Paul Tobin, President of United Spinal Association sets the record straight:

A sloppy, wildly inaccurate story about power wheelchairs by Jim Toedtman that appeared in the November 2009 issue of AARP Bulletin was rebutted in the December issue of the Bulletin by Paul Tobin of United Spinal Association.

Tobin writes in a letter to the editor, “‘The Case of the Expensive Wheelchair’ compares prices Medicare paid for wheelchairs versus the cost to suppliers and assumes the difference is due to fraud. We’re dead set against Medicare fraud, but this assumption fails to recognize that wheelchairs–like people–are not fungible. A person with permanent paralysis needs an individualized wheelchair. Someone 6 feet 4 inches tall, paralyzed from the neck down with little use of hands, who depends on a breathing tube, needs a power wheelchair with individualized electronic controls and room for oxygen supplies. Adapting wheelchairs to an individual is essential and requires professional consultation. That’s why they cost more than something bought off the shelf.

Tobin was being polite. The AARP story was extraordinarily misleading.

AARP Bulletin incorrectly assumed that the only cost of providing a wheelchair in the home of a person with disabilities is the acquisition cost.

Read the rest of the article.

The misconceptions voiced by AARP can be easily dispelled- Seeing is believing. Here are two configurations of the same powered wheelchair (Invacare TDX). Do they appear to be configured for users with different needs? Would one think that the more technically involved configuration would cost more than the base model? I would hope so, and in fact it does. The unit on the left is approximately twice the price of its little brother.

If you want to see what it takes to put a high end rehab wheelchair together then have a look at this order form for a Sunrise Medical product. It starts off with a base wheelchair at a base price but depending on user need it can go through some radical physical and cost changes.
Click here to view form (PDF).

I’m not sure why the pricing of powered wheelchairs is so difficult for people to understand. It’s actually very simple. The more involved the wheelchair user’s needs are the more technically intricate the wheelchair becomes. The more technically intricate the wheelchair becomes the more it costs. A very mundane concept that holds true for more than just power wheelchairs.

It becomes much easier to grasp when you think of of the wheelchair as a combination of building blocks or Lego pieces and give equal weight and consideration to the users physical and functional needs. How many pieces does it take to make the wheelchair appropriate for a specific user. The more pieces the higher the cost. And of course each user is different so costs may vary greatly from user to user.