From Beginning to Forever - Finding Chianna

Boys Germs vs. Girls Germs

2012-01-19T15:37:00.004-05:00

So here is the latest Chianaism from Chianna.

She has been wanting to bring her stuffed animal reindeer, Rudolph to school since we have been back from Christmas break. Rudolph is very special because Santa brought him to Chianna even though she didn't specifically ask Santa for him, but saw Rudolph in the store after she saw Santa. She is impressed that Santa and the Elves knew about her wanting Rudolph and delivering! : )

Evidently there is a time when they have recess that they are allowed to bring out a toy and play and share it. Last week we told her she could take Rudolph to school with her on Tuesday and she was counting down the days, because it was a MAJOR event to her. She even didn't want to sleep with him on Monday night for fear of forgetting to put him in her backpack Tuesday morning! This deer comes every where so that was shocking.

So, Tuesday night we pick her up from school and I asked her all about Rudolph's day at school. She was telling me all about it and said that she only let girls touch her deer "because boys have germs". So I giggled with her a little and smiled and said that was ok and she decided to elaborate that girls have germs too, but boys' germs are yucky and she doesn't like boys. She will only like boys when she is older and gets married when she has a boyfriend.

Of course this is all news to Daddy who is perfectly happy with boys being yucky and germy in her eyes!

The Day The Internet Fought Back

2012-01-19T15:14:00.003-05:00

I received this email from FightForTheFuture.org and figured I share it as a good way to end the blackout on my blog. Not that I post to it everyday anyhow, but it's just the principle.

"Today was nuts, right?

Google launched a petition. Wikipedia voted to shut itself off. Senators' websites went down just from the sheer surge of voters trying to write them. NYC and SF geeks had protests that packed city blocks.

You made history today: nothing like this has ever happened before. Tech companies and users teamed up. Tens of millions of people who make the internet what it is joined together to defend their freedoms. The free network defended itself. Whatever you call it, the bottom line is clear: from today forward, it will be much harder to mess up the internet.

The really crazy part? We might even win.

P.S. Show this video to as many people as you can. It works! http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/

Approaching Monday's crucial Senate vote there are now 35 Senators publicly opposing PIPA. Last week there were 5. And it just takes just 41 solid "no" votes to permanently stall PIPA (and SOPA) in the Senate. What seemed like miles away a few weeks ago is now within reach.

But don't trust predictions. The forces behind SOPA & PIPA (mostly movie companies) can make small changes to these bills until they know they have the votes to pass. Members of Congress know SOPA & PIPA are unpopular, but they don't understand why--so they're easily duped by superficial changes. The Senate returns next week, and the next few days are critical. Here are two things to think about:

1. Plan on calling your Senator every day next week. Pick up the phone each morning and call your Senators' offices, until they vote "no" on cloture. If your site participated today, consider running a "Call the Senate" link all next week.

2. Tomorrow, drop in at your Senators' district offices. We don't have a cool map widget to show you the offices nearest you (we're too exhausted! any takers?). So do it the old fashioned way: use Google, or the phonebook to find the address, and just walk in, say you oppose PIPA, and urge the Senator to vote "no" on cloture. These drop-in visits make our spectacular online protests more tangible and credible.

That's it for now. Be proud and stay on it!"

You can also see my article for South Florida Internet Marketing Association on the SOPA Protest: SFIMA Blog

SOPA Protests Black Out the Internet and My Blog Today

2012-01-18T00:07:00.000-05:00

For more details on what this is about and why, see my article on the South Florida Internet Marketing Association Blog

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

2012-01-16T23:38:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure about everything that was covered in Chianna's school about Martin Luther King Jr. but evidently this is what she got out of it:
1. He'd dead.
2. It's a sad story.
3. He was good.
4. He was shot in the head by a bad man. (YIKES!)
5. There is a statue of him that she wants to see. (likely because she probably thinks it shows what happens when you get shot in the head?)

Anyone else think that "shot in the head" is a bit graphic for 1st grade? I didn't really probe any further to find out who told her that, I just figured I'd stop the conversation there before it got any worse with more questions that I can't or don't want to answer to a 6 year old.

Daddy Is In Big Trouble!

2012-01-15T23:38:00.000-05:00

Chianna learned some where that when she is asking something from daddy, she should turn her head to the side, smile, and say "pleeeease" really sweet while blinking her eyes. She tells me tonight: "I have a special eye thing, I do it on daddy, you should try it too, Mommy."

My Little Anthropologist

2012-01-05T16:19:00.000-05:00

So as you may know or have guessed, Chianna loves dinosaurs. It is her favorite thing. She got this awesome set of play dinos from Uncle Jack & Auntie P for Christmas and it had all different little dinos in it and a few cavemen too. She announced to Uncle Jack as soon as she opened it that she would not be playing with the people, she only wanted the dinos. (Hey, at least she is honest, I guess?) So the other day she opened it and was pretty insistent about not wanting the people. So Myke and I convinced her to keep the people and pretend they are riding the dinos or something like that. Evidently she was mostly upset because she didn't want to have to pretend play that the dinos ate the people! So I thought I would remind her (although I knew she already knew) that people didn't live the same time as dinosaurs did. She said "I know Mommy, it is just a toy." In a very "duh" tone. I thought it was pretty hilarious. Soon she will be schooling us all on the history of dinosaurs. I'm pretty sure she will discover what really happened to them.

Black Eyed Peas

2011-12-29T00:15:00.001-05:00

Eating dinner the other night and Myke was having black eyed peas. Its not something we have often, so he says to Chianna, do you know what this is? It's The Black Eyed Peas. You know, they sing the song "Tonight's Gonna' Be A Good Night". (Chianna loves that song.). And she looks at him, puts her ear down to the plate and looks up and says with all seriousness. "I don't hear it."

Great Minds. . . .

2011-12-27T00:29:00.000-05:00

Since a couple weeks ago when Myke taught Chianna to walk like a zombie and "eat brains", she has been breaking into zombie mode every now and then trying to 'get us'. Last night she comes out doing her zombie walk after us, but got it a little wrong, she was chanting "mind, mind, mind!", Myke and I lost it laughing. What a funny moment that was.

Merry Christmas Jib Jab Videos

2011-12-23T13:17:00.000-05:00

Starring: Chianna, Mommy, Daddy, Papa, & Uncle Brian:

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Starring Chianna, Daddy, Uncle Brian, Baba & Pa:

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Starring Chianna, Mommy, Papa, DeDe & Zay Zay:

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Starring Chianna, Baby Sophia, Uncle Brian, Baba & Pa:

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Disco Christmas! Starring Chianna, DeDe, Zay Zay, Mommy & Papa:

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Chianna & The Santa Clause 3 Movie

2011-12-23T01:21:00.001-05:00

We have been watching Christmas movies the whole month. We have all 3 Santa Clause movies. Myke and I have always loved them. We watched 1 and 2 already with Chianna this month and today we put on The Santa Clause 3: the Escape Clause. This is the one when the evil Jack Frost tricks Santa into saying he wished he was never Santa Claus and reverts back to the day he became Santa by putting on the jacket 12 years prior. Jack Frost becomes Santa and the last 12 years of Santa's life is re-written, definitely not for the better. During the process where he is not Santa anymore. Poor Chianna became inconsolable! She was crying hysterically, one of the worst crying episodes I have seen her have! We had to pause the movie and try to comfort her and explain that we should watch the rest to see how Santa saves the day and assured her it would be ok! We ended up finishing the movie and she was very happy in the end, but it was a real rough patch there! For those of you who know Chianna know she hardly ever cries and it really takes something big to upset her so much. Leave it to Santa!

Snowball Fight Jib Jab Video

2011-12-22T12:26:00.001-05:00

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On A One Moose Open Sleigh. . .

2011-12-21T00:48:00.000-05:00

I took Chianna shopping today so that she could pick out something for Daddy for Christmas. I asked her if she knew what she wanted to get him, dreading that she would ask to go to the mall. (Dreading it since I waited so long.) But she said rather quickly, "Santa Lights". I then remembered that we were all in Home Depot a couple weeks ago and we were thinking about getting these particular lights. Evidently Chianna did not forget at all! So I had a few errands to run and while in the car, Chianna was going on (and on) as she does about when she grows up and has a baby that she wants to live where there are moose. I don't know what brought this on other than she has this new little toy moose from Papa.(She has been carrying it around non stop since Papa got this for her at IKEA the other day. Today it spent most of the day in her pocket and also she tucked him in the seat belt in the car for safety!) Although she does often talk about wanting to live where it snows. Which is odd because Myke and I do too, but we don't really talk about it to her. So she is babbling in the backseat about living where moose live - on another planet, of course! Which she realized and corrected and said another state. Then she says "and I won't have a car, my baby and I will ride a moose"! A moose? I exclaimed, and she matter of factly said yes. Then she broke into singing Jingle Bells but changed the line from a horse to a One Moose Open Sleigh - HEY!

