Posted on 03/09/2013 3:26:53 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Late Friday afternoon, The Scooter Store's chief executive notified employees that — effective immediately, but “with certain exceptions” — they'd been placed on unpaid furlough.
In an email, CEO Martin “Marty” Landon told employees not to return to work unless they receive notice from the company's human resources department.
The Scooter Store, one of the nation's largest suppliers of power wheelchairs and scooters, had about 1,800 workers as of last month. That's following the announcement in February that it had cut 150 positions.
About 1,200 employees worked out of its New Braunfels headquarters.
The furloughs came a little more than two weeks after federal agents executed a search warrant at the company's headquarters, presumably as part of an investigation into Medicare and Medicaid fraud....
(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...
And here I thought that Scooter Libby had a store.
I wonder how many chairs the U.S. Taxpayer has purchased? Also, this company must not be donors to 0bama.
sounds like the company had a bunch of lazy entitled types working for them. “I can’t find another job here that paid like Scooter Store” and “why should I be on call like a doctor?”
jeez ladies, move on, go out and seek your fortunes, no one owes you a living.
probably all of them. I see the same ones Medicaid pays for on Craigslist for a 1/10th what taxpayers paid for them.
Just about all of them. The whole scheme is based on Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements.
I think there’s a new premium on durable equipment such as motorized wheelchairs. Can’t say I cared for their dumb ads & spam, though.
It’d be nice to see real competition in this market, but that’s probably gone now...
Ya. Their ads were annoying and apparently fraudulent.
I get the feeling Scooter Store wasn't paying for too many chairs.
Republican donor, so obviously guilty/s
LANDON, MARTIN
SAN ANTONIO,TX 78212
KCI
4/7/2011
$1,000
Cornyn, John
LANDON, MARTIN J
SAN ANTONIO,TX 78212
KINETIC CONCEPTS INC./ACCOUNTANT
3/31/2011
$1,000
Canseco, Francisco
When Medicare stopped paying for them, this is what happens.
Of course why were taxpayers paying for these in the first place?
advertised at “no cost to you” if I remember correctly
I have seen and made several comments about how fast posts and updated pages come back up
They had a TV ad for a while that pretty much guaranteed if you would just call them they could get you a scooter if you had Medicare or Medicaid. No mention of needing a Dr. to say you needed one or anything like that. Those scooters are pretty pricy; but when my brother needed one last year he found a nice one on Craigslist for next to nothing- the people told him they got it for “free” so they likely didn’t even have any idea what it cost the taxpayers.
You don’t feel a bit sorry for 1,800 individuals and their households who now have lost an income? Is that what conservatism is all about? I noticed the same attitude when I recently posted a story about a mortgage company expanding their hiring:
Company To Add 332 Jobs In Owensboro (Kentucky)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2993183/posts
So you trust the Obama Justice Department and FBI more than a private company? Interesting.
Say what you want,but my mother needed one,couldnt afford one any other way,and they got her one.It has greatly increased her quality of life.Shame on all of you for castigating something that actually helped our seniors.
I have a problem with people who rely on government. I have a bigger problem with businesses that rely on government.
What exactly does a business do when it can't get enough income from tax dollars? They certainly do not know how to be competitive in the free market, so it must they must turn to fraud, graft or corruption.
I’ve been seeing these commercials for years and always suspected there was a lot fraud involved. People wanting scooters not because they needed they, but ‘cause they were “free”. And the Scooter Store is all too happy to help.
Any outfit with their apparent marketing strategy - ie 'selling' their stuff to folks predicated on YOUR money paying for it - is not one most of us can admire.
And any employee not having given the matter enough thought to understand that elemental tort is very likely someone I'd not tolerate much time around on an average day.
.. your mother’s case likely being one of the limited exceptions proving the rule, imho.
Yep, “no cost to you” ... I remember the unstated subtitle was “We’ll bill your grandchildren for it”.
Their advertising sucked, and I am sure we bought a lot of them with tax money, but a lot of people are going to miss them when they are gone.
As Dr. Walter Williams put it, “In order for one person to get a thing without paying for it, another person must pay for that thing without getting it.”
If your mother needed one, why didn’t you buy it for her?
Why are you making me buy it for her?
I don’t think the grandkids are going to be too happy when the bill for all this crap comes due. When they find out that 75% of their income (whether tax, inflation or whatnot) goes to service the debt, I wonder if eating or keeping Granpa alive at the home until he is 110 is going to seem like the most pressing problem
just wait, all the companies that advertise on tv for respiratory meds/supplies and diabetic meds/supplies will be the next ones to have the feds arrive at the door.
a neighbor got one of those scooters, the next month he had a massive coronary hear attack and passed away. the family got the bill and refused to pay it. the house and all his possessions are just sitting there, no heat, water or electricity, mail piling up and the scooter is still in the garage. taxes unpaid too.
Not that they didn't have hc providers who served as accomplices. Their systematic policies and procedures in clear violation of standards and practices established for contracting with CMS as a DME provider came from the top from the outset of their operations. And they, along with dubious immigrant opportunists, sullied and spurred consolidation of an industry once rife with small and medium businesses in the process.
That it took so long to move on this when evidence of their malfeasance was abundant, ought to cause people to ask a lot of questions. Especially of CMS and their various administrative agencies (there were three over this timeframe in just one jurisdiction in which they contracted), who were positioned to scrutinize every single claim before payout, many of which were flagged for audit. How I know that is a long story, but I knew what the provider guidelines and standards were and watched them systematically violate most of them.
