Quality Counts

When it comes to being successful in the manual wheelchair market, quality is “job one,” to borrow a quote from Ford Motor Co. The quality of products affects the market's sales, innovations, reimbursement structure — and reputation.

Providers should not “chase low-cost products specifically for the sake of money. If they do, they are [providing a disservice to the disabled community] along with creating a more-difficult [reimbursement] environment, which costs society more in the long run,” says John Box, president of Colours in Motion.

A Mature Market

Why does high quality count for so much in this particular market? Perhaps because there are many opportunities for low-quality products to make it to end-users.

“The manual wheelchair market is a mature market that is increasingly becoming diluted by off-shore competitors who compete mainly on price,” says Michele Salimbeni, product manager, manual wheelchairs, for Invacare.

“[Pricing] pressure continues to go downward,” says Joe Ticer, director of rehab and mobility for Graham-Field Health Products, “and I don't see that changing in the immediate future.” He notes that manufacturers are adding smaller product offerings and “concentrating on the high-use products as a strategy of bringing their pricing down. Most of the low-end products are going off-shore.”

According to industry experts, some foreign-made products may look like high-quality models — K0004 wheelchairs, for instance — but really be substandard in construction. And, they say, the discrepancy could hurt providers in the long run.

“The government is looking at these products to determine reimbursement,” says Walt Yercheck, national sales manager for Evermed. “If you're being reimbursed now at a K0004 level,” and the government decides your particular chair can be reimbursed for a lesser amount because of the cheaper look-alike models, “the government may only reimburse you for a K0003, or not at all.

“It's fine to bring in products from overseas; there are quality products that providers can import. But you can't just look at dollars and cents. You have to look at quality and price and what the government will reimburse you for,” Yercheck continues.