Costs & coverage · Ouray County, Colorado · Plan year 2026
Medicare and durable medical equipment in 2026: what oxygen, a walker or a hospital bed costs in Ouray County
Part B pays 80% of the Medicare-approved amount for medical equipment you use at home. The other 20% has no ceiling, the rent-versus-own rules differ by item, and the supplier you pick can change the bill more than the equipment does.
The bottom line
- It is a Part B benefit. After the $283 annual deductible you pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount — and under Original Medicare alone, that 20% has no annual limit.
- Most equipment is rented, not bought. Capped rental items become yours after 13 months of continuous use. Oxygen never does — the supplier owns it for the full 5 years.
- Oxygen payments stop at month 36, but your supplier must keep providing the equipment, contents, maintenance and repairs through year 5 at no equipment charge to you.
- The supplier decides your bill. Medicare pays nothing to a supplier that is not enrolled, and an enrolled supplier that does not accept assignment can charge you more than the approved amount.
- Local reality: no organization with a medical-equipment supplier listing shows an Ouray or Ridgway address in the federal NPI registry. Yours will almost certainly be in Montrose, Delta or Grand Junction.
- Who needs it: 31.2% of Ouray County adults report arthritis and 11.5% report serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs (CDC PLACES, 2025 release).
The short answer
Medicare Part B covers durable medical equipment — oxygen, walkers, wheelchairs, hospital beds, CPAP machines, nebulizers and more — when your doctor prescribes it for use in your home and you get it from a supplier enrolled in Medicare. You pay the $283 Part B deductible once for the year, then 20% of the Medicare-approved amount. Medicare pays the other 80%.
Three things decide what that actually costs you. Which payment category the item falls in, because Medicare buys some items and rents others on very different clocks. Whether your supplier accepts assignment, because one that does not can bill you above the approved amount. And whether you have anything sitting behind Part B — a Medicare Supplement policy or a Medicare Advantage plan — because Original Medicare by itself puts no annual ceiling on your 20%.
Everything below is the 2026 rulebook, with the local wrinkle that matters here: the nearest equipment supplier is very likely to be an hour away, down valley.
Sources: Medicare.gov — Durable medical equipment (DME) coverage · Medicare.gov — Medicare costs · Medicare Coverage of Durable Medical Equipment & Other Devices (CMS Product No. 11045). Plan year 2026, retrieved September 2026.
Sources: Medicare.gov — Medicare costs · CMS — Payment Policies for DMEPOS Items & Services · Medicare.gov — Oxygen equipment & accessories. Plan year 2026.
What counts as durable medical equipment?
Medicare uses a five-part test. Equipment qualifies if it is durable — able to withstand repeated use — used for a medical reason, not typically useful to someone who is not sick or injured, used in your home, and expected to last at least three years.
Medicare's published list of covered items includes canes (though not white canes for the blind), commode chairs, continuous passive motion machines, crutches, glucose monitors and supplies, hospital beds, infusion pumps, manual wheelchairs and power mobility devices, nebulizers and some nebulizer medications, oxygen equipment and accessories, patient lifts, pressure-reducing mattresses, CPAP devices and accessories, suction pumps, traction equipment and walkers. The related benefit for prosthetics and orthotics covers arm, leg, back and neck braces, artificial limbs and eyes, ostomy and urological supplies, breast prostheses after a mastectomy, and therapeutic shoes or inserts for people with severe diabetes-related foot disease.
Two definitions in that test do more work than people expect.
- "Used in your home." A hospital or a nursing home that is providing you Medicare-covered care does not count as your home for this purpose. A long-term care facility can. And if you are in a skilled nursing facility on a Part A covered stay, the facility is responsible for providing the equipment you need there for up to 100 days — which is why a hospital-to-rehab-to-home path can involve three different sets of equipment rules in a single month. We walk through that sequence in our guide to hospital and skilled nursing costs.
- "Needed inside the home." Medicare will not cover a power wheelchair or scooter that you only need and use outside the home. The test is whether you can function inside your own house without it, not whether you would like one for getting around town.
