Two for One

It has been said that “two is better than one” — and that seems to be true when it comes to the current state of the U.S. scooter market.

The market is growing for two reasons: The aging baby boomer population is becoming increasingly interested in new technology that will enable them to remain active and independent. Additionally, recent reimbursement modifications have made scooters a more accessible option for those who require powered mobility devices.

These sales drivers have prompted home medical equipment providers to develop both sets of customers through effective evaluation, marketing, sales and service.

“There are significant growth opportunities in this product line,” states Ben Kingery, Invacare Corp.'s group product manager of powered mobility.

He explains that the change in CMS' coverage policy for mobility assistive equipment has had a major impact on this market. Last year, the agency released new function-based criteria as a basis for coverage, resulting in evaluations that focus on beneficiaries' ability to perform daily living activities such as toileting, grooming and eating. The change takes clinicians through a “stepped” process to determine which mobility device is medically necessary. It also eliminates the requirement for a specialist to prescribe a scooter.

“It appears that [the new criteria] will increase the number of scooters being prescribed,” says Kingery.

“When we did our consumer research, it seemed like there were a lot of people who wanted to get a scooter, or thought they needed a scooter, but they didn't really want to go see a specialist or didn't know even where to begin to find one.”

Pieter Leenhouts, vice president of standard products for Sunrise Medical, agrees that the elimination of a specialist's prescription has had a positive effect on market growth. “From a Medicare reimbursement point of view, a lot of hurdles were removed for this market to grow,” he says.

“Then on top of that, the market itself — just from consumer cash business — is growing very rapidly as well because the demographics have shifted, and scooters are becoming more accepted products for people to use as a mobility device.”