Which durable medical (DME) items might Original Medicare provide, if home health is ordered post-op?

I worked where there was a loan closet. Pretty sure Medicare will not pay for a shower chair. Maybe there is a list online, the benefits book doesn't give much info. You want Durable Equipment. Check with ur secondary insurance too.

Speak with the social worker or discharge planner at the hospital or rehab. They should take care of obtaining a doctor’s order, getting insurance approval, ordering from a medical supply and arranging delivery of anything you need.

My Mom’s DME Equipment was paid in full by her Medicare Care Supplemental policy.

I've found it easier and better to buy it ourselves. It's not that much more expensive for us due to the copay. Buying it ourselves means we can get what we need and not what medicare will provide. For example, we needed a full electric hospital bed. The electric up and down is the only function we really needed. Full electric hospital beds aren't covered by medicare. They only go as high as semi electric so up and down would have been a hand crank. When trying to transfer someone between a bed and a wheelchair and the height needs a bit of an adjustment, running to the foot of the bed to crank it is really not an option.

Another example is wheelchair. Medicare would pay for a 2 year rental with a $2 copay. That's $48 out of pocket before we owned it. The problem was that the model we were offered didn't have removable armrests. That's the one thing we needed to make transferring between bed and wheelchair easier. So we bought our own. $100 on Amazon.

Thanks! My concern is that with hip replacement, you have to have the elevated toilet seat ready to go. When my spouse was prescribed home health, it took the agency ten days to manage the first assessment visit. The risk of dislocation, plus the discomfort after hip surgery require the seat be available immediately. Which makes me think I may just have to purchase outright myself.
so many shower chairs on the market, I don’t know if there is a specific type that is safe, or unsafe....

We purchased MIL durable equipment for her. Bought her a bench type shower seat that I place a towel folded in half for her for comfort. Same with everything else she needed. It was quicker than waiting for approval let alone assessment. She cannot lay flat to sleep so we purchased an adjustable bed for her too. (This one was on me, knowing she was coming to stay with us I wanted her to have something nice she could use and in her head it wasn't a "hospital" bed) Their idea was prop her up with a bunch of pillows or let her sleep propped up on the couch until assessment/delivery of bed,um no forget it, I'll take care of it. I'm sure they are way backed up appointment wise but there must be a better more streamlined way of getting patients what they need so it's there and set up when they get home, when they need it, not weeks later.I feel sorry for those that need to wait for such a long period of time. Couple of suggestions, check with your church, many have durable medical equipment that they will loan to you, also check your local lions or shriners clubs too. Many times they have items for loan too.

Thanks everybody, for weighing in. I’ll start getting in the supplies, due to the difficulty getting the items prior to surgery day, when I won’t be rounding things up, as I’ll well, be in surgery.