Contingencies	6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2014
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]
Contingencies	Contingencies General In the ordinary course of its business, the Company is a defendant in a number of lawsuits, primarily product liability actions in which various plaintiffs seek damages for injuries allegedly caused by defective products. All of the product liability lawsuits that the Company faces in the United States have been referred to the Company's captive insurance company and/or excess insurance carriers while all non-U.S. lawsuits have been referred to the Company's commercial insurance carriers. All such lawsuits are generally contested vigorously. The coverage territory of the Company's insurance is worldwide with the exception of those countries with respect to which, at the time the product is sold for use or at the time a claim is made, the U.S. government has suspended or prohibited diplomatic or trade relations. The amount recorded for identified contingent liabilities is based on estimates. Amounts recorded are reviewed periodically and adjusted to reflect additional technical and legal information that becomes available. Actual costs to be incurred in future periods may vary from the estimates, given the inherent uncertainties in evaluating certain exposures. As a medical device manufacturer, the Company is subject to extensive government regulation, including numerous laws directed at preventing fraud and abuse and laws regulating reimbursement under various government programs. The marketing, invoicing, documenting and other practices of health care suppliers and manufacturers are all subject to government scrutiny. Most of the Company's facilities are subject to periodic inspection by the FDA or similar agencies in other jurisdictions. Violations of law or regulations can result in administrative, civil and criminal penalties and sanctions, including disqualification from Medicare and other reimbursement programs, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business. On November 15, 2013, an amended complaint, in a lawsuit originally instituted on May 24, 2013, was filed against Invacare Corporation, Gerald B. Blouch and A. Malachi Mixon III in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, alleging that the defendants violated federal securities laws by failing to properly disclose the issues that the Company has faced with the FDA. The lawsuit seeks class certification and unspecified damages and attorneys' fees for purchasers of the Company's common shares between July 22, 2010 and December 7, 2011. This lawsuit has been referred to the Company's insurance carriers. The Company intends to vigorously defend this lawsuit. On February 14, 2014, an amended complaint, in a lawsuit originally instituted on August 26, 2013, was filed against Invacare Corporation, Gerald B. Blouch, A. Malachi Mixon III and Patricia Stumpp, as well as outside directors Dale C. LaPorte, Michael F. Delaney and Charles S. Robb, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, alleging that the defendants breached their fiduciary duties and violated the Employment Retirement Security Act (ERISA) in the administration and maintenance of the Company stock fund in the Company’s Retirement Savings Plan (401(k) Plan). The lawsuit seeks class certification and unspecified damages and attorneys' fees for participants in the Company's stock fund of the 401(k) Plan between July 22, 2010 and the present. This lawsuit has been referred to the Company's insurance carriers. The Company intends to vigorously defend this lawsuit. Medical Device Regulatory Matters The FDA regulates virtually all aspects of the development, testing, manufacturing, labeling, promotion, distribution and marketing of a medical device. The Company and its products are subject to the laws and regulations of the FDA and other regulatory bodies in the various jurisdictions where the Company's products are manufactured or sold. The Company's failure to comply with the regulatory requirements of the FDA and other applicable medical device regulatory requirements can subject the Company to administrative or judicially imposed sanctions. These sanctions include injunctions, consent decrees, warning letters, civil penalties, criminal penalties, product seizure or detention, product recalls and total or partial suspension of production. In December 2012, the Company reached agreement with the FDA on the terms of the consent decree of injunction with respect to the Company's Corporate facility and its Taylor Street wheelchair manufacturing facility in Elyria, Ohio. A complaint and consent decree were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, and on December 21, 2012, the Court approved the consent decree and it became effective. The consent decree limits the Company's manufacture and distribution of power and manual wheelchairs, wheelchair components and wheelchair sub-assemblies at or from its Taylor Street manufacturing facility. The decree also temporarily limited design activities related to wheelchairs and power beds that take place at the impacted Elyria, Ohio facilities. The Company is entitled to continue to produce from the Taylor Street manufacturing facility certain medically necessary wheelchairs provided that documentation and record-keeping requirements are followed, as well as ongoing replacement, service and repair of products already in use, under terms delineated in the consent decree. Under the terms of the consent decree, in order to resume full operations at the impacted facilities, the Company must successfully complete a third-party expert certification audit at the impacted Elyria facilities, which is comprised of three distinct reports that must be submitted to, and accepted by, the FDA. After the final certification report is submitted to the FDA, as well as the Company’s own report as to its compliance status together with its responses to any observations in the certification report, the FDA is expected to inspect the Company's Corporate and Taylor Street facilities to determine whether they are in compliance with the Quality System Regulation (QSR) governing the manufacture of medical devices and the terms of the consent decree. If the FDA is satisfied with the Company's compliance, the FDA will provide written notification that the Company is permitted to resume full operations at the impacted facilities. During 2013, the Company completed the first two of the expert certification audits, and the FDA found the results of both to be acceptable. In these reports, the third-party expert certified that the Company's equipment and process validation procedures and its design control systems are compliant with the FDA's QSR. As a result of the FDA's acceptance of the first certification report on May 13, 2013, the Taylor Street facility was able to resume supplying parts and components for the further manufacturing of medical devices at other Company facilities. The Company's receipt of the FDA's acceptance of the second certification report on July 15, 2013, resulted in the Company being able to resume design activities at the impacted facilities related to power wheelchairs and power beds. The third, most comprehensive expert certification audit is a comprehensive review of the Company's compliance with the FDA's QSR at the impacted Elyria facilities. At the time of filing this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, the Company is continuing its work with the third-party expert auditor on the final certification audit process. This audit is the most comprehensive and challenging of the three expert certification