Can I sell medical equipment that was provided by hospice and never picked up?

A wheelchair was paid for by Medicare, and delivered by a supply company, billed to Medicare. Last time they called, I said I was still using it.
The billing would be on the patient's EOB (Explanation of Benefits). Look it up, call the supplier who billed it.
If you don't know if it was rented, or leased, or purchased, you should not dispose of it without contacting the hospice that provided it, imo, if you want to do the right thing.

If you want to quickly find it's value or who "owns" it, ask if you can buy it....your
information will be forthcoming in a hurry. lol.

The hospice I work for contracts the rental of big equipment (hospital bed, over bed table, oxygen concentrator, suction machine, wheelchair, commode, etc.) through a medical rental company. Their stickers are on everything with the phone number.

If you know what rental company it is, call them directly. Call hospice and they can call the rental company if you don't have stickers with the rental company's name.

I would NOT sell or give away any non-disposable equipment (what I mentioned above). Down the road (inventory) you WILL be liable for it. As for the disposable stuff, (Chux, urinal, bedpan, anything plastic-oxygen tubing, liners for suction machine, salves, creams, lotions, skin cleaning products, anything that can't be sterilized or disinfected), you can keep. Those personal products would not be donatable.

Keep trying until someone responds to your request. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.

The chuks, diapers, etc do not go back. As a non-profit assoc. my office would get this stuff donated on a regular basis. The nurses would use them for our patients. If u have these things and want to donate call a Visiting nurse agency, Red Cross or even nursing homes. Maybe someone being cared for would appreciate them to help with the cost of purchasing. Open bottles or tubes should not be donated.

My sympathies for the loss of your loved one.
I would contact Hospice.
Hospice made all the arrangements for my dad's bed, wheelchair and bedtable to be picked up.
Everything was picked up the next day. Everything else was left for the family to decide what to do with. We had alot of diapers, creams, lotions, shampoos, chuxs and medication etc.
I would not want to get a bill down the road for this equipment so I would exhaust all measures to
to have them pick it up or advise you if you keep it. Whatever you do...get everything in writing.
Good luck

You should call the company again. You don't want to be held responsible months down the road.

Graybrows, one must read the paperwork that came with each item, as it could be on a rental cycle. There might be the possibility that the items were rented out for 3 months, or 6 months. Then it would go back to the supplier.

I am surprised the supplier hasn't come by to pick up the equipment. I know when I called the supplier for pick-up, I needed to be home for the driver to get my signature and to pick up the item. It was a brand new wheelchair that my Dad only used a couple of times. I was going to donate said wheelchair to the senior facility, thank goodness I didn't, that would have been major bucks out of Dad's pockets.

Better to be on the safe side. Call someone and find out. If you can sell it or dispose of it, get the name of the person OK'ing this. I know you don't want that stuff around forever, but make sure you are ok to sell it or give it away, because you know how things go - things get sidelined, fall through the cracks.

If a company won't pick up the medical equipment, then yes I personally would go ahead and sell it if you had it this long without them picking it up. As long as you've made honest attempts especially if you've made multiple attempts, then this is the company's fault they didn't pick up the equipment because this tells you they don't really want or need it back that bad and they don't care what happens to it. If given this specific type of situation you describe, selling the equipment is exactly what I'd do if  i've made multiple attempts to get the equipment returned by contacting the company to no avail and they still wouldn't pick it up. You've had it six months so they've had more than a fair amount of time to pick it up so yes, I personally would go ahead and sell it for as much as I could get out of it as long as I didn't need it for myself. If they come back later to retrieve it and it's gone, that's their fault they didn't pick it up so the loss is on them but just make sure you log every time you try to contact them and what the results were. As long as you tried to contact them and they still didn't pick it up, it's their fault and their loss and something they'll just have to live with. They can let this be an expensive lesson learned to pick up their equipment when it's no longer needed and when they were contacted. If they try to take legal action in this particular type of case, all you can say in court is oh well you should've picked it up the first time you were cold and not stuck me with it for six months when the patient died and it was no longer needed. I personally would only call once or twice. Then after about 30 days I would sell it because I'm not running a storage unit. Now as for hospital beds, someone mentioned you can't make much on a hospital bed but I hate to differ since hospital beds brand new are very expensive. Even used ones are pretty expensive and you can actually make quite a pretty penny off of them if they're in excellent condition and not damaged. If everything is there and functional, yes, you really can make quite a bit off of it, especially if you happen to scrap it, but why would you want to scrap it when someone else can use it when the company won't pick it up and is using your house for a storage unit? I wouldn't tolerate it and would definitely sell it as long as I've made honest attempts to return it and the company refused to pick it up. 

