Tag Archives: insurance

Paying for Toyota Wheelchair Vans

2013 Toyota Sienna VMI Summit Silver VMi New England35
Toyota Wheelchair Van Payment Considerations
You’ve found the perfect Sienna. Now you need to think about how you’re going to pay for your Toyota wheelchair van. Different situations call for different actions. Here are some tips that can help you make the payment process easier whether you’re working with a dealer, an individual seller or need to pay for additional wheelchair van modifications.

When purchasing from a Toyota mobility dealer, you want to take smart actions that will protect you against paying too much for your wheelchair van. Here are a few ideas:

Buy at the right time.
Did you know that you can get the best deals during the last few weeks of the year and during the months of July through September? Prices tend to be lower during those periods.

Resist the extras.

Your Toyota dealer will undoubtedly offer you extra features and protections. Some may be great investments. Others may be unnecessary. Be smart and resist sales pitches for the extras you don’t need.

Know the market.
Investigate what other dealers are doing and what is happening overall in the marketplace. Knowledge is power. That information will protect you from paying too much and can help you negotiate the best possible deal.

When purchasing your Toyota wheelchair van from a private seller, you’ll want to use a cashier’s check from your bank or a money order. This protects both parties and avoids risks associated with the three most common alternatives.

Sellers don’t want your personal check. You’re not the only person who will want to make paying for your Toyota wheelchair van safe and convenient. The seller will be interested in protecting himself or herself, too. A personal check requires a leap of faith on the part of the seller. He or she probably won’t take it.

Cash is too risky.
You don’t want to pay for your vehicle in cash. It doesn’t create a paper trail and it’s simply unsafe to visit someone you don’t really know with a large quantity of cash on your person.

Moneygrams and Western Union are not a good idea. These services exist so that people who know one another can send money in a pinch. They’re poorly designed for transactions like this. Additionally, these services are frequently used by those who are less interested in getting you a nice Sienna and more interested in robbing you!

Paying for your Toyota wheelchair van may be only part of a bigger picture. You may also need to pay for conversions to the vehicle in order to make it a perfect wheelchair van for you. Here are a few considerations to keep in mind when paying for conversions.

Look for “free” money.
Before you spend your own money on conversions, find out if you’re eligible for any government assistance. You should also check with your health insurance or worker’s compensation insurance to find out if your situation will compel them to pick up part of the overall modification bill.

Work with the dealer.
In many cases, your Toyota dealer can include the costs associated with wheelchair van modifications into your auto loan. That leaves you with only one monthly payment and may allow you to finance equipment and conversion services at a lower interest rate.

Visit your doctor. See your doctor and find out if you can get a written prescription for your wheelchair adaptations. If you have a prescription, you may be exempt from paying sales tax on your conversion.

Following recommendations like these can make paying for your Toyota less expensive and more convenient.

How Car Insurance Fees Can Be Lowered For Handicapped Drivers

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One common misconception about car insurance is that handicapped drivers pay more for coverage than non-handicapped drivers. This simply is not true. Federal law prevents car insurance companies from discriminating against handicapped drivers due to their disabilities. Many states have additional laws on the books, and even if car insurance companies were allowed to discriminate, they would likely discriminate in favor of handicapped drivers; statistically speaking, they are more careful than non-handicapped drivers and much less likely to be involved in accidents. Nevertheless, handicapped drivers need the lowest possible rates on car insurance just as much as all other drivers, and it is worthwhile to know a few ways that they can cut their car insurance fees.

Handicapped drivers should first look for safety discounts because this is one of the fastest ways to change premium rates without adjusting the coverage levels. Many car insurance companies offer safety discounts for any drivers who have vehicles with special safety features like side airbags and anti-lock brakes. You can find out whether your car insurance company offers these discounts by studying your policy contract or simply by calling your car insurance agent and asking about available options. If your car is already outfitted with safety features, you are wasting money by not asking for discounts, and if your car is not outfitted, you might look into having some low-cost safety measures installed to keep your car insurance fees low. Ask whether modifications that you have made to a car for your handicap qualify for discounts; even something like oversized mirrors can often have a positive effect on premiums. Other discounts will apply to handicapped drivers who take road safety courses, students, and even drivers who have simply kept their insurance coverage up for a specified length of time. The key is to ask-you will often be surprised at how quickly your car insurance fees will drop.

