Blogging about life in Minnesota, raising our six kids with Down syndrome while battling Breast Cancer.

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says, "Oh shit! She's up!"

Friday, October 23, 2009

Yes, she is still disabled

Some of you are very familiar with the term SMRT. It stands for State Medical Review Team. Really, this team drives me insane.

Some people think that having your child in Medical Assistance is easy. Umm...no, it's NOT! It's a PITA really. Every 6 months I get forms I have to fill out and update. Every year I have to re-do our income stuff, which is interesting since Angela is on a WAIVER, and the purpose of the WAIVER is to WAIVE the typical income requirements so they look at HER income, and not the household's income. Still, every 6 months I have to submit the household income.

And then comes the SMRT. Every 3 years I have to prove that Angela is still disabled. I have to submit all medical reports and documents saying what her current diagnosis are. I have to have new assessments done by the specialists she only sees at this time (for her, this is psychiatry) and it just adds a lot of appointments to an already full schedule of medical appointments. Not only that, but Angela has to have TWO portions done, "Disabled" and "Mental Health" because that's where the TBI waiver stuff falls. (Angela is on a combined waiver NB/TBI = neurobehavioral/traumatic brain injury) I understand WHY they do this. Really, I do. It just drives me crazy because all of her diagnosis are things that aren't going to go away. They are life-long things. Can't they just flag her file and stamp "Lifer" on it or something?


4 comments:

Sheila said...

I feel your pain - try it times 3!

Unknown said...

Yep, I know what you mean. I have to prove every year that my left foot hasn't miraculously grown back to have the parkind permit renewed.

I just wish regulations would actually understand the word permanent!

datri said...

I was reading an article from Ohio where the kid got kicked off Medicaid because they determined he did not have Down syndrome anymore. Really??? The mom filed an appeal stating that Down syndrome is not "curable" and they reinstated her. But how annoying that they had to go through all that red tape!!!

My name is Sarah said...

This is Joyce. I vote for "lifer" too. I hate all this paper work too.