Scooter Store files for Chapter 11 protection

Texas-based Scooter Stores files for bankruptcy protection in Delaware

NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) -- The Scooter Store, a Texas-based company that supplies power wheelchairs and scooters to people with limited mobility, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Monday's bankruptcy filing in Delaware comes after federal agents raided the company's South Texas headquarters earlier this year, and amid congressional scrutiny of whether TV ads by The Scooter Store and a rival company target people who don't need scooters, leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary Medicare spending.

The Scooter Store has shed hundreds of jobs in recent months, with its workforce dwindling from about 2,400 down to about 300.

The company's bankruptcy filing cited changes in health care laws and government investigations as financial burdens. It listed assets between $1 million and $10 million, and liabilities between $50 million and $100 million.