Whirl Pool Bath

[Guest lschaab]

We have a participant who has submitted a request to us to determie the eligibility of a portable 'whirl pool' bath for Plantar Safciitis. We think a foot bath could possibly pass, but believe he is attempting to get a hot tub passed by us. He does have a doctors note saying that the purchase of a 'whirl pool' is medically necessary to treat his condition. NO other details. Anyone want to comment??

[WDIK]

Can you respond that it would be elgibile up to some nominal amount, say $50? This would allow the purchase of a foot bath, but not a hot tub.

[Guest JerseyGirl]

We have in the past, approved the purchase of a spa (hot tub to you easterners) for treatment of a severe back problem. I contacted the IRS; on their website they have a place where you can send questions via e-mail, and after a few days I received a response. What we did was find out how many people were full time residents of the participants home – in this case it was 2—and only allowed 50% of the cost of the spa to be eligible. We also had several letters from various medical professionals who were rendering treatment.

In this scenario, I have to agree that a spa is *over-kill* for a sore foot and believe a foot bath would suffice. I would request a lot more details from the doctor than “whirl pool” and suggest that the participant get specific details of the exact make and model the doctor recommends to properly treat his condition.

I don’t think that the suggestion from WDIK would pass IRS scrutiny either, since it does not sound like uniform coverage to me, but if the plan documents were to limit certain types of reimbursements you could perhaps get away with it.

How about you try to come up with a percentage of the body that the sore foot represents –say 3% per foot, in case he has problems with both of them—and allow for reimbursement of that percentage of the purchase price of the spa ???? If it is a legitimate claim, he just might go for it!