Last year Space Cadet was approved for SSI (disability) and Medicaid. She could have gotten this years ago, but we figured we would just take care of her ourselves. Well, when Prince Charming lost his job last year, we knew we needed help.
When Space Cadet got her Medicaid card, she was assigned a primary care physician. Since our regular family doctor takes Medicaid, we wanted to switch to her as Space Cadet’s PCP.
Earlier this month I talked to someone from APS Healthcare (the place it says to call on the card) and told them about the change.
Today we went to see the doctor. The receptionist told me that they couldn’t see her because there was a different PCP on the card. I told her I had talked to someone about changing that. She checked with Medicaid, and the change was not recorded in the system.
She suggested I call Medicaid from the office there and see if they would make the switch. I called the number on the card (APS) and they told me I should have called Medicaid (a different number, which is NOT on the card) to make the switch. Well, no one told me that when I talked to APS the first time.
SO, I called Medicaid. Of course all of these phone calls contained the obligatory long phone menus, and time spent listening to how important my call is to them. When I finally spoke to a real person at Medicaid, they said the change WAS in the system (they even told me the address), but that it wouldn’t go into affect until February 1. (Why was I not told that before? And what is the reason for the delay?)
The Medicaid lady said I could call the doctor on the card and ask for a referral to our doctor. Now, why would a doctor’s office we’ve never been to make a referral for us?
THEN the Medicaid lady said that if they got some number from our doctor and a diagnosis code, maybe they (Medicaid) could issue a referral. I asked, how can we have a DIAGNOSIS code when she hasn’t even seen the doctor yet?
Then the receptionist tried to talk to the Medicaid lady. The result was that we would have to reschedule for after February 1.
I said, let’s forget Medicaid for today, and just use our insurance, and I’ll pay the co-pay. GUESS WHAT? We aren’t allowed to do that!
So we’re going back on February 2.
Aren’t you looking forward to government-sponsored healthcare?
