Sandi Update Tonight

Sandi remains about the same. Near as we can tell there have been no changes on anything that we can see. The oxygen machine continues to help her around here as do the portable canisters we lug with us when she goes to the doctor. It is pretty obvious when she is off of it for a few minutes to shower, go to the bathroom, etc. that things remain very much the same. Her next appointment for blood work and a doctor visit is Friday morning.

Yesterday, as required by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission folks, we mailed off a six inch stack of paperwork to their office in Midland, Texas  documenting our medical bills and her insurance premiums back to the first of the year. As part of that, since we were sending so much anyway, I included the cease and desist letters to the collection agencies Medical City Dallas, Texas Radiology, and others had hired despite our best efforts at payments under agreed installment payment plans. In each case, we were current on the payments and they filed on us anyway breaking their contracts. Whether the Texas HHSC folks will actually help us on this matter or refer this stuff to another state agency I don't know, but the caseworker that talked to Sandi last week was horrified they had done this to a terminal cancer patient and her family and wanted to see all the paperwork.

This is so Texas HHSC can review what we pay for medical costs and verify that we are paying more than the state allowance of $100 a month. We are struggling to honor commits that more than quadruple that so proving that we are doing it should not be a problem. If we prove we are doing so, we may qualify for the new support level of half what we got before. Otherwise they will cut our food stamps to less than what the state allowance for medical costs of $100 a month.

By the way, Texas Medicaid will not help with the medical bills despite everything we are dealing with with me and her. This is because we do not have a child under the age of eighteen. Because Scott is 19, Sandi is not eligible for Texas Medicaid. The fact that she has cancer, is considered terminal, is oxygen dependent with a long history of heart attacks and strokes, means nothing in the system.

While we were making copies of all that going back to the first of the year as required, we made a second set for the Leukemia & Lymphoma society. They're were one of several groups we contacted back in January on the advice of the financial assistance coordinator at Texas Oncology who said they might be able to help considering Sandi's health status and obvious financial need. They did approve us for a small grant to help pay her insurance premiums and medical costs differently related to her cancer.

What was supposed to happen was that they would reimburse Sandi for her insurance premiums so that she could keep her insurance going. At $200 a month to cover her insurance such a reimbursement would certainly help a lot.

With medical bills they were supposed to pay directly to medical providers for her well documented treatment costs related to the cancer.While those costs have escalated into the thousands of dollars thanks to insurance deductibles and various coverage loopholes, any payment would certainly have helped the situation with the various providers.



However, to date, when we have sent in the paperwork before seeking reimbursement, we have received instead weeks later unsigned routine form letter denials claiming we didn't send in everything needed for reimbursement. If that wasn't the problem they would deny and say they needed a further explanation from Wal-Mart (Sandi's employer) regarding her unpaid medical leave status (she has been on that since November 9) how her insurance premiums were determined, etc. Copying pages from the insurance plan handbook and her employment handbook were not good enough because then she would get a rejection letter saying she had to resubmit what they had previously received and unsigned form letter denied.

Long distance calls to them were an utter disaster as they had no idea who had done what on anything, who was assigned to her case, or even what paperwork they had gotten from her.Sandi spent a lot of time while at Mayo being very sick trying to get somebody at the Society to assist her and was unable to get help of any type.

In short, they have been giving us the royal run around since their original letter months ago promising help. So, while we copied everything again for the state, we copied everything again for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and crammed the six inch stack into one envelope and sent it. Hopefully this time, roughly five months after their initial commitment to provide much needed help, they will follow through.

So, that is where we stand tonight....