audits, and it encompasses all areas of the Company's Corporate and Taylor Street quality system. The Company needs to better demonstrate that its quality system is sustainably compliant and that each subsystem is properly integrated. In order to address these needs, the Company as engaged additional consultants to help improve the functionality and capabilities of certain of its quality subsystems. The Company respects the comprehensive nature of the audit process and is working diligently to be in a position to ultimately demonstrate compliance to the third-party expert auditor and subsequently, the FDA. The Company cannot predict the timing of the completion or the outcome of the third-party expert’s final certification report. However, after the expert's certification report is completed and submitted to the FDA, as well as the Company’s own report related to its compliance status together with its responses to any observations in the certification report, the FDA is expected to inspect the Company's Corporate and Taylor Street facilities to determine whether they are in compliance with the FDA's QSR and the consent decree. If the FDA is satisfied with the Company's compliance, the FDA will provide written notification that the Company is permitted to resume full operations at the impacted facilities. After resumption of full operations, the Company must undergo five years of audits by a third-party expert auditor to determine whether the facilities are in continuous compliance with FDA's QSR and the consent decree. The auditor will inspect the Corporate and Taylor Street facilities’ activities every six months during the first year following the resumption of full operations and then every 12 months for the next four years thereafter. As described above, because the limitations on production are expected to be temporary in nature, and partial production is allowed, the Company does not anticipate any major repair, replacement or scrapping of its fixed assets at the Taylor Street manufacturing facility. Based on the Company's expectations at the time of filing of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q with respect to the utilization of such raw material and with respect to expected future cash flows from production at the Taylor Street manufacturing facility, the Company concluded that there is no impairment in the value of the fixed assets related to the Taylor Street manufacturing facility at June 30, 2014. The majority of the production from the Taylor Street facility is "made to order" custom wheelchairs for customers and, as a result, there was not a significant amount of finished goods inventory on hand at June 30, 2014, and the inventory is expected to be fully utilized. Accordingly, the Company concluded that there was not an impairment of the work in process and finished goods at the Taylor Street facility at June 30, 2014. Further, based on its analysis of the raw material inventory at the Taylor Street facility and the Company's expectations at the time of filing of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q with respect to the time frame for completion of the third-party expert certification audits and FDA inspection, the Company concluded that the value of the inventory was not excessive or impaired at June 30, 2014. However, if the Company's expectations regarding the impacts of the limitations in the consent decree or the time frame for completion of the third-party expert certification audits and FDA inspection were to change, the Company may, in future periods, conclude that an impairment exists with respect to its fixed assets or inventory at the Taylor Street facility. Although the North America/HME segment is the segment primarily impacted by the limitations in the FDA consent decree, the Asia/Pacific segment also is negatively affected as a result of the consent decree due to the lower sales volume of microprocessor controllers. During 2012, before the effective date of the consent decree, the Company started to experience decreases in net sales in the North America/HME and Asia/Pacific segments. The Company believes that those decreases were driven in large part by the consent decree which has led to delays in new product introductions and to uncertainty regarding the timing of exiting the consent decree, which limited the Company's ability to renegotiate and bid on certain customer contracts and otherwise led to a decline in customer orders. Separately, net sales in the North America/HME segment were likely impacted by uncertainty on the part of the Company's customers as they coped with prepayment reviews and post-payment audits by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS") and contemplated their participation in the next round of National Competitive Bidding ("NCB"). The negative effect of the consent decree on customer orders and net sales in these segments has been considerable, and the Company expects to experience continued low levels in net sales as a result of the limitations imposed by the consent decree. The Company expects to continue to experience lower levels of net sales in the North America/HME and Asia/Pacific segments at least until it has successfully completed the previously-described third-party expert certification audit and FDA inspection and has received written notification from the FDA that the Company may resume full operations at the Corporate and Taylor Street facilities. Even after the Company is permitted to resume full operations at the affected facilities, it is uncertain as to whether, or how quickly, the Company will be able to rebuild net sales to more typical historical levels, irrespective of market conditions. Accordingly, when compared to the Company's 2010 results, the limitations in the consent decree had, and likely will continue to have, a material adverse effect on the Company's business, financial condition and results of operations. For additional information regarding the consent decree, please see the following sections of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2013: Item 1. Business - Government Regulation and Item 1A. Risk Factors and the following sections of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q: Item 1. Legal Proceedings; and Item 2. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Outlook and - Liquidity and Capital Resources. In the first quarter of 2014, the Company recorded additional warranty expense related to the power wheelchair joystick recall of $2,237,000 ($2,100,000 after-tax), which impacted the North America/HME segment by $1,171,000 after-tax and the Asia/Pacific segment by $929,000 after-tax. The increase in the Company's estimate of total cost related to this matter is attributable to higher than previously anticipated response rates from larger customers in United States and Canada. As previously indicated, the reserve is subject to adjustments as new developments change the Company's estimate of the total cost of this matter. In addition, in December 2010, the Company received a warning letter from the FDA related to quality system processes and procedures at the Company's Sanford, Florida facility. The Company has taken actions which it believes address all of the FDA's concerns in the warning letter. However, the results of regulatory claims, proceedings, investigations, or litigation are difficult to predict. An unfavorable resolution or outcome of the FDA warning letter could materially and adversely affect the Company's business, financial condition, and results of operations. Any of the above contingencies could have an adverse impact on the Company's financial condition or results of operations.

