By owning demand in one metro instead of buying it shared. Stairlifts and home elevators are cash-pay because Medicare denies them as convenience items not primarily medical in nature. Scooters and power wheelchairs are Part B durable medical equipment and run through a prescription and prior authorization, so they are a different sale entirely.
This is not reimbursement advice. Everything below about Medicare is quoted from CMS and Medicare.gov and linked so you can read the source. Coverage in any individual case is decided by the treating provider's documentation, the supplier's Medicare enrollment and the applicable coverage determination, not by a marketing page. Check the current text at the links, and use your billing counsel for anything that touches a claim.
Two products, two completely different sales. Getting that wrong is the most expensive mistake in this category, because it puts a reimbursement enquiry into a cash-pay follow-up sequence and a cash-pay buyer into an insurance paperwork process. This page sorts them, then covers how the demand gets bought.
Why do shared leads from national networks convert slowly?
The model is simple and so is the arithmetic. A national network buys an enquiry once and sells it to several dealers in the market. The buyer, who filled in one form, gets several calls and talks to whoever is first.
So a dealer's real close rate on a shared lead is roughly its own sign rate divided by the number of dealers racing for it, weighted by how often it is the one that calls first. A lead at a third of the exclusive price, shared four ways, is more expensive per sale than the exclusive unless the dealer wins that race most of the time. Most do not, because they receive the lead by email and see it when someone checks the inbox.
There is no dealer-specific study of this, and anyone who quotes you one should be asked for the sample. What does exist is the general research on how fast contact odds decay, from outside this industry:
| Finding | Source | Type and caveat |
|---|---|---|
| "The odds of contacting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 100 times. The odds of qualifying a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times." | InsideSales.com with Dr James Oldroyd, then at MIT Sloan, 2007. 15,000+ web leads, 100,000+ call attempts, six companies. PDF | vendor-academic Not a DME dataset. Nearly 20 years old. Quoted here for the shape of the curve, not the constants. |
| "We audited 2,241 U.S. companies ... 23% of the companies never responded at all. The average response time, among companies that responded within 30 days, was 42 hours." Firms responding within an hour were "nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead". | Harvard Business Review, March 2011, Oldroyd, McElheran and Elkington. Article, PDF copy | vendor-academic Cross-industry, not DME. The 23% who never responded is the number worth sitting with. |
Both are the studies every speed-to-lead page in every industry cites. Neither was run on mobility dealers, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. They establish that response speed dominates in a race; they do not establish your close rate.
The second problem with a shared lead is what it is: a name and a phone number with no situation attached. The dealer does not know whether it is a straight staircase or a curved one, whether the buyer is the person using it or an adult child three states away, or whether the caller is expecting Medicare to pay for something Medicare denies. Those are found out on the call, or worse, in the driveway.
What four questions qualify a stairlift or scooter buyer?
Asked on the page, before the enquiry becomes an appointment. Four is the right number: enough to route the enquiry, few enough that a 74-year-old finishes the form.
Who is it for, and are you the one deciding?
Roughly half of these enquiries come from an adult child, often not living in the home and often not the person who signs. This one question tells the sales team who needs to be on the call, whether a second decision maker exists, and whether a home visit should be booked when both can be present. Getting it wrong costs an entire visit.
What is the physical situation?
For a stairlift: straight or curved, and how many steps, and is there a landing or a turn. Straight runs use stock rail and can often be installed within days; curved runs need a custom rail, which changes both the lead time and the price bracket materially. For a scooter or power chair: indoors, outdoors, or does it need to go in a vehicle, and is there a step or threshold at the door. This is the question that makes the quote real instead of a range.
Is this being paid for privately, or are you expecting insurance to cover it?
The single most valuable question on the page, and the one most dealers leave off because it feels awkward. It is not awkward; it is kind. It separates a cash-pay buyer from someone about to be disappointed, and it lets the dealer give the coverage answer honestly on the first call instead of after a visit. The table in the next section is the answer that question routes to.
What is the timeline, and has something already happened?
A discharge date, a fall that has already happened, or a family member arriving at the weekend are all urgency, and they all mean the buyer is ready now. "Just researching for later" is a real and legitimate answer that belongs in a nurture sequence, not on a sales calendar. Sorting these two apart is most of the difference between a full diary and a busy one.
Those four also make the follow-up writable. A curved-stair enquiry from an adult child paying privately with a discharge date next Friday is a different message from an indoor-scooter enquiry with an insurance expectation and no timeline, and a generic "thanks for your interest" serves neither.
What does Medicare cover, and what does it not?
