I first heard about this waiver about two years ago. For those families that are not eligible to put their disabled child on medicaid because they make too much money, this is supposed to be an option. The thing of it is...no one really knows how to get their child's name on the list, how long the wait is, and what agency actually assists you in doing this. Its like an underground thing that no one really talks about, but everyone has heard something about it.
I started looking into it and didn't get very far and eventually gave up. I was recently inspired to pick that baton back up and have spent the last couple of weeks on the phone with our government - Medicaid, Social Security office, Department of Family Services, etc. I can't tell you how many people I talked to, how many times I left messages and didn't get return phone calls, and how many times the phone simply just rang and rang and rang. No one knew what I was talking about.
I kept googling like crazy and finally while I was on my son's school website, I noticed a link for the Agency of Persons of with Disabilities. I found the contact for our county and left a message last Friday on her voice mail. Well, guess what, this morning she returned my call and even better - she is the person that signs us up. So, Finnley will officially be on the waiting list for the medicaid waiver. She did warn me that the wait time is anywhere from 5 years to 10 years. Yes, that is right years. I had actually heard the wait was 7 years, so this didn't sound far off.
This won't pay for everything (it helps with therapy services not medical) and you have to prove an intellectual disability. In the state of Florida you cannot prove this until the child is 5 years old and the school does an IQ test. However, if your child has a known condition that will most likely cause an intellectual disability, then he or she can get on the waiting list earlier than 5.
I'm not an expert in this so as I learn more, I will share.
http://apd.myflorida.com/contacts/
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