Massachusetts dedicates millions to address long waits for wheelchair repairs (Boston Globe)
Below is an excerpt of an article published by the Boston Globe on October 22. The article highlights wheelchair users in Massachusetts welcoming new state regulations intended to reduce long wait times for repairs. Still, they express concern that the measures may not go far enough. Disability Law Center’s Rick Glassman is quoted.
Wheelchair users are applauding new state regulations that address painfully long wait times for wheelchair repairs but worry the initiatives don’t go far enough to ensure people will no longer be immobilized for weeks or months as they await urgent fixes.
“The people who are doing the repairs do need to put more effort into this service,” said Rich Levasseur, a wheelchair user from Tewksbury who spoke at a virtual public hearing Monday about the new regulations. “People can’t be without a repair for months at a time. It’s cruel and inhumane.”
The rules, which went into effect earlier this month, are Massachusetts’s latest attempt to address a national lack of investment in repair operations among the biggest companies in the wheelchair industry. This summer, a bill written to address the widespread problem of slow repair times stalled out in the state legislature. As the industry has consolidated around two large providers, infuriating delays for even basic repairs have become the norm.
The initiatives from MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid administrator, include a $1,000 bonus payment for wheelchair providers that complete repairs for MassHealth members within 12 days. Eighty percent of that money must be reinvested into repair operations, including maintaining stock, staffing, and offering expanded hours. Providers will be required to share with the state quarterly data on repairs and how the money is used. That data will be made available to the public, state health officials said.