Straight from CMS and Medicare.gov, with the language quoted, because in this category the paraphrases have drifted a long way from the source.
| Product | Position | The published language | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stairlift (stairway elevator) | Not covered | "Stairway Elevators: Deny - (See Elevators.) (§1861(n) of the Act)." | NCD 280.1, DME Reference List |
| Home elevator | Not covered | "Elevators: Deny - convenience item; not primarily medical in nature (§1861(n) of the Act)." | NCD 280.1 |
| Grab bars | Not covered | "Grab Bars: Deny - self-help device; not primarily medical in nature (§1861(n) of the Act)." | NCD 280.1 |
| Lift chair (seat lift mechanism) | The mechanism only, conditionally | Covered when "prescribed by a physician for a patient with severe arthritis of the hip or knee and patients with muscular dystrophy or other neuromuscular diseases". Payment for a unit combining recliner features with a seat lift is limited to the amount payable for a standard seat lift without the recliner. Spring-release catapult-type lifts are excluded. | NCD 280.4, Seat Lift |
| Manual wheelchair | Covered if criteria met | "Covered if patient meets Mobility Assistive Equipment clinical criteria" | NCD 280.1 |
| Power wheelchair and scooter | Covered if criteria met | "Part B covers power wheelchairs and scooters only when they're medically necessary"; "You must have a face-to-face examination and a written prescription from a treating provider"; prior authorization may be required; "After the Part B deductible, you pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount" | Medicare.gov, NCD 280.1 |
| Walker | Covered if criteria met | "Covered if patient meets Mobility Assistive Equipment clinical criteria" | NCD 280.1 |
| Any DME | Definitional test | Must be "Durable (can withstand repeated use), Used for a medical reason, Typically only useful to someone who is sick or injured, Used in your home, Expected to last at least 3 years"; suppliers and doctors must be "enrolled in Medicare" | Medicare.gov, DME coverage |
primary All rows are CMS or Medicare.gov, read 15 September 2026. NCD 280.1 shows an effective date of 9 June 2025; NCD 280.4 an effective date of 1 May 1989. Coverage determinations change; check the links. Not reimbursement advice.
Read the pattern and the marketing strategy writes itself. The denial language for stairlifts, elevators and grab bars is not "too expensive" or "not yet approved". It is "convenience item; not primarily medical in nature". That is a permanent category judgement under section 1861(n) of the Social Security Act, not a policy that is about to loosen. Those products are, and will stay, a private purchase made by a family, on a timeline the family sets. That is a marketing problem, and a solvable one.
The Part B products are not a marketing problem in the same way. A power chair sale runs through an examination, a prescription, prior authorization and a Medicare-enrolled supplier. Advertising can start that conversation, but the thing that closes it is documentation, and no campaign fixes documentation. Dealers who sell both sides do best when the qualifying page routes them apart on question three and stops pretending they are one funnel.
What we never put in a creative, a page or a message. No Medicare claims, no coverage promises, no "Medicare may pay for this" framing, no medical advice and no health claims. Coverage is decided by a treating provider's documentation, the supplier's enrollment and the applicable determination. An ad that implies otherwise generates enquiries the dealer has to disappoint, which is an expensive way to buy a bad review.
Want the cash-pay demand in your metro, and nobody else's?
Meta and Google demand for stairlifts, scooters, lift chairs and ramps, a four-question qualifying page, booking and tracking through to the sale. One dealer per metro, in writing, with the metro named. Flat monthly fee, you fund the ads.
See if my metro is open No Medicare claims, no medical advice, no health claims in creative.What does exclusivity per metro actually mean?
The word is used loosely enough in this industry to be worthless, so here is what it should mean, stated in terms you can put in an agreement.
| Exclusivity means | It does not mean |
|---|---|
| Every enquiry the campaigns produce goes to one dealer, and only that dealer | That the dealer is the only advertiser in the auction. Every competitor can still bid. |
| No second dealer in the same named metro is taken on while the agreement runs | A guaranteed share of search results or a ranking promise |
| The metro is named in the agreement, with its boundary written down | "Your area", undefined, reinterpreted later |
| The dealer owns the ad accounts, the domain and the phone number; the agency holds user access | Assets held in the agency's account that the dealer loses on the way out |
| Month to month, so exclusivity is re-earned rather than locked in | A long contract that protects the agency instead of the dealer |
| One dealer per metro because a shared enquiry converts worse, not as a scarcity tactic | An artificial waiting list |
The left-hand column is the whole difference between owning demand and renting it. A shared lead network cannot offer any row in it, because selling the same enquiry more than once is the business model.
The economics follow from the first row. When the enquiry is yours alone, the race disappears, and with it the reason a fast dealer and a slow dealer see wildly different returns from the same lead price. What is left to optimise is the qualifying page, the speed of the first call and the quality of the home visit, all of which the dealer controls. That is a considerably better set of problems than trying to out-dial three competitors who received the same email.
If you want that run for you rather than described, that is the offer on the mobility page: demand built in your metro, a four-question qualifying page, booking and tracking through to the sale, one dealer per metro, flat monthly fee, you fund the ads.