Contingencies

General

In the ordinary course of its business, the Company is a defendant in a number of lawsuits, primarily product liability actions in which various plaintiffs seek damages for injuries allegedly caused by defective products. All of the product liability lawsuits that the Company faces in the United States have been referred to the Company's captive insurance company and/or excess insurance carriers while all non-U.S. lawsuits have been referred to the Company's commercial insurance carriers. All such lawsuits are generally contested vigorously. The coverage territory of the Company's insurance is worldwide with the exception of those countries with respect to which, at the time the product is sold for use or at the time a claim is made, the U.S. government has suspended or prohibited diplomatic or trade relations. The amount recorded for identified contingent liabilities is based on estimates. Amounts recorded are reviewed periodically and adjusted to reflect additional technical and legal information that becomes available. Actual costs to be incurred in future periods may vary from the estimates, given the inherent uncertainties in evaluating certain exposures.

As a medical device manufacturer, the Company is subject to extensive government regulation, including numerous laws directed at preventing fraud and abuse and laws regulating reimbursement under various government programs. The marketing, invoicing, documenting and other practices of health care suppliers and manufacturers are all subject to government scrutiny. Most of the Company's facilities are subject to periodic inspection by the FDA or similar agencies in other jurisdictions. Violations of law or regulations can result in administrative, civil and criminal penalties and sanctions, including disqualification from Medicare and other reimbursement programs, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business.

On November 15, 2013, an amended complaint, in a lawsuit originally instituted on May 24, 2013, was filed against Invacare Corporation, Gerald B. Blouch and A. Malachi Mixon III in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, alleging that the defendants violated federal securities laws by failing to properly disclose the issues that the Company has faced with the FDA. The lawsuit seeks class certification and unspecified damages and attorneys' fees for purchasers of the Company's common shares between July 22, 2010 and December 7, 2011. This lawsuit has been referred to the Company's insurance carriers. The Company intends to vigorously defend this lawsuit.