Then after singing she went on and on insisting that we would not live near her, because she wants to visit us in Florida and we need to be "in pieces"! I asked if she meant "apart" and she said yes. I couldn't figure this out for the life of me, but she seems really serious about it and even instructed me "can you tell Daddy, please"? I don't know if it is her independence or just some idea she has in her head, but being far away from my baby, "in pieces" doesn't sound so good to me!

Happy Hanukkah Jib Jab Video

2011-12-20T12:26:00.000-05:00

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Zombie Brains

2011-12-18T00:16:00.000-05:00

Today Chianna and Daddy were playing, he taught her to walk like a zombie and say "must eat brains". So she was doing this at lunch, walking around pretending to eat everyone's brains, when something clicked as to what she was doing and saying and broke 'zombie mode' to say, "Brains? I'm gonna' be smart!"

Chianna the Elf Sings Feliz Navidad!

2011-12-17T21:50:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas or Feliz Navidad (sort of) from Chianna!This was filmed Christmas 2010. Chianna learned this song for her school show, so we made our own show with her as a soloist!See all our videos on our YouTube Channel

Chianna the Elf Sings "Up On The Roof Top"

2011-12-17T21:47:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!This was filmed Christmas 2010. Chianna learned this song for her school show, so we made our own show with her as a soloist!See all our videos on our YouTube Channel

My Christmas Cookie

2011-12-17T00:49:00.000-05:00

Chianna and Daddy made Cranberry Honey Spice Pinwheel Cookies as a gift for her teachers. Chianna loves cooking with Daddy!

Dasher the Dino

2011-12-16T23:44:00.001-05:00

We watched The Santa Clause 2 tonight and after it was over, she ran around the house saying "Dasher, on Dasher, and Dasher and Dasher". We explained to her that it is all of Santa's reindeer, but she would have none of that. "Only Dasher!" While tucking Chianna in to bed tonight, she informed me that she wanted a pet dinosaur to fly her to school. She is going to name him Dasher. She is very matter of fact about it too.

We got her to bed a little later than usual since tomorrow is no school, and I read a book to her. After the book was done, I tucked her in and said I would send Daddy in to kiss her goodnight. At this point she always hides in her "egg position" as if she can't be seen like that, for a game with Daddy where he can't find her. But she was very sleepy tonight. Today was a big day at school, last day before Christmas break and they had field day too. She said in her sweet little sleepy voice. "I'm very sleepy, I don't want to play with Daddy when he comes in but I don't want to hurt his feelings, I only want a hug. Can you tell him, Mommy?"

My Feet Hurt. . . .

2011-12-15T23:30:00.000-05:00

Last night Myke sat down with a big sigh.
Chianna: "What's wrong, Daddy?"
Myke: "My feet hurt."
Chianna: "Yeah, I have that problem too."

Me: {{{Literally ROFL}}}

It may not sound that funny in print, but in the context of things, that is an odd thing to come out of her mouth and is sounds funnier when she says it.

Monkey Glue

2011-12-14T21:51:00.002-05:00

Chianna has this thing she has done for a while, mostly playing with Myke when she is trying to get him to stay in one place, she pretends she is taping him down, and says "tape, tape, tape, glue, glue, glue" as she is pretending to tape and glue him in place. A couple weeks ago, she must have overheard us talking about how we needed some Gorilla Glue for some pesky gluing job around the house and the other day, she was playing with Myke as usual and added to her mantra: "tape, tape, tape, glue, glue, monkey glue!"

Eye Drops

2011-12-13T21:54:00.000-05:00

Where does she get these ideas? Chianna asked me to put drops in her eyes tonight before bed to "wash away the bad dreams". She has had this idea since before she could communicate it with us. Its strange yet smart and innovative too!

Evidently this works because the next morning on the way to school, she told me all about the dream she had that her and I were swimming with mermaids. (Or dolls with tails, as she calls them!)

Seaworld Christmas Celebration

2011-12-09T00:37:00.000-05:00

Last year was the first year that Seaworld did their Christmas Celebration and we loved it so much, we decided to make it a tradition and go every year. Besides lighting up the park with their Sea of Trees, the have Christmas shows and convert the polar expedition train ride into the Polar Express. They also have a fabulous dinner with Santa event that is really amazing. It is a buffet of great holiday food, the elves come to visit and pour hot cocoa, Mrs. Claus servers her fresh baked cookies AND Santa takes time out of his busy schedule to come and visit, tells the story of The Night Before Christmas and sings Jingle Bells with the elves. Before he heads back to the workshop, he makes time to visit with all the children one by one and Seaworld gives us a picture of it too!

Here are some more pics of our fabulous time.

Yes, my little daredevil goes on this, and screams "yee haw" on the way down!

Here they come. . .

And there they go!

I really love riding Atlantis too, but I had a bit of s snifle and didn't want to chance getting wet and then sick right before Christmas!

Oh My Gosh! Here comes Santa!

And a big hug!

Playing in the "snow":

2011-12-04T21:58:00.000-05:00

Chianna, DeDe & Zay Zay starring in Elf Yourself!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/DD9V1wSg4iDDY2NE?cmpid=ey_url

November Chiannaisms

2011-11-30T22:04:00.000-05:00

Chianna's quote @Target "Mommy, let's buy some Santa Milk for Daddy!" (Egg Nog w/ Santa's Pic on it.)

So Chianna and I are on the Tilt-A-Whirl (after many other spinning rides) and after the ride really started spinning, her squeals of delight turned into: "I don't know, I don't know, I think something is coming out!" Luckily nothing came out, but now I have another funny Chianna-ism! LOL

Myke was making dinner.
Chianna: Daddy, I'm so hungry, I can't wait!
Myke: I am cutting as fast as I can.
Chianna: Cut faster!
Myke: I'm using a knife, if I go too fast I might cut myself! Do you want me to cut myself?
Chianna: I'm sorry, Daddy, I lose my mind! I lost it and I don't know when I find it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-18T12:33:00.000-05:00

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Chianna & Uncle Brian Ice Skating Jib Jab Video

2011-11-06T12:35:00.000-05:00

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2011-10-31T22:31:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T12:30:00.000-04:00

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Chiannaisms

2011-08-27T21:21:00.004-04:00

So many funny things came out of Chianna this week:

After her second day of school she says, "Someone is school was miserable today." And of course, I was thinking some kid was upset and crying. After further interrogation, I came to realize that Chianna wasn't saying 'miserable' she was saying 'principal'. She said that the principal was on the tv and then she saw her in the cafeteria. So I asked if they all went to the cafeteria to see her on tv, and she says, "no in the cafeteria, I saw her in real life!"

In the grocery store potato chip isle: "I need to try new things!"

Also at the grocery store: "are those real chickens or food chickens?"

While watching Sarah on Chuck try on a wedding dress: " I want to wear that one day, but mine will be blue with a dinosaur on my head!"

About aftercare: "I need you to pick me up early - my bones can't wait!"

We bought her a fancy black dress with her back to school clothes and Thursday she says, "Tomorrow after school, I want to go home, put on my black dress, and go eat sushi."

"I like your shirt, Mommy. Well maybe a little, why do you where purple all day? You have a purple life!"

Dry Kleen AKA BH Cleaning & Restoration Services, Inc. Are Scammers

2011-08-15T00:40:00.003-04:00

I am posting my story once again as I will not stop complaining until I get a refund for the botched carpet cleaning job that Dry Kleen did on our rugs.

Dry Kleen is located in Hollywood Florida.

Dry Kleen does carpet cleaning in South Florida: Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Sunrise, Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, Hallendale, Miramar, Plantation, Tamarac, Lauderhill and other cities in Florida. In addition to carpet cleaning, you should also NOT call them for the other service they do like Oriental Rug Cleaning, Tile and Grout Cleaning, Upholstery Cleaning, Air Duct Cleaning, or Water Damage clean up.

Kleen Dry partakes in terrible business practices and does not honor their word. Here is our story as posted on the Better Business Bureau website along with many other consumer complaint companies to spread the word so that no one else gets robbed of their money and time like we did.