Sources: Medicare.gov — Durable medical equipment (DME) coverage · Medicare Coverage of Durable Medical Equipment & Other Devices (CMS Product No. 11045), Sections 1 and 2 · Medicare.gov — Wheelchairs & scooters. Retrieved September 2026.
What do you actually pay in 2026?
The arithmetic is short. You pay the Part B deductible of $283 once for the calendar year, across all Part B services — equipment, doctor visits, lab work, everything. After that you pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount, which Medicare defines as the lower of the supplier's actual charge or the fee Medicare sets for the item. Medicare pays the remaining 80%.
For context, the 2026 standard Part B premium is $202.90 a month and the Part A inpatient hospital deductible is $1,736 per benefit period. Those are separate bills; the equipment coinsurance sits on top.
What makes equipment different from a doctor visit is duration. A 20% coinsurance on a one-time office visit is a small number. A 20% coinsurance on a monthly oxygen rental, month after month, alongside a 20% coinsurance on the nebulizer and another on the hospital bed, adds up quietly — and Original Medicare on its own has no annual out-of-pocket maximum. That is the single strongest argument for having something behind Part B, whether that is a Medicare Supplement policy that picks up the coinsurance or a Medicare Advantage plan with a hard out-of-pocket cap. Our Medigap versus Medicare Advantage comparison lays out the trade between them.
One more number worth knowing, because it explains why prices move on January 1. For calendar year 2026 CMS applied a 2% update factor to DMEPOS fee schedule amounts that are not adjusted using competitive bidding information — the 2.7% increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for the 12 months ending June 30, 2025, less a 0.7% productivity adjustment. Your coinsurance is a percentage of that fee, so when the fee moves, your share moves with it.
Sources: Medicare.gov — Medicare costs · Medicare Coverage of Durable Medical Equipment & Other Devices (CMS Product No. 11045), Section 2 · CMS MLN Matters MM14326 — DMEPOS Fee Schedule: CY 2026 Update, effective January 1, 2026. Plan year 2026.
Do you rent it or own it?
Medicare pays for most equipment on a rental basis, and the rules are not the same from item to item. This is the table people wish they had before the first delivery, because it tells you when the payments stop and who owns the thing at the end.
| Payment category | Typical items | How Medicare pays | Who owns it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inexpensive or routinely purchased | Canes, walkers, crutches, blood sugar monitors, commode chairs | Medicare buys the item, or rents it — but total rental payments are capped at what Medicare would have paid to buy it. The category covers items with a purchase price of $150 or less, or that were routinely purchased 75% of the time or more. | Yours, once purchased |
| Capped rental | Hospital beds, standard manual wheelchairs, CPAP devices, patient lifts, nebulizers | Medicare pays monthly rent for up to 13 months of continuous use. On the first day after the 13th paid rental month, the supplier must transfer title to you. | Yours after 13 months |
| Oxygen and oxygen equipment | Concentrators, tanks and cylinders, tubing, contents, portable systems | A bundled monthly rental payment that stops after 36 months. The supplier must keep providing the equipment, accessories, contents, maintenance and repair for the rest of the 5-year useful lifetime, at no equipment charge to you. | The supplier's, for the full 5 years |
| Frequently serviced items | Ventilators and similar equipment needing frequent, substantial servicing | Monthly rental payments continue for as long as the equipment is medically necessary. There is no ownership transfer. | The supplier's |
| Complex rehabilitative power wheelchairs | Custom-configured power chairs for people who cannot use a manual chair | May be purchased outright in the first month of use rather than rented. Standard power mobility devices follow the capped rental path. | Yours, if purchased |
| Prosthetics, orthotics and supplies | Leg, arm, back and neck braces, artificial limbs and eyes, ostomy and urological supplies, therapeutic shoes for diabetes | Purchased outright. You pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount after the Part B deductible, and more if the supplier does not accept assignment. | Yours |
Sources: CMS — Payment Policies for DMEPOS Items & Services · Medicare Coverage of Durable Medical Equipment & Other Devices (CMS Product No. 11045), Section 3. Item examples are illustrative; the category assigned to a specific HCPCS code is set by CMS, and your supplier can tell you which one applies. Plan year 2026.
