Because Stinkpot didn’t have Medicaid coverage!
We adopted our foster son, Stinkpot, at 2 years old in 2009. He wasn’t eligible for adoption subsidies as a healthy (relatively), Caucasian foster child under the age of 5.
And we didn’t care! We were thrilled for Stinkpot to officially be our son after a year and a half of him being a part of our family.
However, at age 3, our precious Stinkpot began having uncontrollable rages! So much so that he got kicked out of THREE daycares for injuring other children and staff! We even began medicating our explosive child after visiting a psychiatrist. One diagnosis, in a list of many, was Reactive Attachment Disorder.
However, Stinkpot’s psychiatric care was getting expensive — We were becoming increasingly frustrated with what the health care facility was charging and what my insurance wouldn’t cover. For example, the psychiatrist is a specialist requiring a $40 co-pay – but since his office is located in an outlying building on the hospital grounds, any office visit was billed as an outpatient hospital visit that required us to pay $60 out-of-pocket until our deductible was met! Geez! $100 a visit!
We could see that these were long-term issues we were dealing with. Our Stinkpot would need Medicaid assistance. But we had already adopted him as a healthy child.
We discovered that we had the option to “appeal” the State’s decision to deny Medicaid subsidies for our adopted child through a “Fair Hearing” process.
We began the process in January. Yesterday, we signed and delivered our Adoption Assistance Agreement to the State office!
The process is long (and bumpy)! First, there was the long wait in the queue before the Austin attorneys even looked at Stinkpot’s file. Then we were requested to obtain documentation from a physician about Stinkpot’s condition. The psychiatrist had to write a letter explaining that Stinkpot had these serious issues at the time of adoption, but the disorders couldn’t be diagnosed since he was too young. That was May 10th.
The letter was sent to the State’s attorneys, and then we were denied. The letter had to have EXACT wording (Legalese). Another $100 visit on August 9th to the psychiatrist to request the letter – again – this time with the EXACT words the State attorneys required!
The State attorneys reviewed the second letter and sent their letter of finding that Stinkpot would be eligible for foster care adoption subsidies last month. The adoption assistance negotiator called last Thursday so I could detail all the costs associated with Stinkpot’s care. We received the Adoption Assistance Agreement this weekend.
Our Stinkpot will now have Medicaid coverage! First on the list is a tonsillectomy, then food allergy testing…
