Getting Equipment

The process of designing and providing a custom seating and mobility system is both time-consuming and complex. It involves working in partnership with you, your healthcare providers and many different equipment suppliers; to design and deliver the right system or equipment to meet your individual needs.
                                                    
Performing the Initial Evaluation
Generally the process starts with a referral from your physician or therapist. We are part of a large network of rehabilitation professionals in our area, as well as, payer sources.

The process of receiving your new equipment begins with an evaluation of your needs and is performed by a highly skilled and experienced clinical professional from Carr Rehab, known as the Seating Specialist.  Carr Rehab employs four assistive technology suppliers (ATS) and one assistive technology practitioner (ATP).  All are credentialed through RESNA (Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America).  Continuing education is required each year to maintain this certification.
Carr Rehab also employs two individuals with over 15 years experience as physical therapists.

The evaluation will take anywhere from a few minutes to possibly an entire day, depending upon your individual situation. During this time,
• Your medical situation will be thoroughly reviewed
• You will be measured and fitted
• Your logistical and safety needs will be discussed
• Issues involving your personal preferences will be discussed
• Equipment options that are available within the cost guidelines of your funding source will be reviewed

The result of the evaluation will provide our professionals the necessary information to design a custom seating & mobility system that will give you the function prescribed by your physician and/or therapist.

To design your equipment, Carr Rehab works with you and your healthcare team to select the appropriate chair and components from its network of several hundred suppliers. If a necessary component is not available, or needs to be modified, Carr Rehab will fabricate or adapt an item to fit the need.

 Obtaining Funding Approval
This step is the most complex, time-consuming and at times, the most frustrating, because it is largely out of our control.

The system selected or recommended must be appropriately documented and reviewed in order to meet the approval guidelines of your funding source.

The process begins on the day of the evaluation when you are asked to sign an Assignment of Benefits statement so your insurance company will pay us for the equipment you receive. This form also allows us to receive the necessary medical documentation from your physician and therapist that helps us treat you. Unless this form is signed, your physician and therapist are prohibited by law from releasing your medical information.

Carr Rehab then gathers all the necessary documents to submit to your funding source. Since we typically need to collect these from many different sources, it can take several weeks, depending upon the complexity of your equipment, the cooperation of everyone involved and the requirements of your funding source. We realize that the waiting you experience is frustrating, but this is a difficult and detailed process that is out of our control.

Once all the documents are collected, we submit them to your funding source for approval. On average, approval is given within 30 days, but it can take longer. To help expedite this process, we may ask you call your funding source to request that they act as quickly as possible to authorize your equipment.

Once we have received a written authorization from your funding source, we can order your equipment.

Purchasing, Delivering & Maintaining Your Equipment
Upon receiving approval from your funding source in writing, we order all the components of your equipment from our various suppliers. Manufacturing times vary with each supplier, but typically it takes from 3 - 4 weeks for us to receive all the components.

If it is necessary to order a specific part not stocked or have a special part fabricated, it may take longer.

Once we have everything we need, the process begins to move much more rapidly. After we have inspected and verified all the components, we then assemble your system. Depending upon the complexity of your equipment, this can take from several days to several weeks.

We require that all of your deductibles be paid and we will verify that your funding source will pay for the equipment.  Once your system is complete, we then contact you to schedule a time to deliver your equipment. At that time we will make any necessary adjustments and review use, maintenance and safety of your equipment with you.