Month: <span>November 2007</span>

Shopping for a wheelchair is not like buying a new car.

I think my wife and I had psyched ourselves up about wheelchair shopping. Personally, I expected we would walk into a store and find rows of wheelchairs all shined up and waiting for a test spin around the room. It wasn’t to be.

My wife’s neurologist gave her prescriptions for a wheelchair and hand controls for her minivan following the last EMG performed a couple of weeks ago. We’ve both searched the Internet since then looking for all we can find about wheelchairs and hand controls. While buying a wheelchair is going to be an easier process than getting hand controls and a new drivers license, today was a disappointment.

The first store we visited had none out for display. A friendly lady went into a back room and returned pushing a flat black, 53 pound, folding behemoth. When asked about a lighter chair, she replied, “this is the lightest we carry.” She referred us to another medical supply store. We hopped in the minivan and found it.

The lady behind the desk in the second store seemed a little grumpy about answering questions until she learned my wife had a prescription for the wheelchair. Dollar signs flashed in her eyes. She immediately asked for our insurance information.

Instead of providing it, my wife explained we were shopping and asked if she could actually see some chairs. The desk-lady then asked a man behind the counter to go get one out of the back. He, too, returned with a black behemoth.

“It’s the smallest chair we have except for transport chairs,” he offered.

He explained that transport chairs must be pushed. They aren’t self-propelled. “But they are lighter,” he explained.

We could not find a wheelchair store designed for individual consumers. The stores cater to the hospital/nursing home market. The 50 pound chairs used in hospitals and nursing homes are solid and long-lasting, but they’re just too big for my wife to manage by herself.

We’re looking for what the industry calls an “ultra lightweight” folding model that will weigh about 20 pounds.  Also, a friend of mine who works as a Director of Nursing shared with me that the biggest factor in how comfortable a wheelchair is for a passenger is determined by the quality of the seat cushion. Another friend recommends solid tires instead of air-filled because the solid tires roll more easily.

Unless we get lucky, I imagine we’ll order the chair from an online dealer and cross our fingers that it will be just right for my wife. Unfortunately, most of the online dealers refuse returns except for those damaged in shipping.

Here’s my dream wheelchair shopping experience, (though I’m sure the market for personal wheelchairs is too small for this to work out for the dealer): it would be great to find a wheelchair store that has 50 or 60 different models on the floor so one can try them out.

I’d like to see how easily wheelchair A folds and unfolds, how rough wheelchair C rides compared to wheelchair B. Does wheelchair D look better in the black finish or in fire engine red? Can I get replacement parts for wheelchair E or must I send it in for repairs? What about accessories? “Can we get that model with detachable handles?” You get the idea.

Wheelchair shopping is not at all like I expected.

Caregiver Tip: Avoid psyching yourself up when you go shopping for a wheelchair. You’ll be disappointed. It’s not like buying a new car.

If you care for a spouse or other family member with MS you already understand the impact medical expenses can have on your family budget. The financial cost of a chronic disease like Multiple Sclerosis is high and the financial drain is constant.

I was born in the early 60’s. I went to the ER while in college and left with 6 stitches above my eye. I had a physical checkup last year. One-time medical events like these generate one-time medical expenses.

In fact, anytime a healthy person receives medical care, it’s typically a one-time event with expenses that end after the procedure is paid for and the medicine is purchased. Even to have an appendix removed, there’s an end to the expenses after the surgeon, anesthetist, lab, facility and drug fees are paid.

While one time medical events can certainly whack your budget, they do it one time. You might not like it, but when it’s over, it is over.

MS is not like that. Not at all.

Multiple Sclerosis doesn’t give you the pleasure of making a final payment and writing, “paid in full” on the check’s memo line. MS is chronic and there is no cure. From the beginning, even before the diagnosis is made, the expenses begin adding up. MRIs are expensive, spinal taps aren’t cheap, co-pays for regular neurological check ups accumulate, and the cost of MS medications is unreal. In short, it would be easy to spend more than $20,000 a year on routine MS care.

If you’re an MS caregiver, here’s a sobering bit of news: almost half of U.S. bankruptcies are related to medical expenses.

A 2005 study led by Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, found that half of U.S. bankruptcies are caused by soaring medical bills. And bankruptcy specialists reported the study’s numbers seem valid.

George Cauthen, a lawyer at the Columbia-based law firm of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, reported that he had reviewed every bankruptcy petition filed in South Carolina between 1982 and 1989. Medical bills accounted, “roughly, for about a third of all individual filings in South Carolina.” (Divorce accounted for another third.) And notice, this was in the 80’s before medical expenses began increasing at multiples of the national inflation rate.

Financial Thoughts for Caregivers

Given the sobering news about MS-related medical expenses and their impact on one’s financial life, what can one do? Here are a few tips:

1. Pay attention to your finances! Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to financial matters.

2. Save for a Rainy Day. You never know when you’ll need to access your emergency fund so you should take every opportunity to add to it.

3. Forget about the Joneses. It’s hard enough to keep up with all the details required to be a good caregiver. Give up on keeping up with the Joneses.

4. Pay down debt. This is almost an un-American concept, but in spite of what political leaders say about our “ownership society” and the recent history of loose lending, if you owe money for something, you don’t really own it.

5. Prioritize your expenditures. Most people make their house/rent payment, utility, savings and insurance payments first. You must have a place to live. Next, take care of food, medical and transportation expenses. Give to others. Finally, take care of everything else.

6. Economize. For example, if you love books, use your public library. In addition to books, most public libraries have a broad collection of movies on DVDs which you can borrow for free … just like books.

7. Ask for cash discounts when you make appointments for medical care. You might be surprised how much the cost of medical can be discounted for cash.

Caregiver Tip: MS is an expensive disease. Pay close attention to your financial situation and act with financial smarts.