Page 14 - Mobility Management, February 2019

ATP Series
Standing Connections
improvement. We’re starting to see standing becoming more acceptable,” Tiskus said.
Private payors have been less reliable, and while some have funded standing, many take their guidelines from Medicare. But whether it’s Medicaid or private insurance that a client is seeking funding from, Perlich advises industry professionals to write documentation that ties standing to the client’s needs.
For instance, Ashley Detterbeck, DPT, ATP, SMS, the Clinical Education Manager for Permobil’s Central Region, explains that in Minnesota “the state medical assistance program is really designated out of functional goals.” Detterbeck points out specific questions that professionals should try to answer in addressing the state’s assistance program’s policies: “What is the patient going to be able to do in a standing position that they cannot do in a seated position? Is it going to increase their independence? Are they going to be able to participate in their environment and reduce their need for caregivers or be able to increase their independence at home or live independently?
“[Those considerations] drive [funding] first and foremost.”
In addition to Medicaid and private insurance, Detterbeck has noticed an increase in patients turning to alternative funding from organizations such as ABLE National Resource Center, a collaborative managed by National Disability Institute. Through
ABLE, people with disabilities and their families can open tax-advantaged savings accounts. “It’s a federal granted program that states choose to participate in,” Detterbeck explained. “It’s like a savings account that a parent can put money in if their child has a disability. Then that money can be used for medical expenses, equipment, housing, independent living.”
This type of alternative funding helps clients to spread financial responsibility across multiple sources. For example, Detterbeck said that a Medicare beneficiary could receive approval for a power chair and then privately fund through a foundation or through personal funds to upgrade to a Group 4 standing chair.
“Patients will often do what we call the ‘F3 to the F5 DS’
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As the general consensus moves forward and people recognize [standing] as a benefit, so too ultimately will those payor sources follow — John Pryles