Messaging for mobility patients to comment on seat elevation NCD

February 22, 2023

On Feb. 15, CMS released a proposed National Coverage Determination (NCD) decision to offer coverage for power seat elevation systems on certain power wheelchairs to Medicare beneficiaries. The agency will be accepting public comments on the proposal through March 17, 2023.

You can see find more details on the NCD and resources to help shape your comments on our Seat Elevation 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.

Sample message below -- feel free to adapt as you see fit:

Are you a wheelchair user? Medicare wants to hear from YOU! Take action by March 17, 2023.

As you may know, the Medicare program recently proposed to cover, for the first time ever, seat elevation systems in power wheelchairs. This is a major victory for the disability community, but our work is not yet done! We need to show Medicare that wheelchair users and people with disabilities strongly support this coverage, and urge Medicare to go even further to ensure that all those who need access to these systems can get it. As you know, these systems are vital for wheelchair users to be able to:

  • Safely transfer from a wheelchair to another surface, particularly if it is not level with your chair;

  • Increase your reach to access higher surfaces across the home;

  • Prevent and reduce stress injuries from repetitive transfers and reaching; and

  • Function independently at home as much as possible.

Medicare is currently accepting public comments through Friday, March 17 about whether to finalize coverage for power seat elevation systems, 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 or do benefit from these technologies. More information and messaging are available at rise4access.org. You can share your comments directly with CMS here by March 17.