My mother worked her entire life,her husband worked his entire life,Im working.Our taxes helped buy her scooter.I and my 5 children struggle to make it without governmant assistance.Youre a sick person to jump on my family because my mother needed a scooter and the scooter store got her one.ESAD “eat Sh@t and Di%”
I used to work for a supposed "Christian" home health care agency in central Indiana. I won't name it here (but I will FreepMail anyone with the name if they want to know) but they got an extra $120,000 one year and said it was a "blessing from God." The company president pocketed $100,000 of it and gave the rest to someone else I won't name here.
Turns out it was a Medicare/Medicaid billing error. When the US Government came asking for it back, instead of those two giving it back, they made the company take it out of it's earnings. Some employees were let go/fired/terminated because they knew the company president committed fraud/theft, confronted him/her on it, and they wouldn't own up to it. I was fired a few months later because I found out about it.
I know what ESAD means.
If your mother had stuck a knife in my ribs to demand money to buy herself a scooter, she’d rightly go to prison for robbery.
It’s no less dishonorable when she votes to have the government do it on her behalf.
Your mother is a recipient of stolen goods, and you heartily approve.
The scooter store didn’t get her a scooter; the taxpayers of the US got her one. At gunpoint.
I think most folks would rather be able to walk around normally under their own strength.
The fraud estimates for Medicare and Medicaid are both around $100 billion per year now, and that includes a hell of a lot more than scooters. Every aspect of those programs has been, is being defrauded, and the most guilty are those billing for services not needed or even rendered, and for some who are creating fraudulent paperwork to obtain scooters and a vast array of other medical products that won't really be used as stated on paperwork.
Sure, The Scooter Store tries to create a demand for their product through ads (ever seen any ads for drugs, people?), but I doubt many people who don't need them are applying for them just so they can ride around on one. I think most would prefer to walk normally.
Youre a sad excuse for a human being.Her scooter cost you exactly 1cent worth of taxes,give me youre address so i can mail you youre penny.ESAD Hoping someday you or a member of youre family needs help so we can send you a second penny you miserable excuse for a freeper.Again I say ESAD.
Thank you for making it abundantly clear you and your family are parasites.
You really need to stop before you embarrass yourself any more.
I doubt it. Those are pretty well legit and do save everyone involved money. It would basically be the same as a mail order pharmaceutical company. Some stuff in the way of medical supplies is easier to order on line. My wife orders ostomy supplies from a company we've doing business with over 25 years. We know the owner.
When she needs a wheelchair we do go to a reputable dealer. If you don't it can literally cost tens of thousands of dollars more in medical bills. We short cutted on a motorized wheelchair to try and hold down Medicare cost. One pressure sore caused by the wheelchair ate the cost difference up real fast then some.
Really anyone needing a wheelchair or a scooter for that matter should be professionally fitted for one by a Physical Therapist and let the therapist coordinate through your doctor & the dealer your needs. Wheelchairs should be built custom for the patient. My wife got a new chair about two years ago a Permobil motorized chair with a tilt back seat. The therapist and dealer told her it would likely last 20 years plus it was cheaper. She's 62. She got over ten years use out of a Jazzy. Most motorized wheelchairs 7 years is usually it as far as repair vs replacement cost.
Medicare/Medicaid should have been watching The Scooter Store closer. Any Medicare/Medicaid wheelchair even a manual one should be prescription only.
Most doctors have better things to do with their time than writing out mounds of paperwork required to justify the purchase. This is true even with doctors working at spinal rehab centers but they do it for patient necessity. I'm guessing Scooter Store may have had their own doctors perhaps?
How do you know how much it cost him?
There are other ways, I remember even seeing those commercials as a kid thinking it was wrong.
Kitkat likes tomkat’s post #14.
And I’ve been hoping someone would post something about the joy of rapid posting.
That’s not being very fair. We don’t know what kind of workers they are. Its the corporate level that was allegedly over billing the government. Being disappointed by losing ones job and not knowing what to do next is only natural to anyone. And yes it sucks when your employer pulls the old well maybe we’ll call you, maybe we won’t. Of course, that is one of the things that is wrong with America today. Businesses only want loyalty from their employees until they don’t and then its only business.
Well Sport,Im dividing the cost of the scooter by the millions of taxpayers in the usa.Works out to a little less than 1cent.Thats assuming you dont want to include the 60 years my mother worked,the 60 years my father worked,and the 37 years Ive worked and paid into the coffers.I see that as a small price to pay to improve the final years of an elderly womans life.
Ain't it Grand ! (seriesly)
The only rational explanation for their long running, blatant plundering of public monies is there were payoffs to the right people. Question I have is, why did the good times stop rolling?
I already made it clear to you that my mother,father,and myself have worked all our lives and never took governmant assistance.Unless you count the social security that we each paid into.You are the one who should be embarrased.ESAD.
BUT, If you were working for a company that had been FEDERALLY INVESTIGATED 3 times in 4 years wouldn't that given you PAUSE to reconsider working there????
Cannot find any of Top Management contributions to Obummer in 2008 or 2012. I guess that was their first MISTAKE.
The Scooter Store just exploited a Medicare loophole to steal taxpayer dollars. Without Medicare corruption, they would not exist. Good riddance.
While I agree with you on that point, sometimes a person doesn’t have much of a choice. If their area is as bad as it is here locally, there are very few options.
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