Medicaid Nightmare

It has been 3 months since I've been trying to place Mike on "straight Medicaid" rather than the Medicaid HMO he is currently on. The reason for this is that we want to put him on hospice. Hospice has come highly recommended for their support and services, and does NOT limit the time to 6 months for AD patients. The state easily extends hospice because of the unpredictability of this disease. Working with social services has been horrific. They cap the amount of hours of an aide at 10 hours (Mike's aid currently works 11 hours a day) OR they supply a live-in. We have no space for a live-in, so they are telling us that in order to switch Mike to straight mediciad, we will lose 5 hours of help a week. They claim that 10 hours a day is "more than sufficient". Imagine that!!!! I asked the nurse at social services if she ever took care of an AD patient? 10 hours a days is sufficient, are they kidding??? We barely get by with 11 hours.

I have no idea what I will do. I did ask for paperwork to be started for a "fair hearing" to see if I can appeal their decision. Mike's doctor is willing to go to bat for us. PLEASE, everyone pray that this works out. It's so sad that even when you WANT to do the right thing and keep your loved one at home, the government makes it so difficult. Shame on them......