Our focus now is trying to find a PCP - we just moved to the area within the last year and had not chosen a doctor yet and now it's rather urgent that we find one so this will be interesting. I'm afraid we won't be able to until we know for sure that our COBRA insurance as gone through, but we will start looking right away to begin the process.
We had to deal with the first real "problem" of not having active medical insurance. The physicians at DHMC requested we get "at home nurse visits" and they set up an agency to come see Dan twice a week for the first 2 weeks of his time at home. The agency they set this up with contacted me on Wednesday but the first question they asked about was whether or not we had insurance. I was totally honest with them and told them I believed we were going to but that it would be at least a week if not two before it was reactivated. They needed a lot of information that I did not have available as all of this was handled at DHMC, so I advised them to contact the Financial Services Counselor we were assigned there to get the information.
Shortly after this conversation DHMC called me and our counselor explained to me why Home Health Care was so concerned about this. The primary reason is because an agency like this often gets no financial assistance from anywhere so if the client doesn't have insurance and is self-pay they often can not afford to pay for the care and the agency will not get any reimbursement and there is nowhere for them to go to for help in this area. It's easy to see how any business will eventually go bankrupt if their customers can't pay for their product or services. I'm not angry about it and they weren't rude - just very adamant and concerned regarding the ability to pay. I told DHMC that we didn't have a problem with taking my husband to a physician to have his healing progress checked and now I'm waiting to find out from DHMC what the best route to go will be. I believe they are still trying to find a way to work this out with the Home Health Care agency and with the miracles they have already worked I'm not giving up on the idea of a nurse coming to our home to check on his progress.
Otherwise all is going well. His employer has assured us he has a job when he is able to go back to work - even if it is just for a few hours at a time. However we do not have income during his inability to work and now that is what I'm focused on. I've just about gone through all of our savings already and have not even begun to pay utilities or the car payment. For those of you who believe you have adequate health coverage - make sure you have something in place that covers loss of income as it is my understanding that many regular insurance policies do not cover this.
I'll update again soon - at this point things are going well. At least he's alive and healing and in the grand scheme of things, that's what matters. Funny how things like this make you realize what's really important in life and often it turns out not to be the things you were so stressed about before the event. Don't forget to take stock of your life and see the good things you have - never get your priorities confused, stay focused and enjoy what you have instead of living a life trying to acquire the things others have.
Take Care...
~ alesia
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