Attendant Care

I recently had a "debate" over attendant care services for my son through DDD/ALTCS. I was requesting attendant care, and they were not really wanting to provide it. They tried to tell me that it was for people that were not ambulatory, but when I challenged them to provide me with the specific written policy that makes that statement, they backed down.

They tried to lead me to believe that Attendant care can only be provided for a lot of physical care tasks only, which is not true. They had a "tool" to figure out how much time that should be allowed to care for my son, which is MISSING a component of Attendant care as it is described in the ALTCS manual which is "General Supervision and Monitoring". Here is an excerpt from the manual:

General supervision which includes:
a. Monitoring and companionship for a member who cannot be safely left alone
b. Assisting with self-administration of medications, and
c. Monitoring the member’s medical condition and ability to perform the activities of daily living.

To their credit, I did get the services requested on appeal, and I did make a point to include a copy of the "tool" as well as point out it was missing this piece from it. The official definintion for Attendant Care (1240-B) and all other services available are in the manual. It is a good resource when you are considering other services as well and it also defines requirements for providers. The link to the ALTCS manual is here:

http://www.azahcccs.gov/shared/Downloads/MedicalPolicyManual/Chap1200.pdf

From the Comittee to Recall Governor Janet Brewer

Location dates and times if you are interested in signing the petition to try to recall our Governor are at this link:


http://www.recallgovernorbrewer.com/blog/?p=291

Recall Governor Jan Brewer

I came across this today, there is a new effort to recall the Governor, hopefully this will be her wake up call. Anyone interested in looking at the orginazation's webpage may click the link below.

Recall Governor Jan Brewer

More Cuts to Health Care?

Following recent events, at the risk of preaching too much on this blog, there are some things that I need to say about what is going on.

The Arizona State Legislature is proposing cuts to AHCCCS AGAIN. This is a time when we should be coming together as a community and looking to try to find ways to care more for each other, and the Legislature and Governor Brewer are doing the EXACT OPPOSITE. In recent events, we should have learned how precious life and health are to one another, in the wake of this, moving to cut people off from health care is beyond reprehensible. I don't even think there is an appropriate adjective.

I also find irony in this. One reason Republicans have said they oppose the new health care bill is that it would effectively form a "death panel" where the plan would choose who should get care or not, but the Arizona State Legislature is doing the EXACT SAME THING. Cutting off transplant recipients from funding, effectively giving them a death sentence, when they had done nothing wrong. How many people have actually DIED because of this? If a health care company did something similar, there would be a huge outcry! All interviews I have seen cite STUDIES, nobody has mentioned that they were a doctor, nobody has mentioned that they examined these poor people, or even spoke to their physicians, they decided this based on a STUDY!

That coupled of the burdens that they are placing on the families with disabled children, I just don't understand how they think this serves the citizens of this state. They need to remember that the "people" on these plans are citizens that vote, and their duty should be to serve them, not blindly try to serve the"budget". Everyone they are talking about are the "people of Arizona" as well. Politicians may express the opinions of some of us, but it is DEFINITELY NOT all of us, and I resent that they make statements about the "people of Arizona" because that implies I am in that group, and I assure you I am not.

Arizona's Tragedy

I did want to take some time to send out my heartfelt condolences to the families that lost loved ones in the shootings in Tucson and my best wishes to those recovering.

I think that this needs to be a time to bind people and make us closer as a community, and realize that PEOPLE are what is most important in these trying economic times. We need to take care of each other better. Everyone is a community and we all have that responsibility. I know there has been a lot of pontification and I told you so going on, and that is not what this is about at all.

We cannot go back, we cannot undo what has been done, and blaming others is unproductive.

What we can do is examine what happened, ourselves, and our community, and ask the question of what we can do to prevent these tragedies? What can we do moving forward? How can we help families that are connected to and trying to help those whom are sick and mentally ill BEFORE they become dangerous? How as a community and a State should we treat these individuals families so they won't be afraid to come out of the shadows until it's too late?

Another Apology..

I realize my posts have been erratic as of late, things get busy, and well, lets say it is easy to get distracted.

I did have some issues with my son transitioning to his developmental preschool program, in the end it all worked out, and I will be more forthcoming with some info I was able to glean at a later date.

I checked DES website, and while I had not heard anything on FCP, it appears that it has been instituted already, which I must admit turns my stomach, especially in these times, I do not believe the end savings justify the means. I don't get this at all, penalizing people who earn income and pay taxes makes no sense. I would like to hear from anyone that is involved in this new process and their opinion of it, and anyone who doesn't like it, let me know, I would be happy to post your comments and don't forget to keep calling your legislators!!!!!