Wednesday, April 8, 2009

CHOC/Inurance Update

Here are some pictures of Maryam playing with Mr. and Mrs. Potatohead. She loves them!


So, I've been avoiding telling this story until I had all the details. I just recently received all of them, so here it goes. On March 6th I took Maryam to the doc's office because she had a tummy virus. While we were there I decided to have some of our prescriptions filled. When the girl range me up she gave me some ridiculously large amount. I was SHOCKED! When I asked her why it was so much she told me that it was the price for non-members. Uh, HELLO! I had just paid Kaiser Permanente $1800 on March 1st to cover both Maryam and I. The very nice lady called Member Services and they proceeded to tell me that my COBRA coverage had been canceled since the company I had the COBRA through didn't renew their Kaiser contract. They told me I needed to apply for coverage or get Maryam covered under a conversion plan. I drove an hour and a half to Fontana to get the Conversion Plan packet for Maryam. The whole time I was driving there I just kept thinking that I have to get her back on a Kaiser plan so that she can go to CHOC. I was crying, I was a mess, I honestly felt like my dream of having a baby who could eat had just been shattered. It was awful.
Once I got to the Member Services Office I felt much better because the nice lady there explained that under a conversion plan Maryam wouldn't need to be medically qualified! Hooray! Because NO ONE would insure Maryam if they had a choice, she costs a fortune to maintain! Well, the new conversion plan costs even more than our old plan and the benefits are very inferior. Maryam's CHOC stay went from being covered 100% to us having to pay $200/day! So, for 19 days we're going to be paying $3800. BUT, if it cost a million dollars, I'm sure we'd find a way to make it happen. This opportunity means the world to our family. The dream of having Maryam eat is within our reach, I'm not going to let ANYTHING get in the way of making this happen.
Our next meeting with the CHOC team is April 21st. The three of us have to meet with the GI Doctor again and also the team psychologist. From what I understand, the psychologist is going to go over the plan and make sure that we can handle it. I imagine it has to be difficult to watch your child be deprived of a bolus feeding knowing that she's starving. Especially now that Maryam actually asks for her bottle and tube.....yep! Hopefully everything goes well at that appointment and we'll be checking into the clinic on May 4th! That's less than 4 weeks away! HOORAY!
On April 4th Maryam decided to celebrate the one month count down by letting Mommy spoon feed her an entire bowl of Cool Whip! It was the most exciting thing ever! She actually let me spoon feed her without turning her head or pushing my hand away! Most of you mommies get to do that when your child is 6 months old, I had to wait until she was 2 years and 4 months! The even better news is that she's let me do it everyday since then! Hooray for progress!


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This brought me to tears :-( Haven't you 3 been through enough?!? I'm so glad the insurance thing is covered, but what a mess. WE LOVE YOU! -Jeni, Chad, Jackson, Tyler