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My former girlfriend gets powered wheelchairs through the Ontario Disability Support Program, and I witnessed and learned that the whole thing is such a fraud.

My former girlfriend gets powered wheelchairs through the Ontario Disability Support Program, and I witnessed and learned that the whole thing is such a fraud. Her powered chair was just over $20,000 and was a terrible piece of machinery. You were definitely not getting the "medical devices have to be reliable" premium. And any time the technician came out, we got a bill to forward to ODSP for thousands of dollars, even for the simplest fix. And of course there was zero competition: there was one and exactly one vendor you could go to for this stuff. They were, of course, terrible with customer service, terrible with technician competence, and their products were consistently terrible. I'm usually instantly skeptical of any tech startup that wants to airdrop into a problem space and disrupt things, but in this case, I'm 38,000% confident that there's something that can be done with this one.

badjoak 2y ago
You had to have cashflow to pay those bills and wait for a redund? Sounds terrifying.
- loufe 2y ago
  I have an Ontarian optometrist in the immediate family. I helped them set up a very tangled and innefficient ODSP claims process. It's a terribly, terribly managed program. I'm not sure if the OP has to pay and be reimbursed, but I wouldn't be surprised. That family member has to wait upwards of a year sometimes to be reimbursed, occaisionnaly they wait that much time only to be refused because of a "problem" which is not detailed anyways, so the business has to waste time to figure out problems. All the while, they are in the hole for that money.
- nick3443 2y ago
  Sounds like someone should make them available to lease
- Waterluvian 2y ago
  No, ODSP covered it. The vendor would basically have an outstanding balance on the account until ODSP sent them the money. Still had to send the paperwork in to get that all going.
Suppafly 2y ago
>And of course there was zero competition: there was one and exactly one vendor you could go to for this stuff. They were, of course, terrible with customer service, terrible with technician competence, and their products were consistently terrible. It's probably not a cost effective market to be in and getting a government monopoly is the only way to make it viable in the first place.

badjoak 2y ago

You had to have cashflow to pay those bills and wait for a redund? Sounds terrifying.

loufe 2y ago
I have an Ontarian optometrist in the immediate family. I helped them set up a very tangled and innefficient ODSP claims process. It's a terribly, terribly managed program. I'm not sure if the OP has to pay and be reimbursed, but I wouldn't be surprised. That family member has to wait upwards of a year sometimes to be reimbursed, occaisionnaly they wait that much time only to be refused because of a "problem" which is not detailed anyways, so the business has to waste time to figure out problems. All the while, they are in the hole for that money.
nick3443 2y ago
Sounds like someone should make them available to lease
Waterluvian 2y ago
No, ODSP covered it. The vendor would basically have an outstanding balance on the account until ODSP sent them the money. Still had to send the paperwork in to get that all going.

Suppafly 2y ago

>And of course there was zero competition: there was one and exactly one vendor you could go to for this stuff. They were, of course, terrible with customer service, terrible with technician competence, and their products were consistently terrible. It's probably not a cost effective market to be in and getting a government monopoly is the only way to make it viable in the first place.