Source
r/NICUParents•
codeB3RT

Was anybody waiting on Medicaid to approve your application when your baby was discharged?

Our son was born 11/18/21 at 24w6d. Once he was stable in mid December, we made an appointment to apply for SSI that was set for 2/4/21. We also did our own Medicaid application in December before getting approved for SSI because we wanted to have something submitted for time sensitivity of him coming home.

We just had our meeting with social security Friday due to a long COVID appointment backlog. Our son was approved for SSI and in our appointment the SSI officer applied for Medicaid on his behalf.

He is now a week or two from discharge and we don’t know when we’ll hear anything back from Medicaid. I know they will need some time to process the application for Medicaid but I’m stressing what will happen in the time between.

In our appointment the social security officer said when he is discharged he will no longer qualify for SSI and would lose Medicaid. We planned on having him on Medicaid for the first year but now it’s sounding like that won’t be an option because of my income. We’re scrambling to get him insurance before he’s discharged but we’re really relying on Medicaid to backpay his hospital stay since birth. We’re in florida.

Hate that we’re stressing about this instead of being over joyed he’s coming home. We just want to give our son a happy life.

Has anyone had a similar experience where their baby was discharged before hearing back from their Medicaid application?

Will the Medicaid application consider that he was in the hospital at the time of the application?

TL;dr: we are waiting to hear back on our Medicaid application but our son will be discharged in a week or two and we’ve been told he won’t qualify after discharge. Will Medicaid still backpay?

Posted Feb 6, 2022, 5:55 PM UTC

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Apprehensive-Ad-4647•

I’m in Florida and he was approved for Medicaid rather fast it’s only been 11 days. The hospital staff brought the papers his social worker was having me apply for a lot of things and picking his primary provider. And which type of Medicaid I wanted I chose sunshine

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codeB3RTOP•

Thanks for the info. We are working with our assigned social worker who has guided us to this point. We were told to apply ourselves with the form she filled out for us and it took months to get to talk to anyone from social security. Should our social worker be able to reach out to Medicaid on our behalf? I feel like they have numbers and connections we don’t have but so far we’ve been told we need to do all the applications.

Tomorrow we are planning on calling our social worker to give her an update on our situation and also calling Medicaid to check the status of our application.

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julers•

Our Medicaid came in several weeks after we got home. Our situation was confusing bc I had regular insurance through my job first and then quit and got Medicaid. It took forever! It was super stressful bc we looked rich on paper (due to having a loan taken out for a home reno project) and it looked like we weren’t going to get Medicaid several times.

Do you have a Medicaid rep person? Ours was SO helpful and so eager to get us the assistance we needed. Our hospital bill was over $300,000 which was daunting to say the least. I explained our situation to the rep and then stayed in contact with her throughout the process. We had to turn in SO many documents etc and it felt easier to just give up several times.

Good luck and well wishes to y’all, if it helps at all I just kept telling myself “money is pretend and my baby is healthy” over and over.

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codeB3RTOP•

Thank you, we will ask about a Medicaid rep when we call Medicaid tomorrow. How did you take your baby to the doctor after discharge without insurance? Did the hospital help you set up with a provider who would accept Medicaid and have the understanding that our Medicaid application is still in process?

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Sunshine_Jane212•

Yes, we waited for a full month after discharge. It took forever! But then it was backdated to cover everything. :)

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tiny_smile_bot•

:)

:)

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codeB3RTOP•

How did you schedule doctors appointments without a Medicaid ID? Did you say your Medicaid application was pending or did the hospital help coordinate first appointments?

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Sunshine_Jane212•

Great question. It’s a bit hazy, but I ended up telling all the doctors and administrative staff about the situation. For every office we went to (pediatrician, GI, neurology) I gave them our private insurance and told them we were pending Medicaid. Thankfully, they would hold off billing for a certain period of time until Medicaid came through. Then, when we were granted Medicaid, it backdated to cover every visit and procedure since her birth. I hope that helps and makes sense. I’m definitely using voice text!

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codeB3RTOP•

This is helpful, thank you

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MassivePE28+0 Dad•

Just make sure you don’t pay any bills that come until the Medicaid status is known. You’ll start getting bills immediately (if not already in your mailbox before you get home) but DO NOT PAY THEM. Reach out to the people billing you and let them know that you will update them with Medicaid information as soon as it’s available. They should put your account in a “hold” type status where you will probably still get bills, but you won’t get sent to collections.

Once your Medicaid comes through, reach out again and update them with the effective date and your Medicaid info and they’ll apply it to the account. Make sure you request an updated bill/statement even if everything was covered. That way you’ll have something for your records if they 1)send you to collections or 2)ever claim that you owe them in the future.

Best of luck to you and your little one!

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codeB3RTOP•

Thank you for the advice.

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madhattermiller•

I’d ask your NICU staff to put in a social work consult so they can help you make sure everything is in order.

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codeB3RTOP•

We are working with our social worker but they weren’t “trained in Medicaid” and told us to apply ourselves after being accepted for SSI which they filled out the application for but we needed to apply ourselves. Is there anything specific we can ask the social worker to do?

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madhattermiller•

Ugh I’m sorry to hear that. I haven’t applied personally so I’m not much help. But as a nurse, I was always able to page social work to help families with this stuff when I worked in PICU and Peds floors. Our social work team was great. When my LO was in NICU, the social worker at our hospital came by to help make sure I got the necessary paperwork to add him to our insurance done and all the documents we needed were obtained (SS card, birth certificate).

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UmmNora•

Yes. This happened with me. A rep from the hospital said they had processed our daughter's medicaid application but when we hadn't heard anything for a few weeks I called and they said we'd never applied! Good thing it wasn't past the time limit. I got the app in and she was accepted pretty quick. I want to say we had the medicaid number mailed to us within a week. The hospital also billed us for so much after we already had medicaid on file, including an ambulance ride transfer that should have been covered but I just kept telling them to bill medicaid and 3 months after she came home, everything is finally zeroed out. Thank God! Good luck ❤

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codeB3RTOP•

Thank you for the insights. How did you hear your application was approved? Did you just get the number in the mail and know then or did someone call and tell you?

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UmmNora•

Yes, I just got a confirmation mail saying she wad accepted and then the medicaid number in a separate letter a little later if I remember correctly!

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amarie_e•

I’m in Florida and my daughter only qualified for Medicaid because of her gestational age/weight (we also had a 24 weeker). Her Medicaid still covered her until she turned one, regardless of my income. This was three years ago, but unless something has changed drastically you may have been misinformed about that. It’s possible the SSI person was thinking about kids who qualify for Medicaid based on length of hospital stay, where it’s intended to just ease the burden of prolonged hospitalization, whereas your LO qualifies because of being extremely premature.

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codeB3RTOP•

This message was an awesome start to my week. I will push for this next time we call. Thank you.

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