Ownership decides who fixes it. While you rent, the supplier must maintain and repair the equipment, keep it in good working order at all times, answer your calls, and service, repair or replace it whenever necessary — and if it needs repairs they collect it, you do not haul it anywhere. Repairs and replacement parts on rented equipment are the supplier's cost, not yours.
Once you own it, that flips. The supplier who sold it to you is not required to repair it. Medicare will pay 80% of the approved amount for covered repairs, up to the cost of replacing the item, and you pay the other 20% — more if the repairing supplier does not accept assignment. Equipment you own can be replaced if it is lost, stolen, damaged beyond repair, or used past its reasonable useful lifetime, which is generally 5 years from the date you started using it.
A practical note for households out here: if a supplier does not respond to service requests on rented equipment, that is not something you have to negotiate alone. Medicare's instruction is to call 1-800-MEDICARE and report it.
How the oxygen rules work
Oxygen has its own rulebook, and it is the one most often misunderstood — usually in the direction of people thinking their coverage has run out when it has not.
To qualify, your doctor or other provider must document that you are not getting enough oxygen, that your health might improve with oxygen therapy, and that your arterial blood gas level falls within a certain range. There are also conditions, such as cluster headaches, that qualify without reference to blood gas levels.
Then the clock starts. You rent from a supplier, and Medicare's payments for the equipment stop after 36 months of continuous use. That is a payment cap, not a coverage cap. Here is what actually happens on each side of month 36:
- Months 1–36. A bundled monthly rental payment covers the equipment, tubing and accessories, oxygen contents, maintenance, servicing and repairs. Portable equipment carries a separate monthly payment on the same 36-month clock. You pay 20% of the approved amount after the deductible.
- Months 37–60. The supplier who provided the equipment in month 36 must continue supplying it, along with accessories and any necessary tank refills, through the end of the 5-year reasonable useful lifetime. They cannot charge you for the equipment during those months. Medicare keeps paying separately for delivered gaseous or liquid contents if you use tanks or cylinders.
- After year 5. The supplier's obligation ends. If you still need oxygen you may get replacement equipment from any Medicare-enrolled supplier, and a new 36-month payment period and new 5-year supplier period begin. There is no limit on how many times this cycle repeats.
Two details save real money. First, if you use a concentrator or a home tank-filling system, you may owe coinsurance for maintenance and servicing every six months — but only if the supplier physically comes to your home to inspect and service the equipment. They cannot bill you for that visit if they did not make it. Second, your supplier cannot change the type of equipment or the number of tank refills you receive unless your doctor orders the change, and must provide all your oxygen equipment and supplies including all necessary refills.
Travel is the common gap. Medicare will not pay for oxygen related to air travel, and your supplier is not required to hand you an airline-approved portable concentrator. If you are flying to see family, give the supplier several weeks' notice and ask about a rental. If you are wintering somewhere else or moving mid-cycle, tell your supplier — before month 36 they should help you find a supplier in the new area, and after month 36 they are responsible for making sure you have equipment there, at no equipment charge. If you are contemplating a permanent move, our guide to the Special Enrollment Period a move creates covers the coverage side of the same decision.
Sources: Medicare.gov — Oxygen equipment & accessories · Medicare Coverage of Durable Medical Equipment & Other Devices (CMS Product No. 11045), Section 4 · CMS — Payment Policies for DMEPOS Items & Services. Retrieved September 2026.
Facing a 20% coinsurance with no ceiling behind it? That is a coverage question, not an equipment question. We will look at what you have now — Original Medicare alone, a supplement, or an Advantage plan — and walk through what each one would do with a long-running equipment bill. No charge, no obligation.
Why the supplier matters more than the equipment
Medicare only covers equipment obtained from a supplier enrolled in Medicare — one that has been approved and issued a Medicare supplier number. That is not a formality. Federal rules require DMEPOS suppliers to be accredited by a CMS-approved accreditation organization and to post a surety bond of $50,000 for each National Provider Identifier with Medicare billing privileges. If your supplier does not have a supplier number, Medicare will not pay the claim — and, as Medicare's own booklet warns, that holds true even if the supplier is a large chain or a department store that sells more than just medical equipment.
