Wednesday, January 20, 2010

I’m freezing and overwhelmed with the desire to make soup. Specifically this Double Mushroom Miso Soup. It looks yummy and simple enough. I love mushrooms, tofu, and miso soup so I really can’t lose.

They inserted the port into Mama’s chest for the chemotherapy. She’ll be starting it soon. I went to the planning meeting. Oy.

Evidently as long as she’s in the nursing home, they receive her Social Security checks to defray the costs…even though she’s going to be receiving 100% medical coverage? I don’t know, that makes no sense but if it’s the case, I’m royally fucked because I won’t be able to afford to live here. Or afford to move. Shit. I have a ton of paperwork to fill out for Medi-Care/Cal (I can never remember which she’s applying for) and I need to call to find out if the home receives her checks now. If they do, this will be a total disaster. But I’m pretty sure I have friends whose couches I can sleep on. So at least there’s that.

I see my gynecologist tomorrow. Come onnnnnnnnn good news!

9 comments:

  1. Yes, unfortunately for LTC (Long Term-Care) Medi-Cal the Maintenance need is $35, meaning anything over that will be owed as her Share of Cost. If she was your spouse and not your mom, you would be able to keep up to $2,200 of her income before it goes to SOC.

    The budgets for different kinds of Medi-Cal are different depending on which of the 65 different Medi-Cal programs she qualifies for....For LTC they do this because LTC facilities are extremely expensive (around $4,000-10,000 per month) and so they need the SOC to offset how much Med-Cal doesn't pay them.

    Heidi,

    If you have any more questions, you can call me. Just PM me and I will give you my number.

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  2. I hope things turn out with your money situation. I hope your mom responds well to chemo. I went through all that with my dad, so my prayers/positive thoughts are with you!

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  3. You and your mom are in my thoughts and prayers.

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  4. Hold up, sister--I work with Medicare, Medicaid, etc. This is what I've done for the last 16 years. I don't live in CA, but I know the rules and requirements. Shoot me an email at funjulesATbustDOTcom, and we can chat about what to do/where to go/what to expect.

    xoxo,
    Julesey

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  5. in my experience, the medicare (or medicaid or medical, i'm not familiar) covers the medical care. the social security covers the room and board. when we put my grandparents into a home, and to qualify them FOR the medicaid, we had to prove they had no assets and part of that was the social security going to the home.

    good luck.

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  6. why don't you get a job as a telemarketer or something? at least you can get a pay cheque for relatively easy work.

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  7. How can they essentially garnish all of your mother's income to cover medical costs? I hope someone with legal knowledge on this topic speaks up. That seems so wrong but nothing in the current health care climate would surprise me.

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  8. I am currently working in the exotic world of medical billing and we have clients nationwide, a lot of them in Cali. I don't have any actual legal knowledge in this realm but I can go on what I have been told and what I have seen, as well as a few random facts I have picked up while involved in the healthcare debate for years.

    First, govt. run healthcare programs, whether they are Medicare/Cal/aid, etc. do not pay providers their full cost. It is basically a negotiated fee (actually this is the case with ANY insurance program, providers make more on uninsured clients, assuming they actually pay), and in the case of these govt. programs for low-income people, many times the cost they agree to pay might be less than what it costs the provider to do it in the first place. Meaning that basically, groups who agree to accept these insurances are doing charity work.

    Because of this, providers have the right (in some states or perhaps all in some cases, the REQUIREMENT) to garnish whatever wages the patient has. Because these are generally low income people that is nearly always a Social Security or disability check, something of that nature. Basically the assumption is that the LTC is providing everything they need so they do not need the money, and the LTC does because they aren't getting proper reimbursement. It's a double-edged knife. The govt., in allowing this, is acknowledging they run a shit program and that the provider needs to get paid somehow, and they take back the money the person is entitled to in any other circumstance.

    As others have said, if she were your spouse, it wouldn't be a problem, but she's your mom, and you are of legal age. Thinking about that lead me to an idea though. It's probably a dead end but you might want to talk to Jolene about it. Because you are on disability yourself, I'm wondering if you might be able to get around this. You need her contribution to your household expenses because you are also unable to work. You might have already explored this possibility but if not, give her a call and ask if this is an angle she might not have thought of and might work.

    Also? To be perfectly honest I think you should delete or lock any entries or comments that might be construed by ANYONE as trying to find ways to abuse the system. I know that's not what you are doing, but I've seen a lot of people have things taken out of context and lose what they have. Don't discuss here how much you can and can't make, what jobs you can do in those cases, etc. If you get a worker on your case that doesn't like, or anyone in general, and there are a lot of those out there, he or she can find this site easily and take every word out of context, deny your applications and get you for fraud on whatever you've already collected. Be careful!

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  9. Oops, sorry, they already did speak up, I just didn't see it because of the moderation queue. Sorry about that!

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