BRYAN, Texas--Additional research by an economics consulting firm indicates that provision of power wheelchairs or scooters to disabled patients could save Medicare billions in the long run.

New data analysis by RRC Inc. suggests that savings could be as high as $8,760 per beneficiary over a three-year period--65 percent higher than the company found in a previous study, which indicated an average savings of $5,300 per patient.

"We determined the savings for those receiving power vehicles were due to lower Medicare expenditures for inpatient hospitalization, home health care, skilled nursing facilities and carrier costs," said Dr. Donald House, an economist who took part in conducting the study. "These are the same types of expenditures in which savings were identified in our first study."

In late 2003, the firm completed a year-long study funded by The Scooter Store on the effect of power vehicles on Medicare expenditures for 1994 through 2001. Since that study was released, RRC said it has independently conducted new research to test its earlier results by using alternative statistical approaches to identify the control group--those Medicare beneficiaries without power vehicles but who are physically comparable to those who received them.