On February 14, 2014, an amended complaint, in a lawsuit originally instituted on August 26, 2013, was filed against Invacare Corporation, Gerald B. Blouch, A. Malachi Mixon III and Patricia Stumpp, as well as outside directors Dale C. LaPorte, Michael F. Delaney and Charles S. Robb, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, alleging that the defendants breached their fiduciary duties and violated the Employment Retirement Security Act (ERISA) in the administration and maintenance of the Company stock fund in the Company’s Retirement Savings Plan (401(k) Plan). The lawsuit seeks class certification and unspecified damages and attorneys' fees for participants in the Company's stock fund of the 401(k) Plan between July 22, 2010 and the present. This lawsuit has been referred to the Company's insurance carriers. The Company intends to vigorously defend this lawsuit.

Medical Device Regulatory Matters

The FDA regulates virtually all aspects of the development, testing, manufacturing, labeling, promotion, distribution and marketing of a medical device. The Company and its products are subject to the laws and regulations of the FDA and other regulatory bodies in the various jurisdictions where the Company's products are manufactured or sold. The Company's failure to comply with the regulatory requirements of the FDA and other applicable medical device regulatory requirements can subject the Company to administrative or judicially imposed sanctions. These sanctions include injunctions, consent decrees, warning letters, civil penalties, criminal penalties, product seizure or detention, product recalls and total or partial suspension of production.

In December 2012, the Company reached agreement with the FDA on the terms of the consent decree of injunction with respect to the Company's Corporate facility and its Taylor Street wheelchair manufacturing facility in Elyria, Ohio. A complaint and consent decree were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, and on December 21, 2012, the Court approved the consent decree and it became effective. The consent decree limits the Company's manufacture and distribution of power and manual wheelchairs, wheelchair components and wheelchair sub-assemblies at or from its Taylor Street manufacturing facility. The decree also temporarily limited design activities related to wheelchairs and power beds that take place at the impacted Elyria, Ohio facilities. The Company is entitled to continue to produce from the Taylor Street manufacturing facility certain medically necessary wheelchairs provided that documentation and record-keeping requirements are followed, as well as ongoing replacement, service and repair of products already in use, under terms delineated in the consent decree. Under the terms of the consent decree, in order to resume full operations at the impacted facilities, the Company must successfully complete a third-party expert certification audit at the impacted Elyria facilities, which is comprised of three distinct reports that must be submitted to, and accepted by, the FDA. After the final certification report is submitted to the FDA, as well as the Company’s own report as to its compliance status together with its responses to any observations in the certification report, the FDA is expected to inspect the Company's Corporate and Taylor Street facilities to determine whether they are in compliance with the Quality System Regulation (QSR) governing the manufacture of medical devices and the terms of the consent decree. If the FDA is satisfied with the Company's compliance, the FDA will provide written notification that the Company is permitted to resume full operations at the impacted facilities.

During 2013, the Company completed the first two of the expert certification audits, and the FDA found the results of both to be acceptable. In these reports, the third-party expert certified that the Company's equipment and process validation procedures and its design control systems are compliant with the FDA's QSR. As a result of the FDA's acceptance of the first certification report on May 13, 2013, the Taylor Street facility was able to resume supplying parts and components for the further manufacturing of medical devices at other Company facilities. The Company's receipt of the FDA's acceptance of the second certification report on July 15, 2013, resulted in the Company being able to resume design activities at the impacted facilities related to power wheelchairs and power beds.

The third, most comprehensive expert certification audit is a comprehensive review of the Company's compliance with the FDA's QSR at the impacted Elyria facilities. At the time of filing this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, the Company is continuing its work with the third-party expert auditor on the final certification audit process. This audit is the most comprehensive and challenging of the three expert certification audits, and it encompasses all areas of the Company's Corporate and Taylor Street quality system. The Company needs to better demonstrate that its quality system is sustainably compliant and that each subsystem is properly integrated. In order to address these needs, the Company as engaged additional consultants to help improve the functionality and capabilities of certain of its quality subsystems. The Company respects the comprehensive nature of the audit process and is working diligently to be in a position to ultimately demonstrate compliance to the third-party expert auditor and subsequently, the FDA.

The Company cannot predict the timing of the completion or the outcome of the third-party expert’s final certification report. However, after the expert's certification report is completed and submitted to the FDA, as well as the Company’s own report related to its compliance status together with its responses to any observations in the certification report, the FDA is expected to inspect the Company's Corporate and Taylor Street facilities to determine whether they are in compliance with the FDA's QSR and the consent decree. If the FDA is satisfied with the Company's compliance, the FDA will provide written notification that the Company is permitted to resume full operations at the impacted facilities.