Online car insurance websites can also help handicapped drivers to find lower rates. Reputable websites will not ask about a driver’s handicap or even inquire as to the handicap status of the driver. Instead, car insurance websites will ask questions about your vehicle and driving record to determine how much of an insurance risk that you pose, and this information will be submitted to car insurance companies in order to return a few quotes. These websites make it easy to look at your insurance options, which in turn, can help a driver to find a better policy than what he or she currently has. Always take the time to compare car insurance quotes. Handicapped drivers and all other drivers can benefit from this, as it is the best possible way to keep rates down.

How Honda Wheelchair Van Insurance Really Works

If your ever in a accident in your wheelchair van and have insurance questions or need your to have repairs made contact the experts at the Mobility Center in Bridgewater, MA with your questions 508-697-6006

2012 Honda Odyssey  CB024644 Front Left Side View

We all know that we need to carry insurance on our Honda wheelchair vans. We understand that it’s a legal requirement and we recognize the value of being properly insured in case of an accident. Most of us are not insurance experts, though. In fact, some aspects of vehicle insurance confuse many of us. Let’s look at how wheelchair van insurance really works.

What Are You Buying?
When you insure your Odyssey or Element, what are you actually buying? “Insurance” actually consists of many different elements. Your policy may or may not have provisions covering all of them. They include:

  • Bodily Injury Liability: This covers you if your Honda hurts or kills someone in an accident.
  • Comprehensive: This covers damage to your Honda from non-accident sources like weather and vandalism.
  • Property Damage Liability: This is legally required everywhere. It’s the portion of your insurance that covers damage to the other party’s vehicle after an accident.
  • Collision: This covers damage to your Honda if it’s involved in an accident.
  • Medical Payment: This provides coverage for you and/or your passengers for medical expenses related to an accident.
  • Uninsured Motorist: If someone who doesn’t have insurance injures you, this will cover you.

The limits of your coverage and your deductibles for each element of your policy will vary based upon what you’ve purchased from your insurance company.

What Determines Your Rates?
How do insurance companies decide how much to charge you for that coverage? They look at a variety of factors.

Your actual vehicle is an important part of the puzzle. The value of your Odyssey or Element will have an impact on the price of your policy, because the cost of covering replacement and repair vary based upon the vehicle.

There’s more to it than that, though. Insurance companies also look at the vehicle type to help determine how likely you will be to utilize your insurance coverage. That’s why it’s cheaper to insure an Odyssey than an Element–minivans tend to have fewer significant claims than do small SUVs.

You can also expect the modifications you’ve made to your Honda wheelchair van to influence policy pricing. You may be an excellent driver, but the fact that modified vehicles tend to be involved in a relatively high number of claims is reason enough for insurance companies to increase premiums on wheelchair vans, in most cases.

You are part of the pricing equation, too. Your personal driving record, age, gender and any license restrictions you may have will influence the price of insurance. Non-driving related factors such as home ownership, credit rating, and where you live will also influence pricing. Insurance companies look at multiple variables to determine your probable level of risk.

Finally, the policy limits and coverage you select will influence your insurance pricing. If you’re only purchasing the minimum requirement of liability insurance in an effort to “stay legal,” you’ll spend a lot less than you would for full coverage with all available protections.

Purchasing insurance is always a process of balancing the best possible coverage with affordability. The levels of coverage you need and the amount you can spend will, obviously, vary based on a series of individual factors. The most important thing to remember is to be certain you have adequate coverage to meet both the legal requirements and your personal needs.

You’ll also want to consider insuring your mobility aids, vehicle modifications and equipment. Most vehicle policies will cover your Odyssey or Element, but they won’t cover your lift or ramp. They’ll replace your bumper if you get in an accident, but they won’t necessarily pay to fix your low-effort steering system if it’s damaged.

