Stroke Survivor Blog

We had a nice surprise the other day when we received lift chair reimbursement in the form of two checks. One check was from Medicare for the lift mechanism, which was expected. But a check for the balance of the cost of the lift chair came from our Medi-gap policy, which was totally unexpected. So the $1150.00 chair was completely paid for by our insurance and Medicare!!

Two home medical equipment stores told us that we would receive only that portion of the lift chair that Medicare approved of, and that was around $340. So you can imagine our delight to receive full reimbursement. But easy come, easy go. That extra money went to pay for car repairs and new tires.

I had previously posted a Lift Chair Review on 8-8-09 and talked about some defects in the chair. If you listen to the video, you can hear the crunching noise. A factory rep from ALC (Action Lift Chair) came out to fix the loose button and the crunching noise. The noise is what concerned me the most, but it was a very minor fix. Apparently in this new chair design there were some metal spurs rubbing on the wood frame. All the rep did was put a piece of fabric between the spurs and the wood, and the noise was eliminated. The button was fixed quickly too, so I was very pleased with the service we got at the time, but it didn’t last.

But then the crunching noise returned, and after many phone calls to the manufacturer, they picked up the chair and took it back to the factory for the repair. Our supplier gave us a new Pride chair to use in the meantime, which was more comfortable than the one we sent back. After several weeks, we got the defective chair back, but it still makes a small crunching noise in the lift mechanism. Our supplier did everything they could to work with ALC, but they were difficult to work with. If I had to do it over again, I would definitely purchase ainstead of the ALC 3-way lift chair that we have.