Finding a doctor who will do a power wheelchair evaluation
There is no directory on this page yet. What is here instead works today: three questions that tell you in one phone call whether an office does this work, and what to do when the answer is no.
There is no list of doctors here yet
This page is built for a directory of clinicians who already document power mobility orders through DMEdocRx. That product is in invite-only alpha, so the list would be empty. An empty list is not useful to you, and a form that takes your email address and promises to write to you later is worth something to us and nothing to you. So there is no form on this page and no way to leave your details.
When there are clinicians to list, they will appear here.
Three questions to ask when you call an office
Ask the person who answers the phone. You do not need to reach the practitioner, and you do not need to explain your situation to get an answer. Two of these three come straight out of the policy, and one of those two is federal law.
“Do you do face-to-face mobility evaluations for power wheelchairs?”
A power mobility device (PMD) order is not a prescription written on the way out of a visit about something else. It rests on a face-to-face visit — F2F in the paperwork — held specifically about how you get around at home, and written up in the note. The visit also has to fall inside the six months before the date on the order.
Some offices do not do these visits at all. Finding that out on the phone costs you one call. Finding it out later costs months.
An out-of-window face-to-face is one of the most common audit findings on PMD claims.
“Will the same provider who does the exam also write the order?”
This one is statute — Social Security Act §1834(a)(1)(E)(iv) — not only coverage policy. No office can waive it and no supplier can work around it. The practitioner who performs the mobility exam has to be the same practitioner who signs the written order prior to delivery (WOPD). Not a colleague down the hall, not whoever is covering that week, not the medical director who countersigns.
Offices split this without thinking about it — one practitioner sees you, another signs the paperwork. That split is what the statute prohibits here, so it is worth naming on the phone rather than finding it in a denial letter.
A WOPD written by a different practitioner than the one who performed the F2F does not satisfy the statute.
“Do you work with a supplier that has a RESNA-certified ATP?”
For a Group 3 chair — and for any chair carrying powered seat functions or a way to drive it other than a standard joystick — the supplier has to employ an Assistive Technology Professional (ATP) certified by RESNA, the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America. That person has to specialize in wheelchairs and be with you in person while your chair is chosen. Their current certificate goes in the file.
An office that already works with such a supplier has done this before, and the answer comes back quickly with a company name. An office that has never heard the term is telling you something useful too.
Missing ATP involvement or credential. Denied as not reasonable and necessary if this criterion is not met.
Suppliers
In Gainesville, Florida
Gator Custom Mobility
501 NE 23rd Ave
Gainesville, FL 32609
352-373-9673
Anywhere else
Ask any supplier one question: do you employ a RESNA-certified Assistive Technology Professional (ATP)? For a Group 3 chair the policy requires it, and the ATP has to be with you in person while the chair is chosen. A supplier who cannot answer that question is not the supplier for this.
If the office says no
You can see a different practitioner. The rule is not that this has to be the doctor who knows you best — the rule is that the exam and the order have to come from the same one. So if your usual office will not do the mobility evaluation, the whole thing moves together: whoever performs the evaluation is whoever signs the order.
Ask them who they would send you to. Rehabilitation medicine practices and neurology practices do these evaluations routinely, and so do some primary care offices. A supplier with an ATP on staff usually knows which local offices do them, and asking a supplier that question costs nothing.
Whoever you end up in front of, go in ready. Get ready for your appointment turns eleven plain questions into a sheet you can print and hand over, and for my doctor’s office is one page explaining what the office is being asked to do.
Where this comes from
Based on Medicare Local Coverage Determination L33789 — Power Mobility Devices, revision effective . Coverage policy is revised periodically. Confirm current requirements against the CMS Medicare Coverage Database before relying on this. This page is information, not medical or legal advice, and does not determine whether you qualify for anything.