ARRRRRRRGH!!

Forgive my frustration, but today has been less than stellar so far. Since I want to be very transparent with you guys, let me share the saga of today. After a productive day yesterday cleaning out the entire garage, I woke up (sore!) and made an ambitious but well-crafted To-Do list. It looked like this:

1. Work on plans for the Friday night event at church.
2. Make an appointment with a pediatrician for Emmy.
3. Post office
4. Call Foster Cares and make an appointment to pick up clothes, etc. for Emmy.
5. Plan Dinner
6. etc.
7. etc.

...and so on and so forth for about 20 or 25 points - some more time-consuming than others, some that will take a few days to complete, some fun things like "run with Peanut," some things that are just nice and easy to check off like "feed Peanut," and "take clothes out of dryer." It was going to be such a productive day.

Then, I got to #2 on the list and there I have stayed for almost the entire day.

I started by hunting for a good website where I could search for pediatricians in my area. I found HealthGrades.com, where I was able to put in my zip code and choose pediatricians who accept Medicaid. Then, I sorted by distance, checked out the ratings, and started rifling through the list. I also created a spreadsheet, so that I could track which offices I had called in the past and what I had been told. I think this will really help in the future. I got about 7 or 8 "no"s before I came to one of the offices I had called for both Zizi and Miss M. After much begging and pleading, they said they would take us "if this wasn't just for an intake visit!" I made sure that they knew that it was unclear at this point how long we would have her, but that my intention was to keep coming to their office for as long as she was with us.

That seemed to appease them ok, so they started asking questions about her birth date, her health up until now, etc. Then they asked me, "Has she already had her 4-month check-up?"

"Yes, she went for her 4-month visit last week, and had all of her immunizations," I said.

"Well, if she's already had her 4-month visit, Medicaid won't pay us for this visit, and we can't see her for free."

I tried to explain that the state requires her to have an intake check-up no matter how long ago she saw the doctor, but it made no difference. I thanked the lady, told her that I would be back in touch, and I called our foster agency.

When I explained the situation, our foster agency (the best in the world, I think!) didn't hesitate to say that the agency would reimburse me if I paid for the visit, so I called the pediatrician back. I stayed on hold for a little while, then I happily told the lady who I spoke with before that she could go ahead and schedule us for an appointment and that our foster agency would reimburse us. "Oh, we can't do that," she said, "the bill has to be paid in-full at the time of the visit."

"Definitely!" I said, "I would pay you in-full at the visit, and then the agency would reimburse me later."

"No, you don't understand," she said, "if a child is covered under Medicaid, we aren't allowed to accept personal payment for additional visits. You can call the Health Department. They may be able to help you, but we won't be able to see this child until her 6-month visit."

So...I called the Health Department. It took me forever to get to a live person, but when I finally did, I explained the situation in-full, expecting to hear an explanation (surely something is not right about this story...it makes no sense!). The person who I talked to verified the details that the pediatrician had told me and said that they, too, would not able to see Emmy until her 6-month visit. "That's the dilemma," was all she said to me. She suggested that I contact the DFACS intake office and ask if they can retrieve the records from Emmy's appointment last week. In her experience, sometimes that will satisfy the need for an intake appointment.

So...it's all rather strange, but here I sit! DFACS tells me that I have to get this baby to a doctor by Wednesday. Medicaid says they will not pay for that visit. Medicaid also says that no one else can pay for that visit. I guess I'll just google pediatricians who work for free in this upper-middle-class part of town. and see what turns up. What a mess!