We called Kleen Dry for carpet cleaning after seeing an ad for $10.95 per room. We made an appt for them for 8/10/11. After starting to clean 1 of 3 rooms, he told us that we would need the deep cleaning because the regular service was not working. Without even asking, he showed an example of the deep clean service in the middle of our rug, leaving a much lighter spot than the rest, at which point, we have very little choice but to get the "deep clean" service since there is now a spot in the middle of the rug that is obviously going to be cleaner than the rest for the $10.95 fee. We agreed on $100 for all 3 rooms. He then said to "turn the machine up all the way" and the 2nd guy named Manny quickly did the rugs with the "deep clean" service. Once the rugs dried that evening, there were streaks left all over the rug from spots that were missed and areas that still smelled bad. My husband called them the next morning and arranged for them to come back on Friday 8/12/2011 to "fix" the streaks and properly clean the rugs. We were already upset because that meant taking the day off from work a second time to be home for them. Kleen Dry said he would be by after 2pm on Friday. At 4pm, my husband called him and he said he thought we were someone else that couldn't wait so he sent his cleaning guy home and it was too late. My husband said that he needed someone to come out that day to properly clean the rugs. The man from Kleen Dry said he could come on Monday and my husband explained that Monday was not acceptable since we were having guests this weekend and we would not be able to take another day off of work to stay around waiting for him all day. At that point the man from Kleen Dry because argumentative, insisting that he was "doing us a favor" and when my husband said that he isn't doing us any favors since he messed up the rugs in the first place, he said "forget it, we're not doing anything" and hung up on my husband.

Friday night my husband cleaned the rugs himself with our own Bissel cleaner and had to go over the streaks they left 3 times to get them out. The smells and the rest came out when he cleaned the rugs, so there was absolutely no benefit from their non-cleaning on our rugs.

I also feel that this is a common practice to lure patrons into paying more money than advertised and should be recorded as a scam.

Kleen Dry Carpet Cleaning Scam

2011-08-12T17:11:00.003-04:00

I have been saying for some time that I need to get back to blogging. Unfortunately, it takes me being pissed off about something to get that going. I hope to be back to post more on what's happening in our life and more important things, but in the mean time, I'm here to complain - and I do it on here so that it will affect the rankings in Google so that others looking for the same service won't be tempted to use them!

Kleen Dry (also goes by Klean Dry) carpet cleaning is a total scam. We saw the $10.95 per room coupon and new that was probably a "basic" service as I have heard that spiel before. The regular company we use was not able to come this week, so we decided to take a chance with Kleen Dry. Big Mistake! We stayed home from work on Wed and paid $100 for the "deep clean service" in 3 rooms. After it dried, there were streaks everywhere and still looked very dirty except for the big circle area that he used to show us an "example" of the deep clean service. We called back yesterday and he offered to come out again and re-do it. So today we stayed home from work again and waited, he never came. When my husband just called he said he thought it was someone else and thought it was rescheduled. I am sure that is a load of crap. He said he couldn't come out today and could come Monday. We told him we just wanted our money back and then he started saying something about he was trying to be nice and my husband stated, "Ok, so you made a mistake and now you are being nice and doing me a favor?" And then he said "forget it, we are not doing it" and hung up on my husband. I stopped payment on the check hoping it is not cashed already and if it was cashed, I will be seeking a refund or class action law suit.

Just to be sure you know who they are their website is: www.kleendrybh.com

Here is Kleen Dry's Facebook page - please drop them a nice dirty note to match the way they left my rugs: http://t.co/aCRYDg6

No Rain Forest Trips in Our Future

2011-01-13T23:32:00.000-05:00

Chianna's writing homework for today was to answer the question: Woud you like to visit the Rainforest? Why or why not? Her answer: No, because there are no dinosaurs there.

We have a Kindergartener!

2010-08-26T19:24:00.002-04:00

I know I haven't blogged pretty much the entire summer, so I will try to do some catch up. It is so hard to keep track of everything going on, but I really do want to document a few things and funny sayings from Chianna. Pictures will be coming soon. (I hope!)

We are so proud of our "big" girl! She started kindergarten on Monday and only had one melt down on Tuesday, but all the other days have been fine. Monday and Tuesday I was able to walk her into class, on Monday Myke came too and we got to meet her teacher and see her classroom. On Wednesday, I could only walk her in up to the front gate and then they have teachers and safety patrols to escort her to her class. I think she has to do it by herself starting next week! We will see how that goes - her class is not too far away though and there are no twists and turns.

For me, that means back to the car line, waiting to pick her up for 30 mins every day and fighting lots of traffic inside the school to get in and get out. Arghhh . . . . not fun!

We have also started back up therapies again! I am happy to report that we have been accepted to the state insurance program - which is much less money than HMOs and is designed to cover her therapies and other special needs! It's such a relief that I don't have to go through the stress, anger and lies of companies like Aetna ever again!

So here is the great little goodie bag and note that Chianna's kindergarten teacher sent home:

Soon you will be starting Kindergarten. It is an exciting time and maybe a little scary - even for the teacher! I put together this "Kindergarten First Day Kit" to help you get ready for the big day. Take a few minutes to have mom or dad tell you about the special meaning of the items in the bag and tell them how you feel about starting kindergarten. I am looking forward to getting to know you. We have lots to learn and do together. See you on the first day!

Kindergarten First Day Kit:
Starburst: You will be a shining star in school if you smile and always do your best.
Penny: To remind you that you are a valuable member of our class.
Sticker: We will always STICK together and help one another.
Smarties: You are going to learn SO much in Kindergarten this year!
Eraser: Remember, it's okay to make mistakes. That is how we learn.
Hershey Hug: We all need hugs now and then. If you need one, let me know.
Lifesaver: I am here to help you. Don't be afraid to come to me if you need something.

This kit was simple, but really means a lot to us!
It's gonna' be a great year!

Aetna Insurance Problem Update

2010-05-23T14:04:00.002-04:00

Shortly after my last posts, I heard back from Aetna and they have told me that they have evaluated my case and have decided to credit me in the cases where we had 2 therapies in one day to make the co-pays even amounts!

I am thrilled for this decision and still waiting to hear about my credits.

Aetna Insurance Drama Timeline

2010-04-27T23:09:00.002-04:00

Hello,

If you are here reading about my insurance problems with Aetna health insurance, here is a timeline of blog posts in chronological order:

Feb 15, 2010 http://bit.ly/Aetna_Sucks

Feb 17, 2010 http://bit.ly/aetna_insurance_reform

Feb 18, 2010 http://bit.ly/aetna_insurance_problems

Feb 24, 2010 http://bit.ly/aetna_headache

March 5, 2010 http://bit.ly/aetna_driving_me_crazy

March 8, 2010 http://bit.ly/aetna_insurance_hell

March 10, 2010 http://bit.ly/aetna_problems

March 19, 2010 http://bit.ly/Aetna_does_not_care

March 21, 2010 http://bit.ly/Aetna_crap

April 26, 2010 http://bit.ly/Aetna_hell

April 27, 2010 http://bit.ly/boycott_aetna

Another Afternoon at the Park

2010-04-27T22:02:00.006-04:00

I love this shot!

Chianna loves the park so much and its great exercise for her, so we go every opportunity we get! Sometimes I get some really great pics too!

Besides the playground, she loves to play in the trees!

THINKING OF SIGNING UP WITH AETNA HEALTH INSURANCE? SEE HOW POORLY THEY TREAT THEIR "INSURED" CLIENTS

2010-04-27T18:12:00.003-04:00

AND MY SAGA & FIGHT WITH AETNA CONTINUES. . .. .

THIS POST IS IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I AM SCREAMING MAD AT AETNA HEALTH INSURANCE.

I JUST RECEIVED A "RESPONSE" TO MY LAST EMAIL ASKING AETNA FOR A DETAILING OF MY CO-PAYS AND WHERE IN POLICY IT STATES WHAT MY CO-PAYS ARE.

I RECEIVED NONE OF THIS DOCUMENTATION FROM THEM AFTER ASKING FOR IT SEVERAL TIMES. ONE WOULD THINK THAT THIS IS SIMPLE INFORMATION THAT THEY WOULD HAVE ON FILE.

INSTEAD I RECEIVE NOTHING BUT "LIP SERVICE" AND AGGRAVATION!

EVIDENTLY SINCE THEY SAY THAT THEY INCORRECTLY COVERED THE CLAIMS IN THE FIRST PLACE, THEY ARE EVIDENTLY NOT GOING TO GIVE ME ANY OF THIS INFORMATION. THEY ARE NOW TELLING ME THAT ANY CREDITS WERE ALSO ISSUED IN ERROR?????!!!!!!

AND THAT ANY OF THE OTHER CLAIMS ARE NOT SUBJECT TO ANY CREDITS!!!!????

THEN THEY WROTE SOME INCOHERENT MUMBO JUMBO ABOUT THE CLAIMS THAT WERE BILLED DIFFERENTLY ON THE SAME DAY OR ON TWO DAYS. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT MEANS: SOMETHING ABOUT THAT TWO COPAYS APPLY PER DAY WHEN BILLED BY DIFFERENT PROVIDERS USING THE GROUP'S TAX ID #.

WHILE SPEAKING TO MY ADP REPRESENTATIVE YESTERDAY, WHEN I EXPLAINED TO HER THE PROBLEMS I WAS HAVING TRYING TO DECIPHER THE COPAYS AND THE BILLS, SHE SAID IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU NEED A MATH DEGREE. I REPLIED, THAT I THINK YOU NEED MAGICAL POWERS IN ORDER TO TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE CONFUSION THAT AETNA HAS SET FORTH.

