[Regina]

We have a patient with a hospital bed that capped over a year ago. She has twice broken it- this time, the soldering on the headboard was actually snapped. We are not having these types of problems with our other beds. It is obviously being abused
My question is, what recourse do we have? Has anyone been in this situation and come up with a solution? I guess we can bill for repair, but it will not even come close covering our expenses. We had to replace the whole headboard.


Thanks for any opinions you can give me.

[HEATHER]

Ideas:

1. If it met a purchase over a year ago, there isn't anything (except your reputation) that says you HAVE to do the repair. Any company can perform repairs on patient owned equipment.

2. If you choose to do the repair, do you HAVE to accept assignment (are you a par provider with Medicare? or are they a medicaid patient?)? If not, you could charge the patient for the replacement part/labor at an acceptable rate and bill nonassigned.

2. Depending on age of bed - could it possibly covered by manufacturer's warranty?

[Regina]

Unfortunately, it is a Medicare/Medicaid patient. Don't know if the powers that be have checked the warranty issue, but if it's abuse it wouldn't be covered anyway.