I had posted on this earlier but it didn’t print. I used to work in home care and case management. I witnessed a number of families who had a double blessing from this program: patient was blessed to have a trusted caregiver, family member blessed to be compensated for their time so they were not taken out of their caregiving duties to work elsewhere just to pay the bills.

It’s a caregiver program for Medicaid recipients. If you have a family member or friend that can help as a caregiver, the state pays them. If not, they will send one of their own.

Sorry to hear that! I’m not familiar with the Independent Waiver Program

I’m definitely looking into different programs. I was denied for the Independent Waiver Program, so I’m pursuing another option now. It honestly feels like they wait until you’re completely overwhelmed before offering real help. I broke down during the first hearing, and I’ve been in therapy throughout this process as well.

Thank you :)

Yeah, having a legal defense is really helpful. I would focus on clarifying any weaknesses in your case which a lawyer deemed the reason they chose to not continue with the case. ( I am not a legal person, but that’s what I would do) One tip I remember pre-hearing wa to talk about what you can’t do, not what you can do. I think the fact that someone else cleans our house every other week, does our lawn, my live-in daughters do the bulk of the cooking and cleaning when I am incapacitated, that my husband primarily does the long-term financial planning. Per the documentation, they made mention of some systematic diagnosis-based guidelines for approving / denying . I imagine you could google that to know where they are going to focus their attention. I don’t remember the exact questions, but I do remember that they pertained to function ( ability to think, move, do chores, etc. I wrote notes for myself so as not to leave out the multitude of symptoms that o have. It’s easy to have a positive attitude and leave information out, or by not knowing. It’s important to track frequency and duration of symptoms per my legal team. For example, I have had neck and shoulder pain for years, but I did not know they were migraine-related , I’m an RN until I read it on the walk of my neurologist’s office. they were asking about duration of my depression , suicidality, etc. when I started talking about it, it made me cry, I described my first bout with post-Partum depression, my first time seeking medical and therapy assistance after thinking about falling on a knife. I did share the truth that 2 people in my family have committed suicide. Hope that helps! Best wishes in your appeal! Maybe you could consider calling a group like I went with to see if they can help? I think they charged 26% of my initial settlement, but nothing if I didn’t win. I only had to pay a nominal fee for printing, mailing and faxing required by law, as I recall. All more than covered by the settlement. Best wishes! Hope this helps!