HB75 Alabama 2025 Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Adline ClarkeRepresentative

Democrat

Session

2025 Regular Session

Title

Wheelchairs; establishing requirements for repair

Summary

HB75 would require wheelchair dealers to repair wheelchairs promptly, expand Medicaid coverage for customized wheelchairs and related repairs, and strengthen oversight and reporting to ensure timely repairs.

What This Bill Does

It obligates authorized wheelchair dealers to repair wheelchairs in a timely manner and gives the Board of Home Medical Equipment authority to discipline dealers who repeatedly fail to do so. It requires Medicaid to cover medically necessary customized wheelchairs and reduces the need for new prescriptions or prior authorizations for repairs on recently purchased chairs. It creates clear timelines for repairs, sets dealer responsibilities (contact information, quick responses, and parts ordering), and establishes a complaint/inspection process starting in 2025. It also broadens licensing and enforcement provisions to penalize and deter noncompliant providers, and lays out reporting and rulemaking steps for implementation, with an effective date in 2025.

Who It Affects

• Wheelchair users and consumers (including Medicaid recipients) who would benefit from faster repairs, and who may receive coverage for customized wheelchairs when medically necessary.
• Wheelchair dealers, Medicaid contractors, and health benefit plans or private insurers that cover wheelchair services, who must meet new repair timelines, reporting requirements, and potential disciplinary actions.

Key Provisions

• Adds definitions for Authorized Wheelchair Dealer, Consumer, Customized Wheelchair, and Timely Repair, and sets Timely Repair as no more than 10 business days after a repair request, with listed exceptions.
• Requires authorized wheelchair dealers to repair promptly, maintain visible contact methods, respond within one business day of a repair request, and order necessary parts within three business days after assessing the repair or receiving prior authorization.
• Beginning October 1, 2025, requires the Board to post a complaints contact on its website and grants the board authority to inspect dealers for cause.
• Amends license discipline rules to allow the Board to deny, suspend, or revoke licenses for various violations, and to impose fines, restitution, and other penalties for repeated failure to repair timely.
• Medicaid coverage rules: customized wheelchairs must be medically necessary; no new prescription or prior authorization for repairs unless the original prescription/authorization is within five years for under 21 or seven years for 21 and older; annual reporting by Medicaid wheelchair contractors on repair timeliness.
• Health benefit plans (post-2026): may not require a new prescription or prior authorization for medically necessary repair or replacement of a customized wheelchair unless the original prescription is more than five years old; Commissioner to adopt rules and forms to implement.
• Effective date: October 1, 2025, with federal approval efforts and rulemaking to follow.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 22, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.

Subjects

Elderly & Disabled Persons