URGENT: TO MY FRIENDS IN NJ AND THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE FRIENDS IN NJ: This is a request to please read enough of this to know what it is about, and then to share it if you will. This is from my friend, and fellow medical marijuana advocate Jennie Stormes. Jennie spends more time caring for her son Jax AND advocating for medical marijuana law reform in NJ than I EVER had to do for Cheryl. I mean that. If you live in NJ, all you have to do is send this to your two NJ state (assembly) representatives and you NJ state senator. Let me know if you need assistance in accomplishing this. To my real friends who will help, Thanks. Jennie: I need your help. Share, write to you legislators. Change is needed and I need really need your help. Jaxs Cannabis Journey 1. Surrender my son to the state of NJ (ward of the state) and be allowed by NJ to be the paid caregiver for my son. 2. Go on welfare 3. Move to another location What would you chose for your special needs, medically fragile child? These are my options. I live in NJ where there is a nursing shortage, in a remote area with low crime and good school services. My nursing is spotty and the call outs too many. As a parent, I have to be available to care for my son when the nurses do not show up, call out, or the shifts cannot be filled. I am also a single parent and I have to work to support my children since the father has not paid child support since 2008 and no one in NJ is interested in finding him in California. I have requested the state of NJ pay me, a professional RN in NJ, to be the RN assigned to my son through a nursing agency. The federal Medicaid does not prohibit it and leaves it to the individual states. In NJ, it is allowed for those over 18 with Medicaid. Steve Tunney with NJ Medicaid office has no objection to allowing for this solution considering the facts stated above. There would be no change in cost to the state, I would be supervised by a nursing agency and be accountable to a nursing supervisor like any other employee, and if there were staffing issues or call outs, the effect on me as a mom is not as harsh as it is now. The insurance company, NJ Horizon, is refusing to offer approval, denial, or a policy in writing on this request. I have requested a written statement and have been told that they are not obligated or required to answer me in writing. What they are telling me verbally is “the insurance company has no say in the hiring practices of the nursing agencies or any other vendor. They do not supervise or concern themselves with which nurse is assigned to which client.” Now, the nursing agencies, without guidance from the insurance company is open to liability and increase risk without written guidance or approval from the state of NJ (verbally saying yes) or the insurance co (who is refusing to verbally or written take a position). So, this leaves me the parent struggling to work and care for my son. My request is simple and is a win-win-win for me, the state, and the insurance company. I will not call out sick, tired, broken down vehicle, or due to weather. The state is not losing or gaining money, the hours have already been contracted and allotted to my son. The nursing agency will have a reliable person to fill the hours and if there is an issue, then I can care for my son without having to go to another job without sleep. If straight Medicaid was still an option in NJ, then this solution would be in place and Steve Tunney stated that I would already be employed as my son’s nurse. Since Gov Christie has forced all members into HMO’s, they are refusing to allow this solution stating that NJ Consumer Affairs prohibits the practice. I have called the NJ Consumer Affairs and there is no provision disallowing the employment of a parent as a paid caregiver for their child. None of the accrediting agencies serving NJ have policies against employing parents as paid caregivers for their children. Lastly, nowhere in the Medicaid manual NJAC 10:60 does it state that a parent cannot be a paid caregiver for their own child. Many other states have found this to be a solution for parents and the welfare rolls were not added to with parents unable to work due to nursing shortages or staffing issues. As it is now, my nurses call out and I have to care for my son who does not sleep well, has seizures in his sleep, and requires constant monitoring. Just last week, a nurse called out at 11p for her midnight shift. After 2 hours sleep the nurse leaving at midnight had to wake me up and I had to tend to his needs while he was sleeping. I was awake from midnight until I got him on the bus for school at 8 am. Then I went to work as a RN without sleep and worked a 12 hour day because that was my job. But, the nursing agency failed to inform me that the 4p-midnight nurse was coming in a 6p, not 4p. Now I have to make more arrangements because the nurse is not going to be at the scheduled time, no one notified me, and I have to work. How can anyone expect a single mom to work, care for a sick child when the agencies cannot fill the shifts or communicate a change and not even attempt to find someone to fill those two hours when no one was going to be there. This is just one example of one day. This happens all the times with nursing services. Employing me, his mother, a RN in NJ to care for my son would be a solution and allow me to be employed. The current options in NJ are as listed above: 1. make my son a ward of the state of NJ and lose my child because of regulations and politics. 2. Go on welfare (since he is disabled, I would not be limited to 60 months and could stay on it for the rest of my life). 3. Move. How are any of these options more acceptable than the one that I am proposing. All of these option increase the social dependency upon the state of NJ and decrease my pride and current abilities. I want to work and earn a living. I want to be employed. At this point, I am having difficulties working because the insurance company is refusing a viable and common sense alternative. This is an ethical situation where lack of services are forcing me to be dependent on welfare and social services for those who should only need temporary assistance, not a welfare way of life forever. Attached is the complaint to the NJ Insurance complaint division with the letter summarizing the request and situation. To add insult to injury, Geri Boone, the person at NJ Horizon who has been my contact person, stated on 3-10-2014 that she was tired of dealing with my request and that this was an issue for the nursing agency to decided. They will offer nothing in writing. When I asked for a copy of the written policy she refused and finally agreed to talk with legal. When I asked for a timeline, her response, “when she gets to it.” I advised that was not good enough, I need to know if it will be a day, a week, a month. This is when she decided to tell me that her mother was actively dying and that my request was the least of her concerns and that she will do it when she had time. Finally, she committed to Friday of last week. On Friday she called back and stated that she is not required to give me anything in writing and that I could not have the name or phone of anyone in the legal department. She would forward a copy of my letter to the legal department and they would contact me “if they felt like it”. Again, “they are not required to answer me or respond to my request”. This failure prohibits any appeals process and right to a hearing on the matter. The insurance company is failing my son and not meeting his needs for services already approved by the state of NJ and the insurance company. I need help so I can help my son and support my family. I do not have the money to move. I do not want to surrender my son to the state of NJ so he can have services which he has already been approved for by the state of NJ. And, going on welfare is the option which should be reserved for those who need temporary help to survive, not as an option to care for a special needs child because the state of NJ is experiencing nursing shortages and staffing issues. Why is the state of NJ pushing parents to consider these three options when paying them to be the caregiver would lower unemployment, welfare, and increase the pride and create positive role models with family units. This is a positive step towards independence and self-sufficiency. I am sorry, I do not get it. But, I do need you help to help many other parents who are also in my shoes. This is a change needed for NJ. Please feel free to contact me at 209-327-3366. Jennie Stormes, RN *´¨) ¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨) (¸.•´ (¸.•´¸.•´ * Have a Wonderful day
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 16:37:06 +0000
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