I AM VERY GLAD THAT I ALREADY COMPLAINED TO THE STATE INSURANCE COMMISSION ABOUT MY CASE.

I AM WRITING MY POLITICIANS AGAIN, WITH FOLLOW UP NOTICES AND CONTACTING LOCAL AND NATIONAL MEDIA.

I WOULD APPRECIATE YOU HELPING ME TELL MY STORY. UNFORTUNATELY, I AM NOT ALONE, I AM JUST NOT QUIET. THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF OTHER FAMILIES THAT INSURANCE COMPANIES LIKE AETNA DO THIS TO AND THEY EITHER DON'T NOTICE OR DON'T HAVE THE WILL TO PUT UP WITH THE FRUSTRATIONS.

Grocery Shopping Deals

2010-04-26T22:00:00.003-04:00

I have really been learning to pinch the pennies lately, and discovered some really great deals at our local Winn Dixie. So, I wanted to start a new weekly post on my blog where I share my deals of the week with you!

This Week's Winn Dixie Deals:

Red Seedless Grapes: $1.99/ bag

Strawberries: $1.99/lb

Russet Potatoes: $1.99/5lb bag!!!! (super good deal!)

Check colas on sale for $2.50/12 pack (Not at good as the $2/12 pack they were last week though, but still a good deal for us Dr. Chek junkies!)

Package of 8 breaded white meat chicken patties: $3.50 (These are super yummy for buffalo chicken sandwiches, chicken with country gravy and mashed potatoes, and Myke's chicken Parmesan with pasta!)

Capri Sun box of 10: $2/each

Fresh Ground Beef: $1.99/lb

These specials are good through Tuesday, April 27th. But don't worry, on Wednesday, they'll have some more great deals! You can sign up to receive a weekly email of the specials and see all the current ones at WinnDixie.com.

Also, they often run a special on fruits and veggies that are "one the way out" but can be a really great deal if you use them the same day or quickly. This week, I got 10 huge bananas for $1.33. That is approximately the price 4 or 5 bananas would have cost at the regular per pound price. Three of them were partially bruised, but I still got way more than the regular per pound price out of it. They have this banana deal almost all the time and I get it very often since I usually eat a banana with breakfast every day and Chianna has about 1 or 2 per day too.

In the past, I have picked up a mish mash package of peppers, squash & zucchini for less than 50 cents, and just chop them up and use them with dinner the same night!

I hope that I can pass my good deal finds on to you and help my friends stretch a buck!

Update on Health Care: I'm Still in Aetna Hell

2010-04-26T01:09:00.004-04:00

Well I've had a lot going on to keep us busy lately, so I didn't have a chance to update on what's happening with my Aetna Insurance problems, but seem to be suffering from a lack of help since I have been quiet for over a month now.

In my last post on March 21, 2010, I was ranting about how I received a collection notice from a doctor bill that should have been covered because I had met the out of pocket maximum for 2009; in addition to several other ongoing issues that I was not getting answers about.

I expected to have an immediate response due to the urgency of the matter and because of how upset and distressed I was with the gravity of the issue. By the end of the day on the 21st, I called the doctor's office that I received the collection letter from and, to my surprise, she told me that Aetna had called her about 30 minutes before to let them know that they were going to be covering that claim and that it was not my fault that the payment was delayed. I was very relieved to hear this, but still upset that Aetna did not contact me to let me know they were working on it, not to mention upset that it had gone so far in the first place anyhow!

Aetna did reply to my email on March 23rd saying that he needed to talk to me about these issues. I didn't get a call, but got an email on March 24th stating that Aetna was going to cover our occupational therapy that we had to date, but that in reviewing my plan, since it says that they don't cover chronic diseases, that they made a mistake in the first place and should not have covered any therapy at all, and would not cover the remainder of the 60 consecutive days that was originally told to me because of this review.

I didn't event know what to think about this! I'm very happy that the occupational therapy is being covered, however am I supposed to think they are doing me a favor? It appears that every time they look at my plan, they come up with a different definition of what is supposed to be covered or not covered. It's proof that no one at Aetna knows what is going on or what they cover. It's proof that they word their policies so ambiguously and verbosely that no average person can read and understand them. If you have a medical degree AND a law degree, then still, good luck in understanding an insurance policy!

I wrote them back and asked [again] for a detailing of the co-pays for therapy because the credits did not make sense and I still don't know what the co-pay amounts were or what they are supposed to be.

On March 31, 2010, I received another email update from Aetna and they let me know that the doctors that I was past due with were being paid and that I have indeed met the out of pocket maximum for 2009!

But I still have no idea what the co-pays were and why they are not consistent!

I didn't hear anything for over a week, so on April 11th I wrote asking the following:

Checking in on the co-pay amounts for therapy from August 2009 - October 2009. I would like to have an accounting of what the co-pays were for each visit and why they were different co-pays for some of the days that we had two visits, but not all the days that we had two visits. While I am thrilled to have a credit, I am wondering why the amounts are not consistent and why I was not told about it sooner so that I could have adjusted the schedule at the time and made sure that we would have had the visits on the same days.

(To re-cap: Aetna originally told me that there is a $50 co-pay per 30 minute therapy session. Then in October 2009, they updated to say that the therapy co-pays were $37.07 for physical therapy, $43.03 for speech therapy and $44.70 for aqua therapy. I was issued a credit from the therapy place. Now they are telling me that on the days that we had two therapies in one day, the co-pay was much less, however I have no detailing of what the amounts are. The amounts are inconsistent and I have credits for some of the days we had 2 therapies in one day and not others, and the credits that I was issued are not the same amounts! I was never told about this until I probed and probed!)

So, on April 15th I received a reply to that request, which did not include any of what I asked for. He basically told me that Aetna's co-pay rate is based on the procedure code, each code has an assigned rate and that I am responsible for the remainder that is not covered. WHAT!!!??? He also said that the co-pay issue was not addressed before because some of the claims were processed after????

OK, NONE of that makes sense to me, nor does it answer my question or solve my problem! And to even further add to my confusion, the same diagnosis and procedure codes were used for each therapy claim.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, he says I can dispute claims and gave me a fax number to send in a dispute to. HELLOOO!!!??? I wouldn't even know what to dispute, because Aetna is not sending me the information I need. And furthermore, when I log into Aetna.com to download the claims, they are not updated, so I cannot get an accounting of anything!

On April 18th, I received a return email from Aetna with an excel file, that was supposed to detail all the claims I asked for. At first, I was all excited, thinking that I finally have a detailing and some answers! WRONG!!! The excel file was very confusing! (Just like everything else Aetna does!) Each claim was listed in the file twice and then was listed three more times with a $0 amount next to it. I began to try to edit it and make heads or tails of it, and after 30 minutes of staring at this file, I hadn't gotten anywhere, so I decided not to waste any more time on it, going cross eyed trying to figure out their voodoo accounting of my claims. Instead, I composed my own excel file of all the dates we had therapy, the type of therapy and the co-pay amount I paid. Then I color coded the credits we were given and the same situations that were not credited and sent it back to Aetna. I sent this back on April 21st. I asked for someone to actually LOOK at the file and answer my questions as to why the credits were not consistent. I also [again] asked for the documentation of where in my policy is says what the co-pay amount is.

This evening (April 25th) I received a return email that is completely incoherent! Two sentences! Is that even a response? Aetna wrote me back to say that when service is provided by 2 providers under one name there should be 2 co-pays, and that in this case a co-pay should be applied to speech therapy and a co-pay should be applied to physical therapy.

WHAT? That doesn't answer my questions, solve my problem or make any sense whatsoever! I keep mentioned that if the claim is not submitted consistently from the therapy place, that to let me know so that I can have them fix it, since she had the same therapies and as far as the therapy place has told me, they are all billed exactly the same way.

I am really hoping that something gets cleared up soon, this is completely ridiculous!

If you are reading this for the first time, this is only a piece of the puzzle and the drama that we have been put through. You can see details on this whole insurance debacle with Aetna on my blog:http://bit.ly/Chianna and if you would like to help, feel free to link to the blog and share my story with anyone and everyone who will listen. I am not just doing this for me and my family, I am doing this for all the families who have been wronged by Aetna and other insurance companies who make it their policy to deny claims in hopes you will not notice, make it hard enough to fix problems that they hope you will give up, and state incorrect things over the phone just to get you to shut up and hang up and then they do not stand behind what was said.

Disney on Ice

2010-03-31T23:39:00.001-04:00

Thanks to our awesome Fed Ex representative at work who gave us 3 tickets to see Disney on Ice! Myke wasn't feeling well, but that meant that Dee Dee was able to come with Chianna and I. We made it a "Princess Night Out"!

We got to see the show from the Fed Ex suite and eat hot dogs and drink sodas! WooHooo!!!

