Kat,

I went through an eval for the IBOT last September, and was found to be a
nearly ideal fit for it.  I submitted it to my insurance company which
rejected it, because the stair climbing feature was a "luxury."  With
discounts I could have gotten an IBOT for $24K, and it would have done what
I needed.  In December I was still trying to secure other financing and
going through the appeals process with my insurance company when i received
the letter from Johnson and Johnson, who Dean Kamen had sold the marketing
and production rights to the IBOT to, that they were going to stop
production.  If I could secure funding by mid March, J&J would commit to
providing service through 2013.  Since I'd have had to go through
alternative financing to get the chair, I wasn't too concerned about getting
a new chair within the 5 year window that insurors typically use for
chairs.  What did concern me was with the state of the economy, would J&J
(and Independence Technologies) be able to stand by their commitment to
provide service through 2013?

I'm now looking at two other chairs:

1. A Levo C3, and ($30K) http://www.levousa.com/products/c3.html
2. A Permobil C500 Vertical Stander. ($38K)
http://www.permobilus.com/USA/Products/Rehab/C500-VS-/

The Levo easily climbs a 4" curb, but doesn't have full recline.  The
Permobil has full recline, which would be great for my pressure sore issues
and contractures and spasticity, but gets stopped by a 1.5" threshold.
Insurance looks more favorably on both of these chairs than they did the
IBOT, strictly because they don't climb stairs, even though the IBOT costs 6
to 14 thousand dollars less.  I pointed that out to the people at my
insurance company last fall, but they were still stuck on the stair climbing
feature, and the fact that their guidelines call that a "luxury."

I asked the utilization review person I talked to if she would consider it a
luxury to be able to go into her parents house to visit them and to help to
provide care for them.  Her only answer to that was to revert back to the
policy manual.  This is part of the reason that health care costs are as
high as they are.

OK, I'll step off my soapbox now...



On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 3:40 PM, Kathleen Salkin <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30929301/
>
> Kat
>
> -----------------------
>
> To change your mail settings or leave the C-PALSY list, go here:
>
> http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?SUBED1=c-palsy
>



-- 


Kendall

An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's redundant!)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

-George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950

-----------------------

To change your mail settings or leave the C-PALSY list, go here:

http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?SUBED1=c-palsy