Insuring a Honda wheelchair van isn’t really a complicated procedure. When you understand the different kinds of coverage and how rates are set, the process is even easier to understand.

How Ford Wheelchair Van Insurance Really Works

If you’re ever in a accident in your wheelchair van and have insurance questions or need your to have repairs made contact the experts at the Mobility Center in Bridgewater, MA with your questions 508-697-6006

2013 Ford Tuscany Wheelchair Van

Buying insurance can be a complicated process. For those of us who haven’t spent a great deal of time thinking about insurance and how it works, purchasing insurance for a wheelchair van can be rather intimidating. So here is a little information about the way Ford wheelchair van insurance really works.

Information about Coverage
Your Ford wheelchair van insurance is made up of individual elements. When one talks about vehicle insurance, they’re actually referring to a combination of different forms of insurance with different purposes.

For example, you can buy liability insurance. That will pay for any damage you might cause if you have an accident. Liability insurance is a legal requirement. Bodily injury liability coverage will defray the medical expenses of anyone who may be injured by your vehicle in an accident.

Due to the high number of people who fail to meet their state-mandated legal obligations, many Ford wheelchair van drivers purchase uninsured or underinsured motorist insurance. This feature of a policy will protect you in the event that another driver collides with you and doesn’t have adequate coverage.

There is insurance designed to cover all of our own medical expenses if you’re in an accident and most new vehicle buyers purchase comprehensive policies that cover damage caused by vandalism, weather, and virtually any other mishap. If you are still making payments on a financed vehicle, the lender will generally require proof of comprehensive coverage as a term of the loan.

Those are only a few of the different forms of coverage that may be involved in covering your Ford. Different policies have different benefits and various insurance companies offer variations on the same theme. You may be interested in hearing about some of the other forms of protection they offer when insuring your wheelchair van.

Information of Rate Determinations
Now that we’ve discussed what you’re buying, we can explore why it costs so much! Most of us find insurance rather expensive and many wonder why different people may be subject to wildly different rates. There are a number of factors at play.

The most significant factor in setting insurance rates is the driver. Insurance companies evaluate data and look at multiple variables to determine how likely you are to be in an accident or to file a claim.

That’s why a 45-year old with a perfect driving record pays less for the same coverage than an 18-year old who’s already collected numerous. Your age is just one example of the many demographic variables influencing your rates. Your driving history is another.

Unfortunately, that means you’ll pay more than most people when you insure your Ford wheelchair van. Even if you are a fantastic driver, the overall statistics do indicate that drivers with disabilities are more likely to be involved in claims and accidents. US federal law prohibits insurance companies from discrimination based on disability, but they can consider those statistics when determining rates.

Your Ford wheelchair van will also influence how much you pay for your insurance. Again, the insurance companies base their rates on all available data and they have a very good idea of how much different vehicle types cost to repair and how likely they are to be involved in a claim. That’s why a sports car will cost more to insure than a dull four-door sedan.

It’s also another reason while you will be paying more than the average for your wheelchair van insurance. Wheelchair vans tend to cost a great deal to repair and data does indicate that they are more likely than many vehicle types to be involved in insurance claims. Additionally, wheelchair van owners need to be certain that their special equipment and modifications are insured. That drives up the price of their policies even more.

Insurance can be complicated and you need to be considerate when making decisions. Having at least a basic understanding of coverage types and the factors influencing the price of insurance should help.

Spinal Cord Injury Information – Will You Stand For Those Who Can’t?

Spinal Cord Injury Facts & Statistics

Who Do Spinal Cord Injuries Affect in the United States?
  • 250,000 Americans are spinal cord injured.
  • 52% of spinal cord injured individuals are considered paraplegic and 47% quadriplegic.
  • Approximately 11,000 new injuries occur each year.
  • 82% are male.
  • 56% of injuries occur between the ages of 16 and 30.
  • The average age of spinal cord injured person is 31.
  • SCI injuries are most commonly caused by:
    • Vehicular accidents 37%
    • Violence 28%
    • Falls 21%
    • Sports-related 6%
    • Other 8%
  • The most rapidly increasing cause of injuries is due to violence; vehicular accident injuries are decreasing in number.
  • 89% of all SCI individuals are discharged from hospitals to a private home, 4.3% are discharged to nursing homes.
  • Only 52% of SCI individuals are covered by private health insurance at time of injury.

