Department of Justice Sues The Scooter Store

Washington

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed suit against The Scooter Store, charging the company with submitting fraudulent power wheelchair claims.

The April 29 federal suit alleges the New Braunfels, Texas-based provider told potential customers who called the company’s toll-free number that Medicare would pay for power wheelchairs but not less expensive scooters.

Earlier this year, The Scooter Store had filed a lawsuit against HHS claiming the government wrongfully denied hundreds of its power chair claims. That suit charges HHS with violating the law by demanding documentation to prove patient need for the equipment in addition to a physician-signed certificate of medical necessity.

Leading the provider’s legal battle is former Montana governor Marc Racicot of Bracewell & Giuliani. (The firm, previously Bracewell & Patterson, added former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as a partner in March.) Racicot also was chairman of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign and former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

In a May 4 letter to CMS Administrator Mark McClellan, Racicot said that the company, which is the nation’s largest power chair provider, is being unfairly targeted. “The barrage of punitive actions taken against [The Scooter Store] over the past two months lead inescapably to one conclusion: that the federal government is targeting TSS as a high-volume supplier of power mobility equipment in order to drive down utilization.”

According to Racicot, The Scooter Store has received 990 post-pay review requests from the DMERCs. “These information collection requests are very difficult — if not impossible — to satisfy because they require, upon penalty of automatic denial of a claim, the production and submission of physicians’ chart notes,” he continued.

During 2004, The Scooter Store laid off 400 employees, blaming the government’s tightened power wheelchair claims policies.

According to the DOJ, the company has billed the government for more than $400 million in claims since 1997.