We are facing the possibility of losing our nurses. Which can't happen.
When Sophia was with us we had nurses who worked through an agency.
That agency then announced that they might go out of business. Instead, they
were purchased by another agency which supposedly specializes in serving
high tech pediatric clients. After Ambrose was born, the discharge coordinator
from the NICU tried to arrange for him to get home nursing through this agency.
They would not take him on as a client because they apparently had people on waiting
lists. THe head of Medicaid spoke to them on our behalf. They strung us along for a
while, then said no. Rebbecca, one of Sophia's nurses went to the agency and said, "hire
me to take care of Ambrose." They made her jump through a bunch of hoops, then
told her they would hire her but they still weren't taking Ambrose.
Eventually we were directed toward the family managed high tech nursing program.
There are 5 families in the state that use this program. You have to recruit and train
your own nurses. They become Medicaid providers and are paid directly. This has
worked out fine for us until last week. I received a letter stating that the Dept. of Labor has
determined (after investingating a lawsuit a nurse brought against a family) that the nurses do not meet their criteria of "independent contractor" which they were being treated as. They determined that the family is considered the employer, not the state, and are required to provide unemployment and workers compensation .
insurance for the nurses. We have until July 1.
If he was served by a nursing agency, as he should be, this would not be our responsibility.
I cannot lose my nurses or I could not work or go to school. Nor can I afford to pay for this. (We don't have figures yet as we are waiting to get specific payroll info.) Also, the nurses don't want to lose their jobs! They love Brosie and are very dedicated to him and us.
The Medicaid guy is trying to compel the agency to hire my nurses to take care of Ambrose.
He thinks things may be different now with them as they finally have a new pediatric case
manager. In a way this would be an ideal solution but it would probably mean lower saleries for the nurses which is not good. Also, a week has gone by and they are still "playing phone tag."
The clock is ticking!
Our Children with Special Health Needs case manager is trying to help find out the insurance
costs and if there is any fund to help pay for this but she doesn't seem very optimistic about being able to cover it all.
Crap!
I was going to post this a week ago but wanted to give my post about my dear friend Ben some time.
Well we finally got the rest of our stuff out of storage since our move last fall. This is the ball pool that was part of Sophia's Make a Wish sensory room. It is currently living in the middle of our living room floor along with the slide ( the only way to make a proper entrance into the ball pool of course.)
This wonderful photo was taken by Ambrose (and Sophia's) nurse Rebbecca. This is Ambrose's lovely little hand holding "the Sophia necklace." It is my special necklace that contains some of Sophia's ashes. I only take it off when I shower and then Brosie holds it for me. The rest of the time I wear her right over my heart.
This afternoon while Brosie was napping I tried taking off his oxygen as he was satting 100 on just a whiff of O2. He satted 93-96 for 45 minutes. This is quite remarkable as he is totally O2 dependent. When he woke up he needed to go back on.
Yesterday, James and I played Scrabble. Despite the fact that he was leading me by over 100 points, I instantly won the game by spelling the magic word: "Ambrose."
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