What Do Spinal Cord Injuries Really Cost?
  • Length of initial hospitalization following injury in acute care units: 15 days
  • Average stay in rehabilitation unit: 44 days
  • Initial hospitalization costs following injury: $140,000
  • Average first year expenses for a SCI injury (all groups): $198,000
  • First year expenses for paraplegics: $152,000
  • First year expenses for quadriplegics: $417,000
  • Average lifetime costs for paraplegics, age of injury 25: $428,000
  • Average lifetime costs for quadriplegics, age of injury 25: $1.35 million
  • Percentage of SCI individuals who are covered by private health insurance at time of injury 52%
  • Percentage of SCI individuals unemployed eight years after injury 63%. (Note: unemployment rate when this article was written was 4.7%)
 Source: The University of Alabama National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center – March 2002

Number of New Injuries Per Year
32 injuries per million population or 7800 injuries in the US each year

Most researchers feel that these numbers represent significant under- reporting. Injuries not recorded include cases where the patient instantaneously or soon after the injury, cases with little or no remaining neurological deficit, and people who have neurologic problems secondary to trauma, but are not classified as SCI. Researchers estimate that an additional 20 cases per million (4860 per year) die before reaching the hospital.

Total Number of People with SCI
  • 82% male, 18% female
  • Highest per capita rate of injury occurs between ages 16-30
  • Average age at injury – 33.4
  • Median age at injury – 26
  • Mode (most frequent) age at injury 19
  • Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of SCI (44%), followed by acts of violence (24%),falls (22%) and sports (8%), other (2%)
  • 2/3 of sports injuries are from diving
  • Falls overtake motor vehicles as leading cause after age 45
  • Acts of violence and sports cause less injuries as age increases
  • Acts of violence have overtaken falls as the second most common source of spinal cord injury
  • Marital status at injury:
    • Single 53%
    • Married 31%
    • Divorced 9%
    • Other 7%
  • 5 years post-injury:
    • 88% of single people with SCI were still single vs. 65% of the non-SCI population
    • 81% of married people with SCI were still married vs. 89% of the non-SCI population
  • Employment status among persons between 16 and 59 years of age at injury:
    • Employed 58.8%
    • Unemployed 41.2%
      (includes: students, retired, and homemakers)
  • Employed 8 years post-injury:
    • Paraplegic 34.4%
    • Quadriplegic 24.3%

People who return to work in the first year post-injury usually return to the same job for the same employer. People who return to work after the first year post-injury either worked for different employers or were students who found work.

How are spinal injuries caused?
Until the most recent figures were released by NSCIA in August, 1995, these were considered as the major causes of spinal cord injuries. See Answer to # 4 and Dr. Wise Youngís statistics in Section 2 for all the most recent demographics. One of the most surprising findings is that acts of violence have now overtaken falls as the second most common source of spinal cord injury,  as of the 1995 findings.

Previous To 1995:

  • Motor vehicles 48%
  • Falls 21%
  • Sports 14% (66% of which are caused in diving accidents)
  • Violence 15%
  • Other 2%

The Injury

Since 1988, 45% of all injuries have been complete, 55% incomplete. Complete injuries result in total loss of sensation and function below the injury level. Incomplete injuries result in partial loss. “Complete” does not necessarily mean the cord has been severed. Each of the above categories can occur in paraplegia and quadriplegia.

Except for the incomplete-Preserved motor (functional), no more than 0.9% fully recover, although all can improve from the initial diagnosis.

Overall, slightly more than 1/2 of all injuries result in quadriplegia. However, the proportion of quadriplegics increase markedly after age 45, comprising 2/3 of all injuries after age 60 and 87% of all injuries after age 75.

92% of all sports injuries result in quadriplegia.

Most people with neurologically complete lesions above C-3 die before receiving medical treatment. Those who survive are usually dependent on mechanical respirators to breathe.