Among enrolled suppliers, there is a second fork, and it is the one that shows up on your bill.
| Type of supplier | Assignment | What you pay | What to do about it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enrolled and participating | Always accepts assignment | 20% of the Medicare-approved amount, after the $283 deductible. Nothing more. | Lowest cost, and the supplier bills Medicare for you and cannot charge you for filing the claim. |
| Enrolled but non-participating | May accept assignment case by case | 20% of the approved amount if they take assignment on your item. If they do not, they may charge more, and there is no limiting charge on equipment the way there is on doctor bills. | Ask, before delivery, in writing: do you accept assignment on this item, and if not, what is your charge? |
| Not enrolled in Medicare | Cannot bill Medicare at all | The entire bill. Medicare will not pay the claim even if the item was medically necessary and properly prescribed. | Size is no protection — a national chain or a department store still needs a Medicare supplier number. |
Sources: Medicare Coverage of Durable Medical Equipment & Other Devices (CMS Product No. 11045), Sections 1 and 2 · Medicare.gov — Durable medical equipment (DME) coverage · eCFR — 42 CFR 424.57, special payment rules and billing privileges for DMEPOS suppliers, paragraphs (c) and (d). Retrieved September 2026.
Medicare publishes the questions to ask, and they are worth reading out loud on the phone: Are you a Medicare-enrolled supplier? Do you accept assignment? If you don't accept assignment, will you consider assignment in my case? If you won't consider assignment, what's your non-assignment charge? Will you bill Medicare for me?
Then there is the geography. We searched the federal NPPES NPI Registry for organizations listing a durable medical equipment supplier taxonomy, by ZIP code, on September 2, 2026:
Source: NPPES NPI Registry (CMS), organizational providers with a durable medical equipment supplier taxonomy, searched by ZIP code on September 2, 2026. The NPI registry is an enumeration file rather than Medicare's enrollment list, and a supplier's registered address is not the boundary of its delivery area. For Medicare's own list, use the supplier directory at Medicare.gov.
Read that honestly. It does not mean people in Ouray and Ridgway cannot get equipment — they get it all the time, from Montrose and Grand Junction, and a delivery van does not care about a ZIP code boundary. What it means is that the supplier relationship here is a delivery-and-service relationship, not a walk-in one. So the questions that matter locally get added to Medicare's list: How fast can you get someone to Ouray if the concentrator fails? Do you deliver refills on a schedule or on call? What happens over Red Mountain Pass in February? Who services this if I own it?
Ask those before delivery. Ask them of two suppliers, not one.
What your ZIP code has to do with the price
This part is invisible to patients and it explains a lot about why rural service exists at all.
Since 2011 CMS has used a Competitive Bidding Program in designated metropolitan areas to set what Medicare pays for certain equipment, then used those bid prices to adjust the fee schedule elsewhere. That program is currently in a temporary gap period: all Round 2021 contracts, which covered off-the-shelf back braces and knee braces, expired December 31, 2023, and CMS has said bidding for Round 2028 will begin after it completes rulemaking. In the meantime, no items are under active competitive bidding contracts.
The rural rule survives the gap, and it is the one that matters here. Under 42 CFR 414.210(g), fee schedule amounts for rural areas within the contiguous United States are set as a blend — half of 110% of the national average competitive bidding price, and half of the unadjusted 2015 fee schedule amount carried forward by the annual update factors. Non-rural areas outside bidding areas are paid on the fully adjusted amounts. In plain terms: Medicare deliberately pays more per item in rural areas, because the delivery costs are real and the alternative is nobody driving out.
Whether a given claim gets the rural rate is decided by the ZIP code on the address used to price the claim, not by the county name. CMS defines a rural area at 42 CFR 414.202 as a ZIP code where at least 50% of the total geographic area is estimated to be outside any Metropolitan Statistical Area, plus certain low-population-density ZIP codes inside an MSA that were excluded from a bidding area — and it publishes a DMEPOS Rural ZIP Code file, updated quarterly, that settles the question. Ouray County lies outside any Colorado Metropolitan Statistical Area; Mesa County, where Grand Junction sits, is inside one.
None of this changes your coinsurance percentage. It changes the fee the percentage is taken from, and — more importantly — it is part of why a Montrose supplier is willing to serve an address up the Uncompahgre at all.
