Long story but cliffs near bottom.
On September 28, 2005 my father-in-law suffered a sever brain hemorrhage. He was attending a business convention in Cleveland and was found passed out in the bathroom. He appeared to be sleeping but they could not wake him up so they called an ambulance. He was in a coma for almost 2 months. Midway through November he was able to follow simple commands such as squeezing your hand or giving you a thumbs up.
The week before thanksgiving he was transfered from Cleveland back home to a nursing home in the Chicago suburbs. 48 hours later he had a high fever and was transfered to the intensive care unit at the hospital. During his stay at the hospital they discovered that his kidneys were shutting down. He's been on dialysis ever since.
A few weeks later he was transfered back to the nursing home where he was slowling improving. Over Christmas he was able to have conversations and he recognized everyone in the family. He was able to recite elements from the periodic table (he's a chemical engineer) and could give us square roots of all the numbers we could think of. They even gave him a swallowing test to see if he was able to begin eating solid foods instead of the tube feeding he's been on since September. He passed the test and was allowed to eat foods with a honey like substance (thick soups, yogurt, mashed potatoes, etc).
With this good news, my wife decided to go back to work, she had been off for 2 months to help out her mom thanks to the family medical leave act. She was able to still talk to her dad on the phone everyday and he would be able to hold a full conversation and always ended with "I love you sweetheart."
Over the past few weeks he begin to talk less and recently the conversation has been completely one sided. We were able to visit last weekend and when we got there the nurse said that he wasn't doing well and she did not see him recovering. My mother-in-law never indicated that it was as bad as the nurse said it was. So yesterday (2/7) I got a call from my wife and my mother-in-law had told her that Aetna was no longer going to cover her dad as of 2/9 (tomorrow) because he has not shown any progress in the last month.
While he hasn't shown much progress (perhaps backwards progress), the doctors in Cleveland told us that we should wait atleast a year for the brain to heal before we make any harsh decisions. Starting tomorrow we'll have to pay for the nursing home out of pocket which is $7000/month. My mother-in-law is ready to give up since Aetna is giving up, but my wife and I aren't ready to give up yet. We'll pay for the first couple months, but after that we'll probably run out of money.
Are there any alternatives for medical insurance? The state sponsered ones seem to require that you have less than $10,000 in posessions to qualify. My in-laws have a house worth close to $500,000, so they'll never qualify.
My father-in-law's insurance says that they will pay for 120 days in a nursing home, but nwo they're backing out and only paying for approximately 50 because they said he's not improving.
My mother-in-law was told that she can appeal the decision to stop coverage, but we're not sure how that will go.
In the meantime, I think we just need to keep praying for a miracle. He was only 58 when the stroke occurred. The cause of the stroke was high blood pressure, so make sure to have yours checked!
Cliffs:
1. Father-in-law had stroke in September
2. Showed good signs of improvement
3. Health started to decline beginning in January
4. Insurance is going to stop coverage 2/9.
5. Nursing home costs $7000/mo out-of-pocket
On September 28, 2005 my father-in-law suffered a sever brain hemorrhage. He was attending a business convention in Cleveland and was found passed out in the bathroom. He appeared to be sleeping but they could not wake him up so they called an ambulance. He was in a coma for almost 2 months. Midway through November he was able to follow simple commands such as squeezing your hand or giving you a thumbs up.
The week before thanksgiving he was transfered from Cleveland back home to a nursing home in the Chicago suburbs. 48 hours later he had a high fever and was transfered to the intensive care unit at the hospital. During his stay at the hospital they discovered that his kidneys were shutting down. He's been on dialysis ever since.
A few weeks later he was transfered back to the nursing home where he was slowling improving. Over Christmas he was able to have conversations and he recognized everyone in the family. He was able to recite elements from the periodic table (he's a chemical engineer) and could give us square roots of all the numbers we could think of. They even gave him a swallowing test to see if he was able to begin eating solid foods instead of the tube feeding he's been on since September. He passed the test and was allowed to eat foods with a honey like substance (thick soups, yogurt, mashed potatoes, etc).
With this good news, my wife decided to go back to work, she had been off for 2 months to help out her mom thanks to the family medical leave act. She was able to still talk to her dad on the phone everyday and he would be able to hold a full conversation and always ended with "I love you sweetheart."
Over the past few weeks he begin to talk less and recently the conversation has been completely one sided. We were able to visit last weekend and when we got there the nurse said that he wasn't doing well and she did not see him recovering. My mother-in-law never indicated that it was as bad as the nurse said it was. So yesterday (2/7) I got a call from my wife and my mother-in-law had told her that Aetna was no longer going to cover her dad as of 2/9 (tomorrow) because he has not shown any progress in the last month.
While he hasn't shown much progress (perhaps backwards progress), the doctors in Cleveland told us that we should wait atleast a year for the brain to heal before we make any harsh decisions. Starting tomorrow we'll have to pay for the nursing home out of pocket which is $7000/month. My mother-in-law is ready to give up since Aetna is giving up, but my wife and I aren't ready to give up yet. We'll pay for the first couple months, but after that we'll probably run out of money.
Are there any alternatives for medical insurance? The state sponsered ones seem to require that you have less than $10,000 in posessions to qualify. My in-laws have a house worth close to $500,000, so they'll never qualify.
My father-in-law's insurance says that they will pay for 120 days in a nursing home, but nwo they're backing out and only paying for approximately 50 because they said he's not improving.
My mother-in-law was told that she can appeal the decision to stop coverage, but we're not sure how that will go.
In the meantime, I think we just need to keep praying for a miracle. He was only 58 when the stroke occurred. The cause of the stroke was high blood pressure, so make sure to have yours checked!
Cliffs:
1. Father-in-law had stroke in September
2. Showed good signs of improvement
3. Health started to decline beginning in January
4. Insurance is going to stop coverage 2/9.
5. Nursing home costs $7000/mo out-of-pocket