We got to see some of Chianna's favorites: Mickey & Minnie, Cars, Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Tinkerbelle!

Here are some pics. . . .

Birthday Party Fun at Flamingo Gardens

2010-03-21T23:18:00.020-04:00

I have lived in South Florida all my life and for some reason, had never visited Flamingo Gardens before. I am so glad we were invited to our friend's birthday party there and finally got a chance to experience this beautiful park and commune with Florida's nature, practically in our back yard.

We went on a tram tour of the park and here are the photos:

So serene and beautiful on this lake - I loved it here!

Look closely, there is a bird in the tree!

The nubs sticking up are actually roots of the tree!

This peacock accompanied us on our tram tour.

Here are some great photos I took of Chianna while on the tram tour:

Next we saw the wild life show and learned alot about Flamingo Gardens and wild life. Flamingo Gardens is an animal sanctuary, home to injured and rehabilitated animals that are unable to survive on their on in the wild.

First we met an opossum. This one happens to be blind, but still is able to get around really well. We learned that opossums are not rodents and also are not very smart animals because their brains are so small. They are famous for "playing dead" which is actually a reaction they have when they get so scared, they actually lose consciousness! Opossums are scavenge feeders and eat fruits and vegetables.

Next he asked if we knew what the fastest animal on the planet is. And I thought what most other people yelled out: Cheetah. Well, we were all wrong! The fastest animal on the planet is the falcon! It has speeds clocked up to 70 MPH!

We also got to see a box turtle and baby alligator up close.

Next we went onto the aviary where we got to see lots of birds and also some turtles!

We walked through the park to see all the animals, most of which are free to roam the grounds. The alligators, snapping turtles and Florida Panthers are safely enclosed though!

And our last stop was feeding the flamingos! These beautiful birds really amazed me with how gentle they are. We were able to feed them right out of our hands. Chianna was so brave, as soon as she got the hang of it, she really loved feeding them.

After seeing the whole park, we went back to the party area, where they have picnic tables and we ate dinner and had birthday cake! Happy Birthday to sweet Mae Li! What a great time we had! I can't wait to go back to Flamingo Gardens again soon!

The Birthday Girl!

Birthday Party Fun:

My girl in blue, very festive with her drink umbrella in her hair!

Flamingo Gardens is a very beautiful place and now that I have seen it, I am sure I will go back again and again.

Here are some videos I took:

And Today the Aetna Crap Starts to Hit the Fan!

2010-03-21T00:02:00.003-04:00

In an effort to preserve my [in]sanity, I am going to paste here what I sent in an email to the Aetna representative today. But here's the story, slightly modified to protect some private info and names.

Hi [AETNA},

I don't want to be rude, but the frustration is really getting to me here and the problems are multiplying rather than being solved. First of all, I received a collection notice in the mail today for a $50 co -pay from the neurologist's office. I expect someone from Aetna to contact them immediately to clear up the matter and ask them to recall it from collection. I still do not know if with the credit from the therapy place if I meet the out of pocket maximum or not. Even if I still owe the neurologist this payment, I will pay, but I need Aetna to explain to them what the delay is and that it is not my fault. I need to be assured that my credit will not suffer because of this mess.

Regarding the out of pocket maximum:

I need to know when the last day of the 60 day period for speech therapy is and physical therapy is according to Aetna.

The 1st speech therapy evaluation was on August 20, 2009 and her 1st speech therapy session was on August 24,2009. According to the calendar, October 18th is the 60th day, is this what Aetna is counting?

and the 1st physical therapy evaluation was on August 19, 2009 and her 1st physical therapy session was on August 24, 2009. According to the calendar days, October 19th is the 60th day, is this what Aetna is counting?

Regarding the occupational therapy issue:

In other conversations with Aetna representatives, they had mentioned the two separate start dates (referring to her evaluation dates) and that each start date started the 60 consecutive day count down for that type of therapy. (Do they start counting from the day of the evaluation or the day of therapy?) So that still makes me question why the occupational therapy is not being covered, and even still, it says no where in the explanation of benefits that ALL therapies need to be completed within one 60 day period. Furthermore, there are specific outlines in the occupational therapy bulletin for explanation of benefits that allow for continued occupational therapy, where it does not mention that for physical and speech therapies, so I expect them to further review the case for continued occupational therapy past the 60 consecutive days, which she is currently missing for the second week now because I cannot continue to bring her to therapy until this gets resolved and I know that Aetna insurance will be covering the visits. It is taking longer than it should to be resolved. Once they realize this therapy is supposed to be covered, I expect Aetna to make provisions to extend the 60 days therapy for the amount of time that I had to pause her therapy because of this mix up.

Regarding the co-pay credit for physical and speech therapy:

I am EXTREMELY UPSET that I was not made aware of this issue sooner. I had someone from Aetna evaluate the account in October and said that the co-pays were not the $50 amount I was paying at the time and the therapy place had issued me a credit at that time stating that the contracted rate that Aetna gave them was $37.07 for physical therapy, $44.70 for aquatic physical therapy, and $43.03 for speech therapy. Why was this problem not discovered then?

Why is the co-pay now different for different days and so much less some of the time and not all the time? As I mentioned before, she had speech and physical or aquatic therapy 30 minutes each on Mondays. She had a 2nd physical therapy session for 30 minutes on Wednesdays and then a 2nd speech therapy 30 minute session on Thursdays. The co-pay for those 2 therapy sessions on Mondays with the credit I have been issued is significantly less than the co-pay for the same 2 therapies she had later in the week just because they were on different days. A credit should be owed to me for those days as well then. No where in the explanation of benefits from Aetna is this co-pay policy listed, nor was it told to me or the provider, the therapy place and I would have never known about it had I not reached the $1500 out of pocket maximum and pushed the issue with no cooperation from Aetna whatsoever.

I don't even know what the co-pay was for the visits, and I expect a full explanation of this from Aetna as to why the same therapy co-pays are different amounts on different days.

Here is what I would like to see happen this week:

A full accounting detail form Aetna of the co-payments I have made and where I am at with the $1500 out of pocket expense for 2009. I have the credit document from the therapy place, but I am still very confused as to why I received a credit on some days and not others, and the credits stop on Sept 21, 2009? Attached is an excel file detailing of what she gave me. We had therapy on more days than what is listed, so as you can see, it is quite confusing! Why are some days $6.97 and then one is $5.30? Why are not all the days she had 2 therapy appointments considered here, and as I've asked before, why is the co-pay different on different days? I really feel like I am getting ripped off here. Is Aetna just making adjustments now to make sure that I don't reach the $1500 out of pocket maximum? It sure seems like this is the case.

I expect Aetna to contact the neurologist's office regarding the co-pay of $50 that I have now received a collection notice for to explain to them that there has been an issue with insurance and the co-pay will be paid once Aetna clears up the issue.

I also want Aetna to call the orthopedic's office about an outstanding bill I have with them for $38 and the physiatrist's office about a $50 co-pay issue I have with them. Once I receive an accounting detail, if I owe them the co-pays I will make those payments, however Aetna needs to contact them to clarify the issue we had was not my fault and explain why the payments were delayed.

If this is something that you cannot handle, please pass it on to someone higher and let me know. I expect to hear from you Monday that this is being worked on and need to have something resolved by the end of the week. This is dragging on far too long and consuming too much of my life. However, that does not mean I am going to go away, I am going to continue blogging about my issues with Aetna. I think you know that I am going to see this through and the sooner that Aetna can clear up this matters, the sooner I will get out of their hair (and yours too). I feel as though I am stuck in the middle between Aetna and the providers going back and forth with he said, she said. I need someone to handle this and get it taken care of. I would hope that after all that Aetna has dragged me and my family through that some priority could be given to these problems and let's get this resolved.

If you are reading this for the first time, this is only a piece of the puzzle and the drama that we have been put through. You can see details on this whole insurance debacle with Aetna on my blog: http://bit.ly/Chianna and if you would like to help, feel free to link to the blog and share my story with anyone and everyone who will listen. I am not just doing this for me and my family, I am doing this for all the families who have been wronged by Aetna and other insurance companies who make it their policy to deny claims in hopes you will not notice, make it hard enough to fix problems that they hope you will give up, and state incorrect things over the phone just to get you to shut up and hang up and then they do not stand behind what was said.

Aetna cares about money, not your health or health care.

2010-03-19T19:31:00.006-04:00

I spoke with the Aetna representative I have been dealing with regarding the OT and the co-pay billing issues I have.

