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has anyone lost their medicaid when close to surgery date?



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i started this journey back in 9/08 on nj medicaid Horizon NJ Health. well last month i get a letter sayin my medicaid is expiriing this month 1-09 so now here i am with no insurance? so i go to the welfare office to reapply and they deny me - tell me then it goes up to the state level- so i call the state program but she couldn;t tell me much until they recieve my application. the thing is when i look on the website (njfamilycare.org) the form says something about a family of 2 can make up to 28,000 a year (but with copays - no biggy). i make 26,270 a year. my ins. at work does not cover wls and is too expensive for me to take.

is there anyone on here that works for medicaid or government in nj or knows someone. i can't seem to get a straight answer.

my next plan is since work is real slow and they are cutting peoples time i was going to ask to be laid off, so that i can go back down and re apply for the state medicaid.

its just my luck to be the ONLY ONE in this situation.....

i soooo want a cigarette right now!

thanks Susan:mad2:

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Can your surgeon get you scheduled before your insurance expires? Some will do that if you explain the situation.

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no the insurance expired this month 1/09. its funny how i got a letter like Dec 23rd telling me i had like 2 weeks left before it expired. but i guess thats the way the government is. and im on the 6 month diet thing till feb 09. so the ins wouldn't have paid anyway.

i think my best bet right now is to ask my boss if they are planning on laying us off and if so, go ahead and lay me off. once i loose my job i will be qualified for medicaid again. the only problem (i think) is it will take like 30 to 60 days to kick in. so i will have to pay out of pocket to get weighed for jan and feb. good thing is allllll my testing was pretty much done thru oct-dec, i just got my sleep study done the last weeek of dec. so whats left is the psych eval (which) i would have to pay for anyway. and last blood tests.

what a bummer, i had a feeling it wouldn't work out for me, thats why i never persued it.

i quit smoking 3 months ago just for this surgery - i have been so upset with all this i ended up smoking twice yesterday!

oh well, enough of my babeling!

i'm just looking for someone that knows or works for medicaid that can give me some straight answers income limits and qualifying

thanks

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Hi! I'm in AZ but I thought I'd share this with you... I just lost my job and insurance. I went to one of the clinics in town and talked to their Patient Financial Services reps. I told them I'd just lost my job and insurance but was feeling a bit under the weather, and I asked them if they could help me get on Medicaid so I could be seen. I brought with me all my info, my ID, Passport, bills, last paystubs, residency verification, a letter from my boss saying I was no longer employed or insured, and all that. They did my application right there and they said that Medicaid had a couple more things they needed from me and would call me. They called me the next morning and finalized my application which had been put through as "Expidited" because I'd needed to go to the doctor and therefore had an outstanding medical expense from the day I applied.

Basic thing is, my suggestion is to call a local doctor's office and ask if they have a Patience Financial Services rep. Ask that person if they can help you apply in their office because you feel under the weather. Sprained your ankle. ANYTHING that will get you in the system at the doc's office and they'll have to put the app in as "Expidited" and be able to give you a determination as soon as you provide everything they need, so you don't have to wait forever. Otherwise, you'd have to go to the Medicaid office, fill out the paperwork, wait a week for an appointment, then wait for a week while they determine your eligibility and send you an approval or denial letter.

Go online and search for your state's Medicaid site and it'll have a list of things you need to bring with you (ID, bills, paystubs, etc.) and take it all to the doc's office.

Best of luck!

The fact that you were on it recently should help, too!

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does anyone know of a surgeon that has financing program in office? I can get approved for health care financing but drs office have to use them. I live in south carolina but I am willing to travel in U.S. preferably closer to home.

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

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