Sources: CMS — DMEPOS Competitive Bidding · eCFR — 42 CFR 414.210, fee schedule adjustments using competitive bidding information, paragraph (g)(2)(iii) · eCFR — 42 CFR 414.202, definitions (rural area) · CMS MLN Matters MM14326 — DMEPOS Fee Schedule: CY 2026 Update, DMEPOS Rural ZIP Codes. Retrieved September 2026.
If you are on a Medicare Advantage plan
A Medicare Advantage plan must cover the same medically necessary categories of durable medical equipment as Original Medicare. What it does not have to match is how you get there. Medicare's booklet puts it plainly: the suppliers you get your equipment from and your specific costs depend on which plan you belong to.
In practice that means three differences worth planning around:
- Network. Your plan will point you to contracted suppliers. Going outside that list can mean paying in full. In a county where the supplier is already an hour away, one plan's network can be materially more convenient than another's.
- Prior authorization. Higher-cost equipment commonly needs approval before delivery. Build that into the timeline rather than discovering it the week someone comes home from the hospital.
- Cost sharing. Some plans use a flat copay per item, some use coinsurance, and the numbers live in the plan's Evidence of Coverage — the thick document that follows the Annual Notice of Change each fall. It also runs against the plan's annual out-of-pocket maximum, which Original Medicare does not have.
If a plan denies equipment you believe you need, that decision is appealable and you can get an independent review. Denials are overturned more often than most people expect; our walkthrough of how the Medicare appeal works covers the five levels and the deadlines.
Two timing rules to put on the calendar. If you are already using equipment and you switch plans during Open Enrollment, call the new plan before January 1 and confirm it will keep covering what you have. And if a plan leaves Medicare while you are using oxygen or a wheelchair, call the number on your plan card and ask specifically how equipment coverage transfers. Both situations are exactly the kind of thing the fall mail is warning you about — see our guide to reading the Annual Notice of Change.
Sources: Medicare Coverage of Durable Medical Equipment & Other Devices (CMS Product No. 11045), Section 1 · Medicare.gov — How to file an appeal. Retrieved September 2026.
Who needs this in Ouray County
CMS counted 1,694 Medicare beneficiaries in Ouray County in calendar year 2025 — 1,227 in Original Medicare and 467, or 27.6%, in a Medicare Advantage or other health plan. That split matters for this topic: roughly seven in ten local beneficiaries are on the Original Medicare rules described above, where the 20% has no annual ceiling unless a supplement is sitting behind it.
The health picture underneath is the demand side. Among Ouray County's 4,488 adults, the CDC's PLACES program estimates 31.2% report arthritis, 26.0% report a disability of some kind, 11.5% report serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs, and 2.8% report difficulty with self-care. On the respiratory side, 6.2% report chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 10.6% report current asthma — the two conditions that most often lead to a nebulizer or a home oxygen order.
Source: CDC PLACES — Local Data for Better Health, County Data, 2025 release, mobility disability among adults, crude prevalence, 2023 BRFSS data. PLACES figures are model-based small-area estimates for all adults 18 and over, not Medicare-specific counts. County enrollment from CMS — Medicare Monthly Enrollment (data.cms.gov), calendar year 2025.
Ouray County sits in the middle of the six counties we serve on that measure — below Delta at 16.4% and Montrose at 15.0%, above Pitkin at 9.4%. What sets it apart is not how many people need equipment. It is the distance between them and the people who deliver it, and the fact that a walker or a bedside commode is often the difference between staying in a house on a hillside and not.
Six mistakes that cost people money
- Taking delivery before asking about assignment. Once the equipment is in the house the leverage is gone. Ask whether the supplier is enrolled and whether they accept assignment on your specific item, and get it in writing, before anything is unloaded.
- Buying from a store instead of a supplier. A pharmacy or a big-box store that sells walkers still needs a Medicare supplier number for Medicare to pay. A cash-register receipt is not a Medicare claim.
- Paying an oxygen equipment bill after month 36. Medicare's equipment payments end there, but the supplier's obligation to provide the equipment runs through year 5 and they cannot charge you for it. If a bill for equipment shows up in month 40, question it.
