Okay, procrastination over and done with. I called Medicare today.
Good news. As Long as a medical supplier is Medicare enrolled, they'll pay for 80% of it. Great as the batteries will cost me 150 bucks plus 8% tax minus 10% off the top for my being a disabled vet. Still, that's close to 300 bucks if I did it on my own.
So I was given a list of suppliers. I didn't want to go through the Scooter Store. And you'll see why.
So, I call them up, "Sure! We'll get you squared away! First, there is the loaner fee, the service fee, the this fee, the that fee, etc, etc.
A local outfit wanted a total $565.00. That's just to replace the batteries and install them. They keep the old ones. Hmmm.
But no all that other fees stuff.
Still waiting on the service guy to get back with me to schedule but I told them specifically that I'd take the chair there so no fee for on site like they wanted. Then they wanted to give me a chair for a loan while they worked on mine seeing as how they couldn't promise a time to get mine back to me and, of course, I pay by the time that is first billed via Medicare.
The local place says I gotta pay up front then they file. Uh, uh.
Then I set 'em straight. It takes only a few minutes to change out the batteries and I don't need none of that other stuff so do it my way or I'll go elsewhere.
You want to know where our tax dollars are disappearing to? Crap like that. It's a scheme and THATS what needs to be fixed: Not the Medicare system, just those that abuse it like that.
I'm burned up about it right now.