anyone informed about medi-cal? bumping... Im in CA too but I only know medi cal when it pertains to the elderly! Sorry! But I thought id bump this for you too!Jeez I'm starting to think we should move to California.  We don't have anything like that here.  Everything we do is out of pocket for us.  Insurance pays for NOTHING.  They have a special insurance you can get called med waiver but your child HAS to be dx with classic autism (not pdd/nos) or mental retardation.  Plus the wait list for it is 4 years long.California isn't so great, believe me. :-\ My son was institutionally deemed so he gets medi-cal without regard to our income.  We have private insurance, but medi-cal pays for co-pays (in theory, anyway, but that's a whole other story) and as medi-cal clients, we don't have to pay part of his respite care.  So it's not a big help, but every bit counts when you have a child needing expensive services, as I'm sure you all know. So now his medi-cal is up for review (ONE YEAR after he got it!) and they're telling me they need all our financial information. I called to ask why and got some bogus answer like "it won't make any difference, but they need to know the account is real." Ahem... birth certificates and drivers licenses aren't sufficient to show  our reality, they need to poke around in our bank accounts? If our income is disregarded, I really don't see why they need all this personal information. Does anyone have any idea what might be going on here? We're in CA, if it makes a difference. I don't know the answer to that.  But have you applied to be his at home caregiver?  You can get paid (its not alot) to be home with him.  If you are already a stay at home mom, that works out pretty good.  You can apply for that at your county services office.  If you look up in home care providers, it should be in the white pages county gov section.  My mom works for adult protective services in our county and she does the processing for all home care providers.  If she didn't tell me about the program, I would never have known.  Its based on income and we don't qualify. Have you asked anyone at the regional center?  I have found alot of help from our case manager at the regional center near us. If it's based on income, I'm sure we wouldn't qualify. Thanks for the tip, though. Here are some sites I found on Medi-Cal - Hope they help http://www.medi-cal.ca.gov/ http://www.chcf.org/topics/medi-cal/index.cfm?itemID=20430 this site has Medi-Cal 101 ....... The Medi-Cal 101 section provides basic knowledge of Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid program), which serves 6.5 million low-income children, their parents, elderly, and disabled Californians. Medi-Cal 101 and Healthy Families Overview Guides provide the key facts and figures that you need to know about these programs. The Basics provides short reports and fact sheets about how the Medi-Cal program works. The Guide to Medi-Cal Programs is a booklet that provides details on Medi-Cal eligibility. Research Links give additional online resources for further information. http://www.chcf.org/topics/medi-cal/index.cfm  this has links for ................ Medi-Cal provides vital health and long-term care coverage to 6.5 million low-income children, their parents, elderly, and disabled Californians. As the largest source of federal funds to California, Medi-Cal's impact is felt throughout the health care delivery system. Previously conducted by the Medi-Cal Policy Institute, CHCF's Medi-Cal work focuses on improving program enrollment, access to care, and quality of care. Guide to Health Programs (Guía de Programas de la Salud) Medicare Drug Benefit Resource Area Medi-Cal Beneficiaries with Disabilities: Improving Quality and Accountability Medi-Cal Beneficiaries with Disabilities: Comparing Managed Care with Fee-for-Service Systems Modeling Cost-Sharing Options in Medi-Cal Redesign   See newly updated county-by-county data on Medi-Cal and Healthy Families caseload trends, as well as information about Medi-Cal expenditures and managed care enrollment for each county. Learn about the basics of Medi-Cal: how the program works, who is enrolled, and which services are covered. Check out the 2004 edition of the Guide to Medi-Cal Programs. Answers to many frequently asked consumer questions and lists of resources for more help. What is Medi-Cal? Who is eligible for Medi-Cal? Which services does Medi-Cal cover?   ALSO Chronic Disease Care Health Care Delivery Health Care Financing Health Insurance Health Policy Health Privacy Healthy Families Hospitals iHealth & Technology Long Term Care Medi-Cal Medicare Prescription Drugs Quality Special Populations Workforce Other Topics AND Reports & Initiatives Access to Care Budget Eligibility Enrollment & Retention Financing Long-Term Care Managed Care Provider Rates Quality of Care Performance Standards Retention Tools Medi-Cal 101 County Data Consumer Resources ************************************************************ ****** Heres something that might help others too IN ANY STATE ...... http://www.statehealthfacts.org/cgi-bin/healthfacts.cgi   Well, I *finally* thought of doing what I should have done ages ago and called our special parents info network and someone CAME OVER and explained everything to me.  They are such a great organization! Thank you to all the parents of special need kids who try to give back to other parents. Maybe (if you have time) you can explain Medi-cal for others who might be browsing the site and need resources?I don't think my explanation would be very helpful... but, if you are in California, and your child is a client of a Regional Center, you can ask that they be "institutionally deemed" for a medi-cal waiver. That means medi-cal will consider the application without regard to your income. ("deeming" is just saying that you are caring for your special needs child at home.)
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