Process changes when requesting equipment loans, repairs and recycling through the At Home Program Medical Benefits

• Effective December 1, 2017, HealthLinc Medical Equipment Mobility & Accessibility (HME) will administer the (durable) Medical Equipment loan and repair service for the Ministry of Children and Family Development’s Medical Benefits program under the name Children’s Medical Equipment Distribution Service (CMEDS).
• As of September 1, 2017 the Medical Benefits program (MBP) began administering Biomedical Equipment loans, repairs and maintenance.
• As of October 31, 2017 the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) will no longer provide Medical Equipment loans, repairs, or recycling through the Children’s Medical Equipment Recycling and Loan Services (CMERLS).
• Please submit all requests for Durable Medical Equipment, as well as Biomedical Equipment and Biomedical Equipment repairs to the Medical Benefits program. Urgent requests for Durable Medical Equipment repairs may be sent to Medical Benefits until November 30, 2017.
• Effective December 1st requests for Durable Medical Equipment repairs may be sent to HME at CMEDSrepairs@hmebc.com.
• Durable Medical Equipment loan requests should be sent to the Medical Benefits program as of November 1, 2017.
• Durable Medical Equipment recycling will be on hold for the month of November. Please ask families to hold on to equipment until December 1, 2017. After that, families may contact HME to recycle durable Medical Equipment.

What’s staying the same?

• The Ministry will continue to assist parents and guardians of Children on the At Home Program and Children in Care of the Ministry with extraordinary costs of caring for a child with severe disabilities in their home through province-wide Medical Equipment and Biomedical Equipment programs. 
• There are no changes to program eligibility, or the equipment, repairs or maintenance the program will pay for. MBP approval will still be required for all equipment.

What’s changing?

• CMEDS will administer the recycled Durable Medical Equipment and MBP will administer Biomedical Equipment.
• Requests for Biomedical Equipment rentals, purchases and repairs and will be sent to MBP.
• Previously requests were sent to CMERLS and then forwarded to MBP.
• MB adjudicators are assisting parents to arrange Biomedical Equipment repairs with dealers. Dealers will invoice MBP for payment.
• Parents are asked to donate or dispose of Biomedical Equipment no longer needed, or hold on to the equipment until further information is available.
• A new tracking system will improve service delivery for children with severe disabilities, reduce timelines and improve access for children living outside of the lower mainland. The following new forms will be used with the new system:
• CMEDS Equipment Request Form
• CMEDS Repair Request Form
• All requests for new loans/trials must be completed by a therapist and sent to MCFD using the new Equipment Request Form to MCF.MedicalBenefitsProgram@gov.bc.ca or faxed to 1-250-356-2159.
• HME will arrange all durable Medical Equipment loans, trials, repairs and recycling for clients in the lower mainland and Vancouver Island. For clients outside these areas, HME will use a list of approved dealers.

New forms for prescribing therapists are available on the HME website (https://www.hmebc.com/), under "Therapist Resources" or at the following link: https://www.hmebc.com/cmeds-program/.

For additional information from HME please view the CMEDS Implementation Memo,call HME at 1-604-821-0075 and ask Jenny Mata or Robert Boscacci, or email customerservice2@hmebc.com.

If you have any questions please call Medical Benefits toll-free at 1-888-613-3232, or by email at MCF.MedicalBenefitsProgram@gov.bc.ca.