After resumption of full operations, the Company must undergo five years of audits by a third-party expert auditor to determine whether the facilities are in continuous compliance with FDA's QSR and the consent decree. The auditor will inspect the Corporate and Taylor Street facilities’ activities every six months during the first year following the resumption of full operations and then every 12 months for the next four years thereafter.

As described above, because the limitations on production are expected to be temporary in nature, and partial production is allowed, the Company does not anticipate any major repair, replacement or scrapping of its fixed assets at the Taylor Street manufacturing facility. Based on the Company's expectations at the time of filing of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q with respect to the utilization of such raw material and with respect to expected future cash flows from production at the Taylor Street manufacturing facility, the Company concluded that there is no impairment in the value of the fixed assets related to the Taylor Street manufacturing facility at June 30, 2014.

The majority of the production from the Taylor Street facility is "made to order" custom wheelchairs for customers and, as a result, there was not a significant amount of finished goods inventory on hand at June 30, 2014, and the inventory is expected to be fully utilized. Accordingly, the Company concluded that there was not an impairment of the work in process and finished goods at the Taylor Street facility at June 30, 2014. Further, based on its analysis of the raw material inventory at the Taylor Street facility and the Company's expectations at the time of filing of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q with respect to the time frame for completion of the third-party expert certification audits and FDA inspection, the Company concluded that the value of the inventory was not excessive or impaired at June 30, 2014. However, if the Company's expectations regarding the impacts of the limitations in the consent decree or the time frame for completion of the third-party expert certification audits and FDA inspection were to change, the Company may, in future periods, conclude that an impairment exists with respect to its fixed assets or inventory at the Taylor Street facility.

Although the North America/HME segment is the segment primarily impacted by the limitations in the FDA consent decree, the Asia/Pacific segment also is negatively affected as a result of the consent decree due to the lower sales volume of microprocessor controllers. During 2012, before the effective date of the consent decree, the Company started to experience decreases in net sales in the North America/HME and Asia/Pacific segments. The Company believes that those decreases were driven in large part by the consent decree which has led to delays in new product introductions and to uncertainty regarding the timing of exiting the consent decree, which limited the Company's ability to renegotiate and bid on certain customer contracts and otherwise led to a decline in customer orders. Separately, net sales in the North America/HME segment were likely impacted by uncertainty on the part of the Company's customers as they coped with prepayment reviews and post-payment audits by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS") and contemplated their participation in the next round of National Competitive Bidding ("NCB"). The negative effect of the consent decree on customer orders and net sales in these segments has been considerable, and the Company expects to experience continued low levels in net sales as a result of the limitations imposed by the consent decree. The Company expects to continue to experience lower levels of net sales in the North America/HME and Asia/Pacific segments at least until it has successfully completed the previously-described third-party expert certification audit and FDA inspection and has received written notification from the FDA that the Company may resume full operations at the Corporate and Taylor Street facilities. Even after the Company is permitted to resume full operations at the affected facilities, it is uncertain as to whether, or how quickly, the Company will be able to rebuild net sales to more typical historical levels, irrespective of market conditions. Accordingly, when compared to the Company's 2010 results, the limitations in the consent decree had, and likely will continue to have, a material adverse effect on the Company's business, financial condition and results of operations.

For additional information regarding the consent decree, please see the following sections of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2013: Item 1. Business - Government Regulation and Item 1A. Risk Factors and the following sections of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q: Item 1. Legal Proceedings; and Item 2. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Outlook and - Liquidity and Capital Resources.

In the first quarter of 2014, the Company recorded additional warranty expense related to the power wheelchair joystick recall of $2,237,000 ($2,100,000 after-tax), which impacted the North America/HME segment by $1,171,000 after-tax and the Asia/Pacific segment by $929,000 after-tax. The increase in the Company's estimate of total cost related to this matter is attributable to higher than previously anticipated response rates from larger customers in United States and Canada. As previously indicated, the reserve is subject to adjustments as new developments change the Company's estimate of the total cost of this matter.

In addition, in December 2010, the Company received a warning letter from the FDA related to quality system processes and procedures at the Company's Sanford, Florida facility. The Company has taken actions which it believes address all of the FDA's concerns in the warning letter. However, the results of regulatory claims, proceedings, investigations, or litigation are difficult to predict. An unfavorable resolution or outcome of the FDA warning letter could materially and adversely affect the Company's business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Any of the above contingencies could have an adverse impact on the Company's financial condition or results of operations.