Are you following the raging debate going on about the Cash for Clunkers program? Have you figured out how this applies to Rehab?

Cash for Clunkers was set up to allow people to receive $4500.00 from the government towards buying a car with higher fuel efficiency. The program was set up with an initial 1 billion dollars but that money was burned through in the first week. Many critics have started to ask, "If the Government can't run a rebate program, how can they run a health care system?"

What the pundits don't realize is that the Cash for Clunkers program already has a number of similarities to the Medicare program:

1. 136 page manual used to detail the plan in simple, easy terms
2. Car dealerships have to determine if a customers vehicle qualifies or not
3. Car dealerships have to pay the rebate immediately and wait for reimbursement from the government later.
4. Cash for Clunkers requires digital filing
5. There are already stories of abuse of the system.

The car dealerships are only one week into the program and they are starting to wonder if they will ever get the money they have paid out to their customers reimbursed by the Government. Does that sound like the requirement to provide a custom ordered complex rehab power chair to a customer and then hope that the reimbursement will be forthcoming in a timely manner? Will an already struggling auto industry be able to survive the cash flow problems that this stimulus package creates?

If this issue is being leveraged to show the negatives of the new health care program, will DME industry leaders be able to use the same issue to show the flaws in the current system?