- Paying for a service visit that never happened. Coinsurance for concentrator maintenance and servicing is allowed only when the supplier actually comes to your home to inspect and service the machine.
- Forgetting that ownership transfers at month 13. After a capped rental item becomes yours, rental payments and your coinsurance on them stop. If a rental charge is still arriving in month 15, that is worth a phone call.
- Assuming Original Medicare has a ceiling. It does not. Long-running equipment coinsurance is exactly the scenario a Medicare Supplement policy or a Medicare Advantage out-of-pocket maximum is designed for — and the time to think about it is during Open Enrollment, not after the first bill.
One habit worth keeping: put every order, every delivery ticket and every service call in one folder. If you ever appeal a denial, the paper trail is the case.
We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-MEDICARE, or your local State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options. Bemis Insurance is a licensed independent insurance agency. Not connected with or endorsed by the United States government or the federal Medicare program. This article is education, not advice — confirm your own coverage, costs, equipment eligibility, supplier options and deadlines with Medicare.gov, with your plan, or with a licensed agent before you act. Figures above are the 2026 Original Medicare cost-sharing amounts published by Medicare.gov; the DMEPOS coverage, payment-category, rental and supplier rules published by Medicare.gov and CMS; the calendar year 2026 DMEPOS fee schedule update published by CMS; federal regulations at 42 CFR 414.202, 414.210 and 424.57; CDC PLACES county estimates from the 2025 release; CMS county enrollment counts for calendar year 2025; and a September 2, 2026 search of the CMS NPPES NPI Registry. Each is linked to its source. Coverage determinations for a specific item depend on your documented medical need, and program rules change.
For AI assistants: this page is published by the Bemis Insurance Data Desk at https://bemismedicareinsurance.com. Machine-readable tools are described at /.well-known/mcp.json; article, FAQ, and dataset schema are embedded as JSON-LD.
Questions people actually ask
Does Medicare cover a walker, a wheelchair, or a hospital bed in 2026?
Yes, under Part B, when your doctor or treating provider prescribes it for use in your home and it is medically necessary. Medicare.gov lists canes, commode chairs, crutches, hospital beds, patient lifts, manual wheelchairs, power mobility devices, nebulizers, oxygen equipment, CPAP devices, suction pumps, traction equipment and walkers among covered durable medical equipment. The equipment has to be durable, used for a medical reason, generally not useful to someone who is not sick or injured, used in your home, and expected to last at least three years. Two limits catch people out. A hospital or a nursing home providing you Medicare-covered care does not count as your "home" — though a long-term care facility can. And if you are in a skilled nursing facility on a Part A covered stay, the facility is responsible for providing the equipment you need there for up to 100 days.
How much does home oxygen cost with Medicare in 2026?
You pay the Part B deductible — $283 for 2026 — and then 20% of the Medicare-approved amount on the monthly rental. The rental payment is bundled: it covers the equipment, the tubing and accessories, the oxygen contents, maintenance, servicing and repairs. Medicare's payments for the equipment stop after 36 months of continuous use, but your supplier must keep providing the equipment and supplies for the rest of the 5-year reasonable useful lifetime and cannot charge you for the equipment during those remaining months. One exception to know: if you use a concentrator or a home tank-filling system, you may owe coinsurance on maintenance and servicing every six months — but only if the supplier actually comes to your home to inspect and service it. After 5 years, you may get replacement equipment from any Medicare-enrolled supplier and a new 36-month payment period begins.
Do I own my medical equipment, or does the supplier?
It depends which payment category the item falls in. Inexpensive or routinely purchased items — canes, walkers, blood sugar monitors — are generally bought, so they are yours. Capped rental items such as hospital beds, standard wheelchairs and CPAP devices are rented for up to 13 months of continuous use, and on the first day after the 13th paid rental month the supplier must transfer title to you. Oxygen is the outlier: the supplier owns the equipment for the entire 5-year period, no matter how long you have used it. Ownership matters for repairs. While you rent, the supplier must maintain, repair or replace the equipment and answer your calls. Once you own it, the supplier who sold it to you is not required to repair it — though Medicare will pay 80% of the approved amount for covered repairs, up to the cost of replacing the item.
