In my Currents piece this week on the Michael family and their challenges to get proper medical coverage for their daughter who struggles with bipolar disorder, I mentioned they had an appeal hearing in front of an administrative judge today.
Tera Michael called me this evening (Thursday) to let me know that the judge rejected their appeal. Yes, it was because they do not meet the income guidelines. According to Tera, the judge told them the family was $104 over.
Let’s hope, or dream, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona accepts the family’s appeal to cover their daughter’s medication. There’s no way the family could pay more than $600 a month to pay for the psychotropic meds that have turned Tondra’s life around the last five months. Without those meds, however, chances are this high school student will be hospitalized again.
This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2009.
Thanks for this update. We’re not reading enough about families like this right now. I really enjoyed your story this week, and wish the Michael family much luck. Keep up the good work.
They need to get to SAMHC, get assessed, and assigned to COPE or La Frontera, which would likely help with some of the expense — they would at least get put on a sliding scale.