how does apria account for the disparity in pricing of these two wheelchairs? the company says its own employee made an honest mistake and should have charged cnn $949 for the tracer. $949 for a wheelchair whose manufacturer suggests a list price of $655 and a wheelchair we, again, found online even cheaper than when we first bought it for $289 and $249 free shipping. apria says it charges more for its wheelchair because of extensive government paperwork and its full service, 24 hours a day including free delivery. john rother with the retirement advocacy group aarp says industry is just trying to protect profits w

apria health care, the same company charging medicare $1200.p with a system where renting this wheelchair would cost four times the amount of money it would take to actually buy it? let me give you a hint. >> congress sets payment rules and the statute is very prescrippive. >> reporter: jonathan blum is tasked with seeing how to change things. he points out it is very different from how the rest of the country shops. congress sets the rules for how much a wheelchair should be rented for and congress has determined that the wheelchair should be rented for a period of 13 months instead of just buying them, and congress has determined price is not as important as other considerations, like small business contracts and availability. >> you can't imagine anybody who actually had to pay for this would go out and get the same price that the government is being handed. >> it's wrong. the good news is, we have new authority right now to use competitive bidding which would give the program much more flexibility. >> reporter: that new authority is to actu

it's apria that has already billed the government $1,200. to check prices, we decided to buy our own chair. the company we contacted said brown's model is no longer being made, but this one, being made by the same company is even better. >> these are pretty sturdy, right? >> yes. >> reporter: the price? just $349. the company selling it to us? apria health care. the same company charged medicare $1,200. so, who would come up with a system where renting this wheelchair would cost four times the amount of money it would take to actually buy it? let me give you a hint. >> well, congress sets payment rules, and the statute's prescriptive as to who has to pay for health care services. >> reporter: jonathan blum is president obama's pick to try to change for how the change of centers for medicaid and medicare services, cms, has been paying for this. which as he points out is very different from how the rest of the country shops. congress, it turns out, sets the rules for how much a wheelchair should be rented for, and congress has determined that