In fact, during summer you see private sales around here and every so often you'll see medical equipment show up in those sales that used to belong to someone who either no longer needs it or they died. Medical equipment especially canes, crutches, walkers, bedside toilets, and wheelchairs are common items sold around here. In fact, a good friend of mine who lost her special needs daughter still had her hospital crib her manual lift hoist when she died. She was able to sell that equipment to someone who gave it a good home. Another way to get medical equipment around here is if you know someone who is contracted to clean out empty buildings. You never know what you'll find in some of these homes and apartments or other buildings and medical equipment is often among things collected by a friend of mine living  nearby. One time I got a free bedside toilet and I still have it in storage. I like the idea of donating old equipment but if you need that money real bad and the equipment is originally very expensive then I personally would sell it under your specific type of situation. Best yet, I wouldn't pay the bill after selling an item the company willingly refused to pick up especially for this long. If you had it for six months and they haven't picked it up by now, they probably won't

Legally? No. It's not yours to sell.
Call them again.

I ran into that with a C-Pap machine. One call and they came almost immediately.

You need to contact Hospice and find out who their supplier is. Then call the supplier and tell them they never picked up the equipment and they have a certain time to do so. Working for a local Visiting Nurse Assoc., I was told all Medicare funded equipment has to be returned to where u purchased it. When my Dad was on Hospice, the supplier was there the next day picking up the hospital bed and all other equipment.

To my knowledge, Medicaid pays for equipment outright and you own it. So time to place an ad on craigslist. If you know of a close friend or family member that may need, it is Christmas time (smile). My former sister in law gave me her mother's hoya lift to use for my mother which has been a godsend. There may be local vet homes, etc. that if you donate you get a great tax write off versus selling the eqpt. Good Luck.

The equipment provided by Hospice is rented.
Most equipment is picked up, sanitized and rented again.
Some equipment is single use, or single patient.
A commode chair is cleaned and rented again but the waste bucket is disposed of.
A lift is cleaned and rented again but some of the slings are single patient.
There should be a toll free number on the equipment contact the company and ask that they come and get the items. They will tell you if they are single patient or if they need to be returned.
Contact Hospice. Explain the situation and ask that the equipment be picked up.
It might have been that the paperwork for this may have been over looked. And it is possible that they have been paying rental on this equipment. (not a strong possibility but patient numbers on orders may have been mixed up and someone else had equipment that was picked up in error.)
In any case if after exhausting all possibilities if you are still stuck with this equipment and you want to get rid of it look in your area for a Senior Service that has a Medical Lending Closet. They will loan equipment to people that need it but can not afford rental. You will get a tax deduction for the donation. Selling used medical equipment does pose liability risks to both buyer and seller.

if they got it for free i would suggest you find a local equipment closet and donate the items this is something we have done alot over the years

Check with the Hospice company. My experience was that Hospice rented equipment like beds,
wheelchairs and oxygen concentrators. Things like walkers and commodes were puchased because they said they could not be sterilized and given to another patient. They were left at the patient's house and the caregivers could use them or get rid of them. When i had my first hip replacement I was told what I would need such as raised toilet seat, walker and comode. I was responsible for obtaining those and found them for a few $s each at various sales. That suited me just fine. needless to say I kept everything for future use.

You might get away with selling it, but the truth is it's not yours to sell. So don't.

How many times have you chased up the people who were supposed to collect it? Do that, set them a deadline, tell them if they haven't taken it away by [date] you're dumping it. I'd say end of next week is fair enough, bearing in mind how long they've already had.

Check to make sure it is not rented.
I know that once Medicare pays for DME if you sell it, it may be unethical because accepting payment if Medicare paid can be considered fraud. Medicare should be reimbursed as they paid.
Tricky situation.

You can also call the hospice company which ordered the hospital bed. It might have more power to get the DME back out to get the bed.

Either way, I'd be seriously concerned about eventual liability as sooner or later I would think an inventory would reveal that a bed is missing. And if you've sold it, you may be on the hook for it. Read the terms and conditions of use when the bed was delivered.

See if there is a label on the underside with a vendor name on it, like Soandso Home Health Care (HHC) or Durable Medical Supply. I doubt you'd make much selling a bed since most are rentals covered by insurance. But your liability could be high. Id find the durable med supply house on the label or call the predominant one in your area.

My mother on traditional Medicare was provided a hospital bed. Her Medicare paperwork showed the bed each month. Medicare was making a rental payment on it. After a number of months of Medicare paying for it. 12 or 24, I can't remember now, the bed belonged to her.
If you look at your fathers paperwork from Medicare you should be able to find the information needed to communicate with them.
You haven't had it long enough to own it if the rules are the same in your state. Obviously someone dropped the ball.

Make sure that it was actually purchased and not rented by Medicare. If your parent was on hospice care less than a month, Medicare might only have rented the equipment. It would be a terrible thing to have a bill presented to you if you sell equipment that does not belong to you. Send a letter to the provider return receipt requested advising them that you will be disposing of the equipment unless otherwise notified within 15 business days.