unnecessary equipment.

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The Scooter Store and Hoveround, both privately held companies that together make up about 70 percent of the U.S. market for scooters, spent more than $180 million on TV, radio and print advertising in 2011, up 20 percent from 2008, according to advertising tracker Kantar Media. Their ads often include language that the scooters can be paid for by Medicare or other insurance: “Nine out of ten people got them for little or no cost,” states one Hoveround ad.

Hoveround did not respond to a half-dozen requests for comment. The Scooter Store, the nation’s biggest seller of scooters, said that most people who contact the company after seeing the ads do not ultimately receive a scooter.

“The fact that 87 percent of the persons who seek power mobility products from The Scooter Store under their Medicare benefits are disqualified by the company’s screening process is powerful evidence of the company’s commitment to ensuring that only legitimate claims are submitted to Medicare,” the company said in a statement. The Scooter Store has been operating with a streamlined staff in recent days, following massive layoffs in the wake of the raid by federal agents.

Insurance executives say doctors who don’t understand when Medicare is supposed to pay for scooters are partly to blame for unnecessary purchases.

Scooters — which are larger than power wheelchairs and often include a handlebar for steering — are covered by Medicare if they are prescribed by a doctor who has completed an evaluation showing that a patient is unable to function at home without a device.

The doctor fills out a lengthy prescription form and sends it to a scooter supplier that delivers the device to the patient and then submits the paperwork to Medicare for payment. Medicare pays about 80 percent of that cost, which can range from $1,500 to $3,500. The remainder is often picked up by supplemental insurance or the government-funded Medicaid program for low-income and disabled Americans.

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The process can help immobile seniors get equipment that improves their lives. Ernest Tornabell of Boynton Beach, Fla., received a scooter from Pride, a smaller manufacturer, through Medicare about six years ago. Tornabell, 73, suffers from obesity, diabetes and lung disease and says he used to never leave his house. Now, using the scooter, he can walk his dog, go to the grocery store and run other errands.

“I couldn’t really get out and do anything before. Now I have a lot more mobility,” said Tornabell, whose doctor recommended that he get the device.

But Dr. Stephen Peake, medical director for the insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield in Tennessee, says doctors can often be as uninformed about the appropriate role of scooters as patients.

“I talk to a lot of physicians about this subject,” Peake said in testimony before the Senate Committee on Aging last year, “and after our discussions, they don’t understand that you can’t get a power mobility device so mom can go to the park with the family.”

 


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