(Photo not of actual clients.)
Losing a newborn child is perhaps one of the most painful experiences a couple can endure. But when the family’s grief is compounded by crushing medical debt from the fight to save the baby, the stress is almost unbearable.
When “Derek and Michelle” lost their baby just a couple of months after he was born, it wasn’t long before the medical bills started showing up – bills they couldn’t afford to pay. The baby had been covered by Medicaid during part of his time in the hospital, but for the first two weeks he’d only had coverage through the couple’s primary insurance. The Player’s Center for Child Health had done all it could to secure retroactive Medicaid coverage for the initial two-week time period, to no avail.
So, the center referred Derek and Michelle to the Northeast Florida Medical Legal Partnership, which met with Derek and filed an appeal on the family’s behalf based on the failure of the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to process the Medicaid coverage request. Upon appeal, DCF processed the request and found the baby was eligible for Medicaid during the entire time he was hospitalized.
The family was extraordinarily grateful to The Player’s Center and the NFMLP for their help and said that the assistance through both organizations allowed for “such a huge burden off our backs.”
(Photo not of actual clients.)