Regarding the OT issue, he said that it seems that the occupational therapy is being denied because the coverage is exhausted. I asked how it could be exhausted since it says we get 60 consecutive days of therapy and they are denying all of the therapy since January 26th, the day we started OT. He said that the 60 day window for the therapies starts the day of the 1st therapy! Of course, this once again makes no sense whatsoever, and I take it as Aetna just denying everything in hopes that I will go away and they will not have to pay for it. Well, I am not going away and my daughter deserves this therapy. No where does it say that the coverage for each discipline is under one 60 day window of opportunity. Besides, in talking to Aetna representatives, they had mentioned to me the 60 day window ends differently for her speech and physical therapies since she started them on different days. (Not that talking to anyone there has had any weight in the past, but never the less, they had once again led me to believe that I was fine with having the therapies in different time frames.) I realize that they do not cover chronic conditions, but this is ridiculous! What if it wasn't event a chronic condition and a child went through one type of therapy and it was then determined the child needed a different type of therapy? Their policies are just ridiculous. Luckily, he is still looking into it for me and I really hope that they do not continue to deny this coverage. In addition, I am even more bothered that it took them 5 weeks (YES FIVE WEEKS!!!!) to decide that they are denying this therapy and notify the therapy place of this. So, for 5 weeks, I have been taking her to therapy and playing a $50 (what I thought was a) co-pay only to find out that if Aetna does not cover it, I now owe the therapy place over $30 extra for each session that she had once a week for 5 weeks. Ridiculous, capital R ridiculous, I am so sick of dealing with this crap! Based on this problem, I am hoping (and expecting) that once they realize their mistake that they will also extend the time outside of the 60 day window we have for her therapy since I have had to stop the therapy until I have a guarantee that they are going to cover it. I cannot afford to pay any more than I already have for this.

Now onto this crazy issue I have with the out of pocket maximum of $1500 from 2009 being met - or not being met because of a discrepancy in the amount of co-pays I was charged for speech and physical therapy. I spoke with the therapy place office manager this week and she said that I do indeed have a credit with them because of co-pays for certain visits. She gave me a detailed billing today of co-pay amounts that she has credited back to my account for a little over $300. I am so confused over this, it makes no sense whatsoever! I am thrilled to have a credit, (it only is being applied to the money I owe them right now since other therapy is not being covered by Aetna and is still getting ironed out) however it is only applied to some visits and not others. Most of the visits that it applies to are the days when she had two different therapy sessions in one day. Why this would be less of a co-pay than the same two therapy sessions held on two different days is beyond me, it makes no sense, and at this point, I feel like Aetna is playing with the figures, doing some sort of voo doo math to make sure that I did not meet the $1500 out of pocket maximum. If that is not the case, then I need a detailed explanation from Aetna. If this credit is correct, I need a detailing of what exactly each co-pay was and when and why it is a different co-pay for the same type of therapy on different days. I am waiting on an explanation on all of this. If you are confused reading this, that's ok, I'm confused writing it!

If you are reading this for the first time, this is only a piece of the puzzle and the drama that we have been put through. You can see details on this whole insurance debacle with Aetna on my blog: http://bit.ly/Chianna and if you would like to help, feel free to link to the blog and share my story with anyone and everyone who will listen. I am not just doing this for me and my family, I am doing this for all the families who have been wronged by Aetna and other insurance companies who make it their policy to deny claims in hopes you will not notice, make it hard enough to fix problems that they hope you will give up, and state incorrect things over the phone just to get you to shut up and hang up and then they do not stand behind what was said.

Insurance Problems with Aetna - an update

2010-03-18T12:29:00.005-04:00

Since the latest problem with Aetna not covering our occupational therapy popped up last Wednesday, I posted about it then, and here's what's happened since.

On Wednesday when I got so upset about having yet another problem with Aetna, I really lost it. I was very upset and luckily, I was with Myke that day, because he really helped me through it. We discussed things and decided to stop all therapies temporarily until we get the insurance issues straightened out and hopefully get Medicaid in place.

At first I did not want to do this because I believe that Chianna needs this therapy at all costs, but at this time, the cost of my sanity is too great. Don't worry Aetna is not winning anything, instead I will just continue to blog and let everyone know how horribly me and my family are being treated by this "health insurance" company. That title for Aetna is completely laughable at this point because they certainly don't care about or promote our health and they obviously don't stand behind or insure anything other than a giant headache.

My dad stepped forward and offered to pay for one speech therapy session per week until we get the insurance situation fixed. Thanks, Dad!!! We feel that at least for physical therapy we can take her to the park and play and the weather is warming so we can take her swimming soon too. Its not the same as guided physical therapy with the licensed professional therapist, but its better than nothing and its only a temporary pause. I am hoping to pick back up the occupational therapy as soon as this issue is resolved and I am pretty confident that Aetna will be covering it based on their explanation of benefits and the occupational therapy bulletin they have written on my policy & expect that Aetna will rectify this by extending the 60 day period for their mistake.

Not having therapy for the past week and 1/2 has actually relieved a huge weight off my shoulders, so as long as it is a temporary pause, I think it was actually a better thing to do.

I'm not going away, I'm not going to shut up until this situation is cleared up. I hope that encourages Aetna to do the right thing, fix my account problems and as soon as they do, I will report that too.

If you are reading this for the first time, this is only a piece of the puzzle and the drama that we have been put through. You can see details on this whole insurance debacle with Aetna on my blog: http://bit.ly/Chianna and if you would like to help, feel free to link to the blog and share my story with anyone and everyone who will listen. I am not just doing this for me and my family, I am doing this for all the families who have been wronged by Aetna and other insurance companies who make it their policy to deny claims in hopes you will not notice, make it hard enough to fix problems that they hope you will give up, and state incorrect things over the phone just to get you to shut up and hang up and then they do not stand behind what was said.

Conversation with Chianna

2010-03-17T15:10:00.003-04:00

When Chianna got home from school today, she asked, as usual, to watch Monkey George (Curious George).

I asked her if she wanted to watch that or the "Yellow Dog Show" (Martha Speaks - its about a talking dog). She just recently discovered it, because usually she only wants to see Monkey George.

And she said "No, I want Daddy see Yellow Dog".

So I said, "oh you want to watch it with Daddy?".

She said, "Yes, Daddy home from work and watch, first daddy clean kitchen, not mommy".

ROFL

US Insurance Reform? How about some health care justice!

2010-03-17T13:08:00.004-04:00

Sure, I think we are all in agreement that the US Health Care system is in need of reform. Its quite a ridiculous system, I've learned especially over the last several months of my life. Why does our family pay over $1500 per month in insurance premiums for insurance to cover so little?

I'm sure many of my readers might be sick of hearing me complain about Aetna health insurance by now, and I know that Aetna is not happy about it. Well good! Instead of overlooking my complaints as my own, lets take a look at how health insurance policies affect us all, affect us in a very negative way. I have learned that it is standard operating procedure for Aetna (and other health insurance companies) telephone representatives to give misleading and incorrect information over the phone, and then for the insurance company not to stand by what was said by their representatives. In talking to all the health care providers that I am dealing with, I find out that I am not alone, "this happens all the time". Is what I have heard from every single one of them. Five different health care providers, to be exact, have told me the same thing. They have all learned that no one can take what the insurance company representative tells you over the phone. Why? Why is that? In any other business, a corporation has to be held liable for what their employees say. Each policy is written differently, and so convoluted, so verbose with legal jargon, who understands it? Well I can tell you the employees at Aetna don't understand it, that's for sure, I get a different story every day from different people.

I believe that everything happens for a reason, and the reason this insurance nightmare hit me is because, I am not going to go away, I am not going to shut up. I am going to continue bringing the story of my insurance problems with Aetna to the public via my blog for anyone and everyone to read. And in hopes that someone, somewhere can do something about it. We need change and evidently its on me to show America what a family has to go through.

My issue is not what my plan covers for therapy for a child with Cerebral Palsy (which is very minimal), my issue is what I was told it covered and what it really does cover. I was lied to. Not sure whether it was intentional lies or just misinformation; however based on the information I was given, I continued her therapy did not make efforts to switch her to Medicaid sooner because I thought that my health insurance would cover it and since I was paying so much for it, I wanted to get the most out of it.

I haven't posted an update in several days, because I was trying to take a break from it, but I am back and will have the last few days chronicled and up tonight.

Thanks for reading. Please subscribe to my blog and pass it along to anyone who might want to know what else is wrong with the US health care program and Aetna insurance company.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2010-03-15T12:19:00.001-04:00

My dad turns 65 today! Happy Birthday Daddy!

Chianna and I baked brownies for her Papa today and we surprised him at work. She got to help him blow out the candles, so all is right in her world! : )

She picked out a card for him and instead of coloring, practiced writing P-a-p-a! Instead of a "Papa" birthday card, she picked one that had dogs on it because one of the dogs on the front was a boxer that looked a lot like Aku.

FCC Lunch March 2010

2010-03-14T23:42:00.007-04:00

Pictures & video from our monthly FCC gathering. We had lunch at a Chinese buffet & then the kids have a lot of fun playing!

