Ludicrous Bureaucracy at its Best

I know, perhaps a bit redundant. Nonetheless, that is where we are with a portion of the medical bills. There’s a state program for low-cost health insurance for uninsured children (a description itself that is a bit ironic–why would you need insurance for the already-insured?) that we’d applied to for Joshua.

Problem we’ve discovered is that this tidbit we are just now told about (previously were told is was the same program as another that provided free health insurance for lower-income children, in which it will pay medically bills up to 3 months prior to being accepted):

A child found eligible for SCHIP will be covered for services going back to the first day of the month in which the application was received by DSHS.

Fair enough. Except for the fact that Josh was born Feb 28th, the last day of the month. At 9:30 pm…and that we didn’t get to our recovery room until 11:30 or so…even if we had know about needing to get the application in. Oh, and this caveat: they will not accept applications prior to birth…and of course with his delays, we weren’t sure when he was going to be born.

So are the legislators and administrators of this program really so (to put it in current, hypenated, politically-correct language) non-thinking/thinking-challenged/logically-differently-abled that they could not conceive of a situation like this, and instead change the wording to “…covered for services going back 15/20/30 days from the date of entrance into the program”…?

Means that the hospital charges related to his birth would have to be covered under JoAnn’s insurance…and the out-of-pocket on that is over $600 thus far. We’re already disputing some of the charges for drugs/services we did not get (legally refused) and were billed for, so we’ll also be having them divvy up the charges between those on the 28th and those on the 1st.

Will also be writing to the head of DSHS, the director in charge of this program (once I can identify the person…the State website is oh-so-clear, even with an official organizational chart), state legislators, etc.

Argh.

I know, perhaps a bit redundant. Nonetheless, that is where we are with a portion of the medical bills. There’s a state program for low-cost health insurance for uninsured children (a description itself that is a bit ironic–why would you need insurance for the already-insured?) that we’d applied to for Joshua. Problem we’ve discovered is…