The Scooter Store, which will go down in history for successfully billing Medicare (and receiving payments) for power wheelchairs which were really cheaper scooters, was raided by the FBI and additional investigators earlier this year. Now, the city where they are located, New Braunfels, Texas, has filed a lawsuit against the company for pocketing $3.4 million for job creation through a 2009 economic incentive program and then laying off thousands of workers. The company claims they were impacted by a change in Medicare reimbursements (and tightening Medicare restrictions that helped end the company’s practice of obtaining power wheelchair reimbursements from Medicare for cheaper scooters).
New Braunfels, Texas, would now like $2.6 million of the economic stimulus money back for The Scooter Store’s inability to maintain employment levels. The Scooter Store has laid off 1,000+ employees and is keeping around 100+ employees for now in order to keep collecting the monthly payments on wheelchairs that are not paid off yet.
Caregiverlist originally wrote about The Scooter Store’s fraudulent billing and misrepresentation of scooters for wheelchairs back in 2010 when the U.S. Government changed the category of reimbursements to be more clear on the status of a power wheelchair vs. a scooter which had 3 wheels and in no way can offer the mobility protection that a power wheelchair does to a senior who truly has mobility issues.