I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVE ANOTHER PROBLEM WITH AETNA TODAY

2010-03-10T14:53:00.003-05:00

I am sitting here with a tear-stained face right now. My hands are shaking. I am so upset, I can't even put into words. I can barely hold it together, but want to make sure to update my blog immediately so that I can keep a constant detail of this garbage I have to put up with.

I just heard from therapy place #2 today, where Chianna has been getting Occupational Therapy since January 26, 2010. They were just notified from Aetna - after over 30 days that the therapy is not being covered. Aetna states that the therapy has already been exhausted, however it has not. Occupational therapy is a separate discipline and there are separate explanation of benefits written for it. We have not used the coverage on this, I am not sure if Aetna is confused or why they would not be covering it, and especially don't know why they didn't alert either me or the therapy place sooner that they would not cover it.

I am waiting on reply from Aetna, but have to sit here in frustration and anger until they can get it resolved.

More Insurance Hell with Aetna

2010-03-08T20:33:00.005-05:00

In case anyone has any question about the broken health care system in this country and the power that insurance companies have, please read on. If you are not familiar with the history of my health insurance problems with Aetna, please read prior posts on my blog: http://FindingChianna.blogspot.com

At this point, I am detailing a step by step account of the communications in an effort to present the facts and let people know what an average middle class family has to deal with.

I spoke with the office manager at the therapy place today regarding the billing issue. I explained that Aetna says that the reason why I didn't meet the out of pocket maximum for 2009 is that the therapy place over charged me co-pays when Chianna had speech and physical therapy the same day. She said that their contract with Aetna does not say anything about one co-payment if two different therapists are seen in one day. She said that this has never come up before in their history of working with Aetna. She also said that they were paid by Aetna minus the co-pay for each visit separately.

So I am stuck in the middle of this mess with no resolution in sight!

I have requested a phone conference later in the week so that all 3 of us can be on the phone at once and attempt to get it settled, rather than me going back and forth with them for another 3 months! I hope that it gets resolved a lot easier than the outlook is right now.

In other insurance problem news. . . . I receive the denial letter today in the mail from Aetna regarding my appeal for more therapy to be covered for Chianna. They stated that the coverage is only for the initial 60 days per condition. They even acknowledged that I stated that numerous Aetna employees told me that additional coverage would be available if a doctor letter of medical necessity was sent in. But stuck by the story that my benefits only list the 60 consecutive days, blah, blah, blah.

I am exploring what my next step is and what recourse I have since Aetna employees told me that more therapy would be covered with the letter. I took their word for it rather than reading through policies and documents that can barely be understood by anyone.

In the mean time, I am going to have them re-bill the claims for different diagnoses that the doctor has given me prescriptions for. I know that will be another nightmare trying to get the claims fixed with a new diagnosis and new prescription. I really wish I had never signed up with Aetna Insurance in the first place. It would seem that they don't stand by the word of their employees.

The first time I even called about therapy for Chianna in August 2009 and was told they only cover 60 consecutive days, I said that she definitely would need more therapy than that and the first person I spoke with said that there is a "doctor hotline" that I could have the doctor call once the initial 60 days was up and the doctor could speak to somebody at Aetna about extending the coverage. And that is what I did, when the 60 days coverage was coming to an end, I called Aetna in October. And I was first given a phone number for the doctor to call, after 2 weeks, the doctor's office called me back to say that the dr. cannot get through, she is left on hold for 20 to 30 minutes every time she calls and ends up giving up and hanging up. That is when the first doctor letter was faxed in; first I was given the wrong department to have it faxed to, and when it was finally straightened out with the correct fax # of the correct dept, it was declined. Now my 2nd appeal has been denied and I am frustrated beyond belief. If I was told in the first place that it was 60 days and that was it, rather than being led to believe that additional coverage was a sure thing, I would have started to make other insurance arrangements rather than pursuing the matter further with Aetna.

To make things even more frustrating, the denial letter still had the wrong date of initial coverage for her speech therapy starting on July 31, 2009. I have been told that the date issue was corrected, but evidently not according to the letter they sent me!

Birthday Fun at the Ice Skating Rink!

2010-03-07T23:56:00.001-05:00

Chianna's First Panther Game!

2010-03-07T23:40:00.000-05:00

The newest Panther fan!

Panthers won the game 4 - 1! The Panthers were in their blue jerseys, they played the Hurricanes, who wore red. Myke was explaining the game to her and told her to root for the "blue" and the red is bad! She caught on pretty fast and was yelling "Go, Blue" & "Red, Bad!" She then realized that blue needed to get the puck into "red's house" LOL

She spent the entire game narrating it. I think she will have a job as a hockey announcer soon!

We realized today while at the grocery store that we failed to explain that the "blue and red" things was only at the hockey game! A man was next to us in the grocery store, said hi to her and, unfortunately, he was wearing a red shirt! She yells "RED, BAD!!!" really loud at him! Oh boy! Myke had to explain really quick why she was yelling at him!

Insurance Update

2010-03-05T10:21:00.003-05:00

Ughh!!!

I am pulling my hair out over this insurance crap!!!!

Yesterday afternoon I get an email from the Aetna dept who is working on the case about the out of pocket maximum issue and they say that the reason they have that we did not meet the out of pocket with them is because on the days that Chianna had 2 therapies, the therapy place should have only charged us one co-pay!!! He says I have a $300+ credit that the therapy place owes me.

It does not make any sense whatsoever! It's two different therapies: speech & physical therapy with 2 different therapists. Not that I WANT to pay more, but it just makes sense that would be 2 co-pays. To make matters worse, if I knew that were the case, I would have insisted that she had speech and physical therapy on the same day the 2nd time during the week or an hour of therapy instead of 30 minutes, which often does not seem like enough. The schedule was: Mondays: speech and aqua therapy, Wednesdays: physical therapy and Thursdays: speech. The reason why we didn't have them on the same day was because the therapists didn't have openings, but if that were the case, then I would have treated the situation differently. It was already an inconvenience to go there twice, but it also broke things up for Chianna, so I didn't really protest to it.

I had some questions about it and should have known that something was "off" when she started OT at this other new place, because there, she gets 1 hour, and it is only one co-pay of $50, where as if she went 2X per week for 30 minutes each, it would have been 2 co-pays = $100. I had just chalked it up to different places do things differently or whatever. So, I am stuck in the middle and seemingly getting screwed every which way here!

Of course, I got the email from Aetna after 5 yesterday and the therapy place was closed, so I had to sit and stew about it all night long. I called the therapy place first thing this morning but had to leave a message, the office manager wasn't there.

I am hoping they make good on this. It even further complicates EVERYTHING! I owe them money, besides the credit that I now evidently have, and I am grateful they have worked with me and not insisted on payment while I work everything out with Aetna, but at the same time, she should have been getting hour long sessions rather than 30 minute ones!

Until I talk to the therapy place and get everything straightened out, I don't know what to think and what is right. I don't know whether the therapy place screwed up (intentionally or not) or whether Aetna didn't clarify the terms of service to them. Certainly no one clarified it to me, I never received anything from Aetna regarding the therapy coverage and what I was entitled to get etc. etc. Maybe it is in the giant book of fine print, and I guess that's my fault for not reading it, if it is there. The only thing that Aetna told me is that I get 60 consecutive days of coverage and that it is $50 co-pay per visit. They didn't say how long the visits are or anything like that. The therapy place had told me that Aetna had a restriction on how much therapy Chianna could have was one hour max per day that they would cover. And it turns out, that at the therapy place, the co-pay was not $50 because of a deal they have with Aetna my co-pay responsibility is less and varies. I originally had paid them $50 per visit for about 2 months until the therapy place realized it was wrong and issued me a credit. Last year, the payments were $37 for PT, $43 for Speech and $47 for Aqua. Now this year it is $37 for PT and $50 for speech.

My insides feel twisted and my head hurts! When I got the email last night, I didn't know whether to scream or cry! I was really upset about it, because of how it complicates all these issues even further.

I have to say that I am very happy that Aetna has finally figured things out and got back to me about it, but I still have to throw in there that if this were figured out sooner, it would not have ballooned into such a problem with a domino effect on other things, including my level of stress!

Next week, my dad and I are meeting with a rep from ADP and looking at different insurance plans from Aetna and different insurance companies so that we can see which is the lesser of the evils and go with that one. That is one aspect that I feel lucky and have some control over, my dad & I make the decision of what insurance we carry for our company, so at least I am in control of one thing!

Just keeping my readers, friends, family & commiserators up on the events. I hope to have more details hashed out by the end of business today!

Afternoon at the Park

2010-03-02T23:36:00.004-05:00

We had such a great time at the park the other day, we decided to go back again. It was very windy and we were hoping to get the kite up today, but it turned out it was too windy! Chianna loved climbing on the playground again and we decided that we should make sure to take her to the park as much as possible since it is such great exercise for her - and great physical therapy! These pics are from my phone, so the resolution is not as good as it could be, but I still got some really great shots!

