Have providers & insurance company forgot about you?
“I can’t find a knee walker in my town” is a common frustration we hear. An owner of a DME (Durable Medical Equipment) store explained why they don’t have Knee Scooters.
“We focus on what our customers want” he told me.
But don’t patients ask for alternatives to crutches?
“All the time” he admitted. “But they aren’t our customers.” Seeing I was baffled he explained “The insurance companies are our customers. They pay us very well for things like oxygen, diabetic supplies and even powered wheel chairs so that’s what we focus on”. He said they might have a few old knee scooters around but largely tell people that no one uses them anymore or that they aren’t safe.
This reminded me of how the relationship works between the customer (the one who pays) and the service provider. At Goodbye Crutches our patients pay us and we are accountable to serve them. The patient then goes to their insurance provider to submit for any reimbursement. Ultimately the insurance provider is accountable to serve their customer – the one that pays them.
What a perverted system it becomes when providers serve the insurance company instead of the patient. I’m committed to to our model of serving and answering to you, our customers with the best options for alternative to crutches instead of chasing what product the insurance company might pay the most for this year.