50% of all cases have other injuries associated with the spinal cord injury.

Most Frequent Neurological Category
Quadriplegia, incomplete 31.2%
Paraplegia, complete 28.2%
Paraplegia, incomplete 23.1%
Quadriplegia, complete 17.5%

 

Hospitalization
(Important: This section applies only to individuals who were admitted to one of the hospitals designated as “Model” SCI centers by the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research.)

Over 37% of all cases admitted to the Spinal Cord Injury System sponsored by the NIDRR arrive within 24 hours of injury. The mean time between injury and admission is 6 days.

Only 10-15% of all people with injuries are admitted to the NIDRR SCI system. The remainder go to CARF facilities or to general hospitals in their local community.

It is now known that the length of stay and hospital charges for acute care and initial rehabilitation are higher for cases where admission to the SCI system is delayed beyond 24 hours. Average length of stay (1992):
Quadriplegics 95 days
Paraplegics 67 days
All 79 days

Average charges (1990 dollars) Note: Specific cases are considerably higher.
Quadriplegics $118,900
Paraplegics $ 85,100
All $ 99,553

Source of payment acute care:
Private Insurance 53%
Medicaid 25%
Self-pay 1%
Vocational Rehab 14%
Worker’s Comp 12%
Medicare 5%
Other 2%

Ongoing medical care: (Many people have more than one source of payment.)
Private Insurance 43%
Medicare 25%
Self-pay 2%
Medicaid 31%
Worker’s Compensation 11%
Vocational Rehab 16%

After the Hospital
Residence at discharge
Private Residence 92%
Nursing Home 4%
Other Hospital 2%
Group Home 2%

There is no apparent relationship between severity of injury and nursing home admission, indicating that admission is caused by other factors (i.e. family can’t take care of person, medical complications, etc.) Nursing home admission is more common among elderly persons.

Each year 1/3 to 1/2 of all people with SCI are re-admitted to the hospital. There is no difference in the rate of re-admissions between persons with paraplegia and quadriplegia, but there is a difference between the rate for those with complete and incomplete injuries.


Survival
Overall, 85% of SCI patients who survive the first 24 hours are still alive 10 years later, compared with 98% of the non-SCI population given similar age and sex.

Causes of Death
The most common cause of death is respiratory ailment, whereas, in the past it was renal failure. An increasing number of people with SCI are dying of unrelated causes such as cancer or cardiovascular disease, similar to that of the general population. Mortality rates are significantly higher during the first year after injury than during subsequent years.

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Every 48 minutes someone in the U.S. is paralyzed from a spinal cord injury.  Millions worldwide are living with paralysis as a result and living with the knowledge that there is currently no cure for their injury.

In an effort to raise awareness about the critical need for better treatments and preventive measures, September has been designated National Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month by the U.S. Senate, the result of a resolution co-sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bill Nelson (D-FL).  To bolster the resolution’s message, we are launching an awareness campaign lasting the entire month of September.

The goal of the campaign is to ask “Will You Stand Up For Those Who Can’t?”  The intent is to create a national conversation about the devastation of paralysis, and to bring this condition to the forefront of public awareness.

“Paralysis does not discriminate.  People need to realize that paralysis can happen to anyone at any time,” said Nick Buoniconti.  “But the reality of today’s statistics can’t be disputed.  Every 48 minutes another person in the U.S. will become paralyzed. That is simply unacceptable. Each of us must do what we can to make a difference.  I am personally asking you, will you stand up for those who can’t and do one or more of the following?”

We are asking our friends and supporters to:

Make a donation in honor of a loved one, caregiver, scientist or organization who is working to improve the life of those injured.  If you would like to host a small fundraising party at your house, please email bfinfo@med.miami.edu and we will send you more information.

“The inspiring work of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis has touched the lives of millions of young athletes, accident victims and troops in harm’s way and I commend them for it,” said Sen. Rubio. “By designating September as National Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month, I hope we can further educate the public about how crippling accidents can be prevented while promoting the important work being done to help victims walk again.”