Medicaid problems

[Adam_W]

I received a letter in the mail today that said my Medicaid will be discontinued as of April 30th! WHAT?! It is because I "failed to complete personal interview to determine eligibility". I didn't know (or maybe I just didn't remember) that I have to do an annual interview to make sure I'm still eligible for Medicaid, and I had never received anything in the mail or by phone reminding me of it. I told my social worker, and she said that I need to get a hold of my Medicaid caseworker ASAP. She said it should be able to be straightened out, but I'm still really nervous. If I loose my Medicaid, I'm financially screwed because I can't afford private insurance, and my little bit of monthly Social Security pay would be eaten up by the 20% of my medical costs not covered by Medicare. Has anything like this ever happened to anyone else? I'm so nervous I'd rip my hair out if I had any.

Adam   

[monrein]

Hey Adam
I'm from Canada so I'm fuzzy on how your system works but is there any chance that your social worker will help you with this in an active way?  Like go to the meeting with you and the Medicaid caseworker,  or even let you call from her office to try to straighten it out?  I would also have her help to explain that sometimes dialysis makes us lose focus and things can easily slip between the cracks because we have so many appointments and pretty important things to manage in our lives.  I used to be a social worker and my job often required me to go to bat for people, not do everything for them but do some things with them and lend moral support as well as professional support with other bureaucratic types.  Hope this all gets straightened out and in a hurry so you don't have to pull out hair from anywhere.

[thegrammalady]

each state handles medicaid differently. with that said.... the second year i was on dialysis i got paperwork to fill out and return to determine continued eligibility. this year i just got a statement that said i still qualified. give your local medicaid office a call quickly.

[BigSky]

Evidently something slipped past the Medicaid Social Worker.

Wouldnt worry too much.  Depending on your state, you should still be eligable for it.  They can actually backdate your Medicaid coverage for 30 if needed.

[Ohio Buckeye]

It really irritates me that it is stressful enough to have ESRD and stress is added
on by this kind of things.

[monrein]

Amen! 

[Adam_W]

I've been still trying to contact my Medicaid caseworker, and now so is my social worker. I would just barge into her office and tell her what needs to be done, but it's almost impossible for me to get there during business hours. This kind of thing just really gets my blood boiling.

Adam

[Loretta]

I just hate these kinds of problems.  I hope that with the week-end coming you can relax and just know it has to be just a little glich that you can work out,  Medicaid will continue to cover you.  They have to because of your ESRD.
Wishing you peace!
Loretta

[oleboy]

My Social worker told me Thursday 04/17/2008 she had mailed my form off, I had signed 2 weeks ago for Medicare showing I was now doing CCPD instead of Hemo, making me eligible for coverage immediately She had been on her honey moon? Still waiting to hear from Medicare.

[Chris]

I've been still trying to contact my Medicaid caseworker, and now so is my social worker. I would just barge into her office and tell her what needs to be done, but it's almost impossible for me to get there during business hours. This kind of thing just really gets my blood boiling.

Adam

It is also hard for me to ontact my caseworker and then there is a spend down caseworker also. Stupid why they have two people working on the same person and still can't get crap done. Here I have to fill out a form each year for elgibility, which is stupid since my health hasn't changed and blindness hasn't been cured yet. Wish they could do this electronically instead of an over copied piece of paper that you have to fill out each year. Anyway, if you can somehow is to go to the office and talk to whomever is at the front desk, who then will have you see someone or fill out paperwork there. Getting a hold of a caseworker is thehardest part and usually never happens and on top of that usually changes every one to two years without notice. Just don't rely on your social worker.
Good Luck

[Adam_W]

Well, I finally got the packet of re-eligibility forms, so I'll be able to keep my Medicaid. It appears that my caseworker got all my messages, but she just sent out the packet, without bothering to call me and let me know it had been sent. Apparently I'm not the only one with this problem. According to my social worker, Indiana Medicaid pretty much does this to everyone.

Adam

[bolta72]

 

[Chris]

Glad you got some progress, unfortunately you still have to wai to be approved once the information is sent in and who knows how long that will take if she takes this long to do something.