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so i am in the process of adopting my second son, and i am being told that the process now takes longer because of the new eligibility guidelines.apparently now, even if your child is deemed eligible, there is no guarantee that for the federal portion of the adoption subsidy you will get the 75% rate. apparently....you get what's called a "negotiated" rate. my case manager told me in an email:"If you have the opportunity to advocate for an adoption subsidy amount I will let you know. As the new process involves a negotiation meeting if XX is eligible for IV-E subsidy."i spoke with my atty and she said for older kids she has seen it as low as FOUR DOLLARS. i was like are you kidding me????so i am now hoping and praying things go well for him. he has been diagnosed with rad and i know we will need every last bit of aid they will offer him. he is more than qualified but i guess, when has that ever mattered.i was just sickened. and here we are paying 30 million bucks so the friggin pacers can stay here. and they haven't won a title in ages!whatever.....just what-everrrrr. *rolls eyes*
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i thought i would update with the recent email i got from my atty....i took out names but i think you get the point....so its looking like my foster son IS eligible per another email, however, i will now have to go in and negotiate the rate he is going to get. now this is for marion county i am presuming, so i don't know if it's different anywhere else now as well."XXXX:Have you received the Adoption Asssitance Agreement yet from CEU? When you do, could you please forward that to me?I know as a part of the new negotiation process, you will need to meet with xxxx xxxxxxx and then Alisa and I will schedule an appointment to meet with her for the actual negotiation. To prepare for that meeting, Alisa and I will meet.....but we need the Agreement (which I know won’t include a specific amount until after the negotiation)Thanks so much."
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i will, naca. and i am right there with you.
do you know i found out from my sister that in md, the foster care per diem rates have actually gone up almost like 3 or 4 dollars i think. they used to be behind us and now are actually ahead.
and again....30 million to keep the pacers here, but always an excuse when it comes to the children of this state. *sighs*:rolleyes:
this is the latest info i got from my attys....Hi Alisa,I heard the good news about your casemanager telling you that ***** is eligible for AAP. Fantastic!We have not received any paperwork on this, but I thought I'd get the process going for the subsidy negotiation.I'm not sure how much ****** or ****** have told you, but it's still a very new process. Once the child has been deemed eligible by CEU, the next step is to meet with the DCS attorney, ***** *****, to determine how much subsidy should be paid.We would rather be overprepared than underprepared. So, we are contacting our families ahead of time to start thinking about needs and their associated costs for the kids. Then, when we meet with ***** we can provide a list, justify the costs and hopefully, make the process as painless as possible.I know ***** is a wonderful, happy, healthy kid...but for this meeting we need to focus on issues and limitations that could help [with the subsidy].It would be incredibly helpful if you can start thinking about ongoing expenses for *****.Here are some of the categories to start thinking about:1)List of activities he's currently in/will be in and their associated costs (T-ball, tumbling, basketball, etc.)2)Yearly clothing costs3)Costs associated with school (tuition, supplies, field trips, meals, transportation, etc.)4)Any medical costs health insurance doesn't usually cover (ie. orthodontics)5)Therapeutic program costs6)Special dietary needs7)Gifts -- Birthday, religious, holiday8)Costs related to keeping him in touch with family or heritage9)Are you setting aside for college or a post h.s. option?10)Anything else that is an ongoing expense...As you are thinking about these things please email them to me and I'll keep them in a list to prepare for ******.As always, don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.here is the spreadsheet i was given to take a look at as well. i guess this is what the dcs atty uses to make their decision. i took a snapshot of it so its in the form of a jpeg.i tell you, it makes it that much more difficult when you know you have to go thru all of this to adopt from foster care. i would almost say forget it and just adopt him without it, but since he is eligible for it i think he deserves it.*sighs* so that's the latest. i guess now it all begins. i will make sure i keep you posted. wish me luck!
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We went thru negotiations on my 2 & 4yr old last week. I have had both since birth , they are siblings, minority group and both have lots of medical issues - 4yr old has heart issues (has a pacemaker, has had 4 heart surgeries in his 4yrs and a total of 8 hospitalizations), asthma, GERD & allergies. He's also in therapy for behavioral issues & self harm.2yr old has some heart issues (currently wearing a monitor to determine extent of issues), asthma, allergies, severe GERD , Obstructive Sleep Apnea (requiring Cpap machine) and severe hypoventilation. He also is seeing First Steps for developmental delays (delayed in speech, gross & fine motor).We were basically hosed. The boys got to keep their medicaid and were given a very very small subsidy. Our atty was even offended and felt it was a slap in the face.. If our boys aren't getting much of anything (especially the 4yr old- a pacemaker for pete sakes!) then I would love to know what kind of disabilities are needed to actually get the 75%.
Thanks for the post naca. That is terrible and definitely what I was afraid of. We were originally told that our girls would receive Medicaid only but our atty told us about possible negotiation. We have to weigh that against the possibility of finalizing by the end of year to qualify for the adoption tax credit which is fully refundable this year. That will at least get us a little further along. I'll try to keep you posted as things progress.
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teamredmond
I actually just saw another post from you icekitty which said that you were able to avoid negotiation for the most part. Congrats! Are there any others out there that have gone through this and have advice?
I had heard about this eariler this year from our cw, who vaguely explained but then said "but because you're not only not eligible, you also aren't interested, none of it pertains to you". (we weren't interested at the time in any adoption subsidy, with the exception of insurance).
Then I contacted our lawyer to begin the discussion of what process occurs post tpr (which has been resceduled twice now). The attorney said some interesting stuff:
If the child you're moving to adopt isn't at least 2yrs of age, none of the attorney fees are paid by the state.
If the child isn't two, you are not eligible for ANYTHING, including health insurance.
So, that being said, is anybody in IN aware of whether health insurance is now a negotiable expense upon adoption? We don't have health insurance ourselves and of course we know we need it for the kids.
And, has anyone ever heard of or gotten a buy in policy for medicaid when you don't financially qualify for medicaid but are willing to pay a portion for coverage? How does that work and how do you go about that?
Thanks guys!!
Do the kids have any issues that could qualify them as special needs? Drug exposure, premature? They would then possibly qualify to keep the Medicaid. In my son's case, he did have some (it seems now) relatively minor issues which we saw several docs at Riley Children's for. I sent each letter from each specialist( a summary of the visit) to the caseworker. She made those a part of each of his court reports and the GAL always brought it up in court. He qualifed to keep his Medicaid without me having to argue or negotiate.
I used to work in medicaid. If you are talking about the HIP buy-in, i would suggest apply and give it a shot. But....don't expect the rates to be any better than if you just called anthem and got a personal policy. I think it was avg of around $800/month plus $1,100 deductible or something. Sorry but good luck!
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icekitty
are they doing a hip buy in now?