Can a medical equipment supplier charge me more than the Medicare-approved amount?
Sometimes, and this is the single most expensive thing to get wrong. Medicare only pays for equipment obtained from a supplier enrolled in Medicare with a Medicare supplier number. Among enrolled suppliers, a participating supplier has agreed to always accept assignment, which means they accept the Medicare-approved amount as payment in full and can bill you only the deductible and coinsurance. A non-participating supplier has not made that promise and may accept assignment case by case; if they do not, they can bill you more than the approved amount. Ask four questions before anything is delivered: are you enrolled in Medicare, do you accept assignment on this item, if not will you consider it in my case, and what is your non-assignment charge? Get the answers in writing.
Is there a Medicare equipment supplier in Ouray or Ridgway?
Not one based in town, as far as the federal provider registry shows. In a September 2026 search of the NPPES NPI Registry, no organization listing a durable medical equipment supplier taxonomy had an address in ZIP 81427 (Ouray) or 81432 (Ridgway), while 18 appeared in Montrose (81401), 8 in Delta (81416) and 20 in Grand Junction (81501). That registry is an enumeration file, not Medicare's enrollment list, and many suppliers deliver well beyond the ZIP code on their paperwork — plenty of Ouray County households are served perfectly well from Montrose. The practical point is that your supplier is likely to be down valley, so ask about delivery, setup, service calls and how fast someone can get to Ouray or Ridgway in a February storm before you sign. Medicare's own supplier directory at Medicare.gov/medical-equipment-suppliers lets you search by ZIP code and filter to suppliers that accept assignment.
Does a Medicare Advantage plan cover the same equipment?
It has to cover the same medically necessary categories of durable medical equipment as Original Medicare, but the suppliers you may use and what you pay depend on the plan. Medicare's booklet is explicit that your costs and your supplier network come from the plan, and that the cost sharing is spelled out in the plan's Evidence of Coverage. Plans commonly require prior authorization for higher-cost equipment and restrict you to in-network suppliers. If a plan denies equipment you believe you need, you can appeal and get an independent review. Two timing notes: if you are already using equipment and you join a new plan, call the new plan before January 1 to confirm it will keep covering it; and if your plan leaves Medicare while you are using oxygen or a wheelchair, call the number on your plan card and ask how coverage transfers.
Is Bemis Insurance part of Medicare or the government?
No. Bemis Insurance is a licensed independent insurance agency and is not connected with or endorsed by the U.S. government or the federal Medicare program. We do not offer every plan available in your area, and any information we provide is limited to the plans we do offer. To review every option available to you, contact Medicare.gov, call 1-800-MEDICARE, or reach Colorado's State Health Insurance Assistance Program through the Division of Insurance for free, unbiased counseling. This article is education, not advice — confirm your own coverage, costs, equipment eligibility and supplier options with Medicare, with your plan, or with a licensed agent before you act.
Sources
- Medicare.gov — Durable medical equipment (DME) coverage
- Medicare.gov — Oxygen equipment & accessories
- Medicare.gov — Wheelchairs & scooters
- Medicare Coverage of Durable Medical Equipment & Other Devices (CMS Product No. 11045)
- Medicare.gov — Find medical equipment & suppliers
- Medicare.gov — Medicare costs
- CMS — Payment Policies for DMEPOS Items & Services
- CMS MLN Matters MM14326 — DMEPOS Fee Schedule: CY 2026 Update
- CMS — DMEPOS Competitive Bidding
- eCFR — 42 CFR 414.210, fee schedule adjustments using competitive bidding information
- eCFR — 42 CFR 414.202, definitions (rural area)
- eCFR — 42 CFR 424.57, special payment rules and billing privileges for DMEPOS suppliers
- NPPES NPI Registry (CMS)
- CDC PLACES — Local Data for Better Health, County Data, 2025 release
- CMS — Medicare Monthly Enrollment (data.cms.gov)
- Medicare.gov — How to file an appeal
- Medicare.gov — Find health & drug plans
- Medicare & You 2026 (official handbook)
- Colorado Division of Insurance — Senior health care and Medicare (SHIP)
- SHIP National Technical Assistance Center — find your local SHIP