Encourage your mobility patients to comment on seat elevation NCD

On Monday, Aug. 15, CMS opened the Medicare National Coverage Determination (NCD) process for seat elevation systems used with power wheelchairs; you can see our Alert and our AAHomecare Seat Elevation/Standing Systems NCD Reconsideration Central page.

Our partners at the ITEM Coalition have also developed a sample email that you can use to encourage your customers and other wheelchair users to weigh in with CMS during the comment period. The message highlights ITEM's excellent Rise4Access.org resource, which explains the issue and guidance on sharing comments that your customers may find useful. Feel free to adapt as you see fit.

Sample email text:

Subject: Action Needed - We Need Your Voice to Help Secure Medicare Coverage for Critical Wheelchair Technology

Are you a wheelchair user? Medicare wants to hear from YOU! Take action by September 14, 2022.

As you may know, the Medicare program currently prohibits coverage for seat elevation and standing systems in power wheelchairs and views these systems as “not primarily medical in nature.” Contrary to their argument, we know it can be difficult to navigate daily activities for those who use a wheelchair. It is vital to be able to:

• Safely transfer from a wheelchair to another surface, particularly if it is not level with their chair;
• Function independently at home as much as possible;
• Improve circulation, bone strength, and skin health, along with other medical benefits when spending long periods of time in a wheelchair.
• Medicare is currently accepting public comments through Wednesday, September 14 about whether to cover power seat elevation systems for Medicare beneficiaries, and will be considering additional comments about power standing systems at a later date. Please share your story and let Medicare know how you could benefit from these technologies. More information and instructions are available at Rise4Access.org.

Thank you,
[Your Name/company]