Oxylated: Part 6
    Deep, cleansing breath, here. The situation has been handled and Mom's oxygen delivery system will remain the same as it has been in the past.

• Regarding our Hospice company's status as a TriCare Provider: Under my mother's TriCare program, which is TriCare for Life, the "hospice pot" kicks in as long as the Hospice company is Medicare certified and the Medicare "hospice pot" is kicking in. Our company is Medicare certified and the Medicare "hospice pot" is kicking in. TriCare for Life does not require a separate TriCare Provider Status. Sigh of relief.
• IHNTL was appreciative of my figures for our oxygen company's insurance billing. She asked me to repeat them, so, apparently, she wrote them down, then mentioned that the figures she'd been given were "off hand" from "someone who doesn't handle [the oxygen company's] billing". Ba-da-boom.
• I gave her my two suggestions for tweaking the billing in our oxygen company's favor, namely:
  1. Again I mentioned declassifying Mom's oxygen as a lung cancer related medication, which is completely possible and would ensure that our oxygen company's insurance payments would not drop (in case they are under Mom's "hospice" designation, although I'm not sure that this is happening, can't actually find out whether it is, yet, and rather expect that compensation for like services under the "hospice pot" would not be any different than they are outside of the "hospice pot"). About half of my mother's medications could be classified, or not, as such, and;
  2. Having the Hospice doctor rewrite the prescription for a higher level of oxygen, thus, I'm sure, kicking in a higher level claimed billing for our oxygen company which would go further to cover whatever the oxygen company claims they're eating. IHNTL neither confirmed nor denied these as possibilities, but she promised she would work with our oxygen company to wrangle a better billing status for both. I reminded her, as well, that during Mom's first couple of years with this company she was using so little oxygen off the same prescription that they were probably making money on her.
• She thanked me for all my work, calls and effort on behalf of this billing problem and asserted that, while grateful, their company didn't want to create for us this sort of situation wherein I was stressing about billing problems on the hospice company's behalf. I was very grateful to hear this. I was hoping, prior to calling IHNTL, that I would hear this because it occurred to me, this weekend, while I was researching all this stuff and thinking about it, that this is crazy...shouldn't Hospice be making my life easier rather than harder??? It is good to know that our Hospice company feels the same way.
• I am relieved to know that we won't have to switch Hospice companies. This company has, as I've mentioned before, performed minor miracles on our behalf. They can't completely control the problems we've had with Durable Medical Equipment, but, you know, there aren't very many companies in this area that are reliable enough for any hospice company, here, to work with, so this is something I can deal with myself without heartache. Although she assured me that receiving defective equipment was not something their company was happy to hear about and, as well, something they can and will address, I countered that I don't have the inclination to go through successive deliveries of defective equipment that needs returning and the excuses from the equipment company with which I've had to deal so far just to get something that works, so, if I can find reasonably priced, sturdy equipment, I'll just outright buy it and save myself the trouble of multiple botched deliveries. She understood.

    So, here we are. I'm hoping that this will be the last Oxylated post. Cross your fingers. I'll be crossing mine.
    I hear my mother's reconnaissance cough, right on time, 12-hour-sleep-mark minus about a half hour. Obviously, she's reverting back to her normal hours. Hallelujah. Life is returning to a recognizable version of normal.
    Later.
- posted by Gail Rae @ 12:11   email  this post