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Are wheelchairs for everyone?
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Posted on Sep 19 2004
As a health care provider here in the CNMI, I would like to inform the Wheelchair Foundation that Healthcare Specialties/Saipan has been doing business here since 1996, renting, and selling wheelchairs and other various type of Home Medical Equipment to the community.
You stated in the newspaper that one of the reasons why the foundation is giving out free wheelchairs is due to the shortage here on island and the cost. Healthcare Specialties does issue wheelchairs to beneficiaries of Medicare, HPMR members, Medicaid patients and Vocational Rehabilitation clients when there is an order from the doctor.
We do not give out wheelchairs just to anyone who asks for it without a doctor’s prescription. We have encountered a few cases when the doctor does not want their patient to be dependent on a wheelchair and would rather that they use a walker to walk around as long as they are able to encourage ambulation.
At Healthcare Specialties, we commend the foundation’s generosity for giving out wheelchairs to the needy. However, we would also like to inform the foundation that we do exist and is providing services on the island, and that Medicare beneficiaries, HPMR, Medicaid, OVR, etc., can obtain medical equipment for home use such as wheelchair, oxygen, hospital bed, diabetic shoes, etc., if their doctor prescribe it as deemed medically necessary.
Rose Deleon Guerrero
Patient Service Coordinator
Healthcare Specialties/Saipan