Frequently asked questions
How do mobility and DME dealers get cash-pay buyers in 2026?
By owning demand in one metro instead of buying it shared. Stairlifts and home elevators are cash-pay because Medicare denies them as convenience items not primarily medical in nature. Scooters and power wheelchairs are Part B durable medical equipment and run through a prescription and prior authorization, so they are a different sale entirely.
Does Medicare cover a stairlift?
No. In the CMS Durable Medical Equipment Reference List, National Coverage Determination 280.1, Stairway Elevators are listed as Deny, cross-referenced to Elevators, which are listed as Deny, convenience item; not primarily medical in nature, under section 1861(n) of the Social Security Act. That is why a stairlift is a cash-pay purchase. This is not reimbursement advice.
Does Medicare cover a scooter or a power wheelchair?
Yes, conditionally. Medicare.gov states that Part B covers power wheelchairs and scooters only when they're medically necessary, that you must have a face-to-face examination and a written prescription from a treating provider, that prior authorization may be required, and that after the Part B deductible you pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount. Suppliers must be enrolled in Medicare. This is not reimbursement advice.
Does Medicare cover a lift chair?
Only the seat lift mechanism, not the chair. NCD 280.4 covers a seat lift when prescribed by a physician for a patient with severe arthritis of the hip or knee and patients with muscular dystrophy or other neuromuscular diseases, and payment for a unit combining recliner features with a seat lift is limited to the amount payable for a standard seat lift without the recliner. This is not reimbursement advice.
Why do shared leads from national networks convert slowly?
Because the same enquiry is sold to several dealers and the buyer talks to whoever calls first. A dealer's close rate on a shared lead is roughly its own sign rate divided by the number of dealers racing for it, so paying less per lead than an exclusive costs more per sale unless the dealer is reliably first. The lead is also usually minutes to hours old by the time it arrives, and speed research going back to 2007 and 2011 found contact and qualification odds collapse within the first hour.
What four questions qualify a stairlift or scooter buyer?
Who is it for and are they the one deciding; what is the physical situation (straight or curved staircase and number of steps, or indoor, outdoor and vehicle transport for a scooter); is this being paid for privately or is insurance expected to cover it; and what is the timeline, particularly whether there is a discharge date or a fall that has already happened. Those four sort a cash-pay buyer from a reimbursement enquiry before anyone drives to a home.
What does one dealer per metro actually mean?
That the campaigns, the qualifying page, the phone number and every enquiry they produce belong to one dealer in that market, and that no other dealer in the same market is taken on while the agreement runs. It is written into the agreement with the metro named. It is not a promise about the wider auction, which stays open to every competitor, and it is not a claim about organic search.
Can mobility dealers make Medicare claims in ads?
We do not put Medicare claims, coverage promises, medical advice or health claims into any creative, page or message we run. Coverage is decided by a treating provider, the supplier's Medicare enrollment and the applicable coverage determination, not by an ad. A page that promises coverage creates a reimbursement expectation the dealer then has to unwind on the phone.
Method and sources
Every coverage statement on this page was read from CMS or Medicare.gov on 15 September 2026 and is linked at the page it came from. The two response-time studies are cross-industry and are labelled as such wherever they appear; neither was run on mobility or home medical equipment dealers, and no figure on this page is presented as our own measurement. Nothing here is reimbursement advice.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. National Coverage Determination 280.1, Durable Medical Equipment Reference List. Effective 9 June 2025. Entries quoted: Stairway Elevators, Elevators, Grab Bars, Seat Lifts, Wheelchairs (manual, power, scooter), Walkers. primarycms.gov, NCD 280.1
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. National Coverage Determination 280.4, Seat Lift. Effective 1 May 1989. Conditions of coverage, the recliner payment limit, and the spring-release exclusion. primarycms.gov, NCD 280.4
- Medicare.gov. Wheelchairs and scooters coverage. Medical necessity, face-to-face examination and written prescription, prior authorization, 20% coinsurance after the Part B deductible, supplier enrollment. primarymedicare.gov/coverage/wheelchairs-scooters
- Medicare.gov. Durable medical equipment coverage. The five-part DME definition, the 20% coinsurance, and the list of covered examples. primarymedicare.gov/coverage/durable-medical-equipment-dme-coverage
- InsideSales.com with Dr James Oldroyd, 2007. Lead Response Management study. 15,000+ web leads, 100,000+ call attempts, six companies. Contact odds drop 100 times and qualification odds 21 times between 5 and 30 minutes. Not a DME dataset. vendor-academicLead Response Management Report, PDF
- Harvard Business Review, March 2011. Oldroyd, McElheran and Elkington, "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads". 2,241 US companies audited; 23% never responded; 42-hour average response among those that did within 30 days. Cross-industry, not DME. vendor-academichbr.org · PDF copy
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