Guide
Rent or buy?
A short recovery and a permanent need are different problems, and the wrong answer is expensive in both directions.
The basic question
How long will you need it? Six weeks after a knee replacement is a rental question. A permanent mobility limitation is a purchase question. Everything else is judgment.
What plans generally do
- Inexpensive or routinely purchased items can usually go either way, and your supplier is required to tell you that you have the choice.
- Capped rental items — hospital beds, wheelchairs, many larger items — are rented for a defined period after which ownership or continued use is resolved under the plan's rules.
- Some items are purchase-only, and some are rental-only.
Which category your item falls in is set by the plan, not by preference. We will tell you which applies before you decide anything.
Practical considerations people forget
- Maintenance. Rented equipment is maintained and repaired by the supplier at no cost to you. Purchased equipment past its warranty is yours to fix.
- Getting rid of it. A purchased hospital bed in a small home is a problem when it is no longer needed. Rented equipment gets collected.
- Changing needs. If the condition is progressing, an item that suits today may not suit in six months. Renting keeps options open.
- Private pay. If you are paying yourself, ask whether rental payments apply toward purchase. For many items they do.
Related
About this guide
This is general information written to be useful, not medical advice, and it is not a coverage determination. It does not replace what your own clinician has told you about your own situation — where the two differ, follow your clinician.
We deliberately publish no prices, allowables or fee-schedule figures. Those vary by plan, state and year, and a stale number is worse than none. Call (800) 304-7030 and we will verify your actual benefit.
Not sure where to start?
Call us and tell us what happened — a surgery, a new diagnosis, a discharge date, a supply you keep running out of. We will tell you what is usually needed, check your benefits, and ask your prescriber for the order if you do not have one yet.