August 31, 2011
The medical system is so screwed up, I don’t get it. Wyatt has been ready to go home for over a week now yet he has to continue to stay at the hospital because the paperwork for private home nursing is not processed yet. He has been approved for Medicaid for a little while now (secondary to our private insurance) but the private nursing care (not paid for by private insurance) has to be approved separately by Medicaid. It’s been a couple weeks now that we’re waiting on that approval. Nobody seems to care that it’s costing us, our private insurance and Medicaid thousands of dollars every single day just to continue to hang out at the NICU and wait. I mean, yes, we as the parents could decide to raise a stink and get him discharged now. But then we are essentially refusing private home nursing care and will automatically get denied for that much needed service because discharging him now without private home nursing care approval would be a discharge against doctor’s orders. Strictly from the financial standpoint for insurance and Medicaid, it makes no sense that such an approval would take that long. I was even told by some people not to worry about the financials since we’re not directly paying the bill. Wrong. Maybe we’re not paying for it now out of our own pocket but we will in the long run. Private insurance has a lifetime maximum benefit and each unnecessary day spend at the NICU is quickly getting us closer to that lifetime maximum. It’s so frustrating. I can’t bring my son home yet because of bureaucracy.
On a positive note though, Elaine, our insurance NICU discharge planner is amazing. She, with the help of HR at my husband’s work, managed to get the CO2Monitor approved even though it’s normally not covered by insurance. And to top it off, she also used her contacts to get a Pulse Ox donated to us. Despite all the struggles, we have a team of good people working for us behind the scenes. I’m so grateful!!!Here are a couple of pictures of Wyatt's new downstairs bedroom, a.k.a. his "home NICU"
Your consist and persistent hard work is paying off. It will be all a memory as you build so many wonderful new ones at home.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing about the discharge party, or at least what flavor ice cream and cake you enjoy while you get all set-up and snuggled in at home. Our cake was a Bert and Ernie Chocolate with vanilla icing cake. I will never forget it. We only had time to eat it and meals brought in by friends because we were so busy getting into the hang of our new home. It was a big cake. Prayers and hugs,
Jan