Medicaid

Re: Medicaid

• rparks8467

  April 2012

  From my understanding it depends on the birth weight when born. We were told by our social worker that our son was fully covered for Medicaid if he was born under 2 lbs. 10oz. There is also an income based medicaid for "your" benefits but only if your family makes less the $30,000 a year (don't quote me on that$ amount but it low). Its been almost eight weeks since my son was born and we are still going through the whole process but it should be a go.

  Don't know if the state makes a difference but we live in Colorado

  Good luck!

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• irishdo

  April 2012

  Every State is different regarding there qualifications but most have an income waiver for certain medical diagnoses, or if the child is institutionalized which is a horrible way of saying in the hospital.  We are in PA.  My son was a 24 weeker and qualified for Medicaid.  He also got SSI only while in the hospital- a whooping 30 dollars a month.  We actually tried to decline but were told it helps speed up the medical assistance. 

  We are actually now trying to get him reapproved on Medicaid as a secondary insurance due to his disability (he has cerebral palsy) without regard for our income.  It is a pain.  The social workers are usually really good at helping you through the process.  Once approved in the hospital it is retroactive to his birth.

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• JuliaJAG

  April 2012

  rparks8467:

  From my understanding it depends on the birth weight when born. We were told by our social worker that our son was fully covered for Medicaid if he was born under 2 lbs. 10oz. There is also an income based medicaid for "your" benefits but only if your family makes less the $30,000 a year (don't quote me on that$ amount but it low). Its been almost eight weeks since my son was born and we are still going through the whole process but it should be a go.

  Don't know if the state makes a difference but we live in Colorado

  Good luck!

  That's how it is in Georgia as well. We finally got the approval that he's on Medicaid as supplemental insurance which supposedly will pick up everything that our private insurance doesn't cover for him.

  It also comes with a whopping $30/month supplemental income payment, but I'm not sure we'll ever get it since we won't qualify financially now that he's home (not that $30 makes a difference for anything anyway!). For the Medicaid insurance thing, your household income doesn't matter.

  Julia ~ six miscarriages ~ our sweet miracle baby, Jack, due 5/3/12, was born at 29w1d on February 17, 2012, weighing 2 pounds 8 ounces

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• adrielegorburu member

  April 2012

  I live in Florida and the way it worked for us was she was automatically eligible for Medicaid coverage because of her birth weight, at the same time as we applied for Medicaid we applied for Social Security Supplemental Income (the two work hand in hand) her Medicare covered all our co-payment/co-insurance responsibilities and anything the insurance didnt cover and the supplemental income provided us with about $30 per month of assistance while she was in the hospital.  Within 30 days of her discharge we had to go in and interview in person and provide income verification.  We were not finanically eligible to receive anymore supplemental income assistance and we recieved one more relatively large check and that was it. After she turned one year old her Medicaid expired and we re-applied based on her chronic diagnoses and we are still waiting to hear back if we get another year. HTH

  

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• kelkel09 member

  April 2012

  Okay, so I am in NY also and have been dealing with SSI and Medicaid a lot so I can share my experiences.

  I applied for SSI while both babies were in the NICU. They automatically qualified because of their birth weights. They were both receiving $30 dollars a month during their hospital stay. Once DD came home, they re-evaluated her SSI amount based on our income and she no longer qualifies for monthly checks. I am assuming the same will be for Ethan now that he is home, but I am not sure since he is considered chronically ill. I haven't done his status change yet.
  

  Once you are receiving SSI, your baby is automatically eligible for Medicaid...but to actually receive Medicaid benefits there is a separate application. I had to go to the Medicaid office and fill out all sorts of forms and show documents. They do look at your income for Medicaid, but there are waiver programs based on medical needs (the child is hospitalized for more than X amount of consecutive days) so that is definitely something to ask about. 

  We also had to get a ton of other paperwork filled out by our doctor's but that is because we applied for Care at Home Medicaid coverage to cover Ethan's private nursing (bc of his trach). You probably won't need to worry about that piece. 
  

  I hope this helps! Let me know if you have questions.

  Kelley
  

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