Kendall, Have you looked at the Bounders and the Quantum line of chairs? What about the Frontier X5?  They're good chairs...

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 10:14:10 -0600
>From: "Kendall D. Corbett" <[log in to unmask]>  
>Subject: Re: Sad - Demise of the IBot  
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>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
>>
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>
>
>-- 
>
>
>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
>
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