Beautiful Day at the Park

2010-02-28T23:12:00.006-05:00

Took advantage of the beautiful day out & went to the park!

Chianna climbed on the slide and playground for a while & then we decided to fly Myke's new boat kite!

Putting the kite together was quite a task!

Oh! btw. . . check out Chianna's new shoes! She didn't want pink sneakers this time, she asked for blue. They really look more like black and white, but she is very happy with them. They are attached to her de-rotational cable that goes along her right leg and connects to a belt. It stops the inside rotation of her right leg.

Say cheese!!!

And we have lift off!!! : )

New pics to add from this visit to the park:

Whenever we go to a playground, Chianna climbs to the highest slide.

And then does it over and over again!

This park has a rock climb and Chianna doesn't let anything stop her!

Musical Chairs

2010-02-27T23:33:00.003-05:00

Chianna got a mini recliner for Christmas that matches the recliner chairs that Myke & I have in our living room, where we watch tv. She loves her little chair, but so does someone else! The first opportunity he has and every night as soon as she goes to bed. . . .

How is that comfortable? I have no idea! But he climbs into this chair every opportunity he gets!

And how can you refuse a face like this? ROFL

So why is the post called musical chairs? Chianna always wants to sit in her daddy's chair, and plays this game with him, where she will look at him and smile, and say "my chair!" and go running to try and beat him to his chair and sit in it. Its so funny, she cracks up laughing the whole time, and when she gets to the chair first, she yells her little victory cry: "Woo, hoo, hoo!" It's hilarious! Good times!

Some Random Funnies of the Week

2010-02-27T23:11:00.002-05:00

Earlier in the week, I said to Chianna (as I do very often) "I love you!". And she responded with a stern "NO! Chianna is Daddy's baby!" Any question that she's a Daddy's Girl? Myke got a real kick out of it when I told him.

Chianna loves to sing, she sings a lot, this week she was even singing along to the $5 Footlong Subway commercial on TV. LOL

She was singing her own custom new version of the "QRS Song" today. (AKA The Alphabet Song because she calls letters and ABCs "QRS") The new version of the song goes: "Q-R-S-T-MOMMY!" : ) I like that version very much!

Aetna Insurance Headache Update

2010-02-24T09:37:00.003-05:00

I posted an update on the previous blog post about my problems with Aetna Health Insurance, but thought it appropriate to do a new post, just to . . . well, update!

Last Tuesday, I received a call from Aetna because they saw my post from the previous eventing and wanted to get my issues resolved. I really appreciate this and I am very happy that I got their attention after 3 months of phone calls, but sad that it took a nasty old rant to get their attention. In fairness, I will update the good with the bad and as always. . . . the truth too!

I am still awaiting written confirmation but the person at Aetna that I have been working with says that they cleared up the date correction issue that I had with the claim that was sent in with the wrong date of 7/31/2009 instead of 8/31/2009. Thank goodness, one thing is out of the way! It's funny how it took 3 days to fix it after my blog post. Prior to that it was three months of phone calls and frustration!

They still have not cleared up the out of pocket maximum issue though. They say that even with the date resolution claims included above that I am only at about $1300, which is a long way from the $400 they previously told me, but still short of the actual amount I paid and have receipts to prove it. So, I am hoping that can be cleared up quickly since I have the receipts and documents necessary. Also, I'm getting past due notices from 3 doctors, who have been understanding, but I am not sure how long until they decide the want to escalate it. I hope this matter can be cleared up before it affects my credit in a negative way.

I have a appeal hearing scheduled for tomorrow. It's a conference call that I get to call into to present my case. This is for the appeal for more therapy coverage for Chianna, and was already scheduled prior to my blog post last week. I just hope that talking to a committee of people will help my case and I hope they see that I have been treated wrongly by Aetna giving me wrong information and the "insurance run around". Bottom line for my appeal, 2 different representatives from Aetna told me that Aetna would approve more therapy if her pediatrician wrote in a letter stating it was medically necessary, and Aetna still denied the coverage after this letter was sent in.

I feel like behind the scenes there is the scene from The Incredibles movie when Mr. Incredible was working as an insurance adjuster and he was not allowed to approve any claims. I hope that is not really the way it is, but that sure has been the way I have been made to feel. Just sick of being told one thing and then they do another, or being told multiple different things in answer to the same question.

Wish me luck and I will keep you all posted! Thanks so much for reading!

Shari <3

Aetna Insurance Beyond Sucks

2010-02-15T21:04:00.006-05:00

I have been meaning to share with my blog readers the issues that I have been having with Aetna, but it is taking up so much of my time dealing with Aetna, between the phone calls and documenting the calls, etc. that I haven't had a chance to blog. But that proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back happened today and I am going to share my plight on my public blog no matter how much sleep it means I lose.

I have 3 ongoing issues with Aetna. It is impossible to get them to follow through on anything they say over the phone. They will do anything to not have to pay what they are obligated to pay. It's just ridiculous and criminal. At this point, I not only wish that they fix my problems, but they should compensate me for the HOURS upon HOURS of time I have spent (read wasted) on the phone trying to get my issues fixed and documenting everything since they can't keep track of anything they say, I have to do it for them. It's beyond ridiculous and that is why I say that Aetna Health Insurance Beyond Sucks.

We have a $1500 out of pocket maximum for each calendar year per person. Last year we signed up with Aetna on July 1st. By the end of October, I had already met the $1500 out of pocket for Chianna because of her therapy co-pays and a few doctor visits. So I stopped paying the weekly therapy co-pays and any other dr. visits when I knew I had reached over $1500 in October. In November, I realized that there was a problem when we went to the neurologist and they were trying to make me pay the $50 co-pay, which I did not pay since I knew I had reached the out of pocket maximum and started to call Aetna to straighten out the issue. To this day, the issue is not straightened out and I have spent so long trying to fight it, I guess they just hope that I give up fighting if they drag me around enough, that I will just give up and pay it myself or something.

Issue #1: I have met the $1500 out of pocket maximum for the year for Chianna, but they only seem to think I have paid a little over $400. I am at a loss as to how there is this huge discrepancy. They seem to "conveniently" not list some, if not most, of the doctor visits that I took Chianna to, even though the doctors have been paid and have the claim #s and reference #s from Aetna and the doctor's and therapists have all been long paid by Aetna too. I thought the issue would be easily cleared up the first time I called them in December. I spoke to an Aetna representative on the phone who said "oh I see that you have met the out of pocket maximum, I will send the claims back to the claims dept to be reviewed". Easy enough, right? That's what I assumed, and it was even easier than i thought, because I had spent 2 or 3 weeks calling all the doctors and collecting detailed billing summaries from them; Aetna didn't even ask for them. I don't even know how many phone calls I have made since then, because evidently no one else at Aetna other than the 1st person I spoke with sees that I met the maximum. One of the reasons they think that I did not meet the maximum is issue #2:

Issue #2: There is a claim from Chianna's therapy place for speech therapy that was dated wrong. Instead of dated August 31, 2009, it is incorrectly dated July 31, 2009. The reason that this affects the out of pocket maximum has to do with my Issue #3, (which I will get into detail later). Aetna only covers 60 consecutive days of therapy per diagnosis per LIFETIME! Yes, it is beyond ridiculous for a child with Cerebral Palsy, but I will get into that later. The issue for our purposes here of Issue #2, is that when they incorrectly dated this claim 7/31/09 rather than 8/31/09, it started our 60 consecutive day clock ticking 20 days before our fist visit for speech, which was on August 20, 2009. It seems like it should be relatively easy to clear up, right? WRONG! You would think it would be east to fix for several reasons: 1. the Speech Evaluation is billed and written separately than regular visit claims like the one we went to on August 31st. 2. they should not even be covering a regular visit on 7/31/09 BEFORE the evaluation was done since they require an evaluation to be done before they would accept a claim for a regular visit, and 3. two weeks of claims date August 2009 came in before one dated 7/31/09. So I call Aetna to find out how to fix this problem. The 1st time I called, they said just have the therapy place send in a "corrected claim". I said ok, and called the therapy place to let them know. The next day, they mailed a corrected claim to Aetna. A couple days later, my claims advocate from ADP (I acquired a health advocate company to help me with all these problems) called Aetna to follow up on these two claims Issues that she is helping me solve and the representative at Aetna tells her, "oh no, they cannot just send in a corrected claim, it is much more involved than that, they need to write a letter as well explaining the problem. WHY IS IT THAT EACH TIME I CALL AETNA, A DIFFERENT REPRESENTATIVE TELLS ME A DIFFERENT STORY? THIS HAPPENS ALL, AND I MEAN ALL, THE TIME! So, I call the therapy place back and talk to her and tell her that Aetna is now saying that they need to write a letter. The person who handles the insurance at the therapy place says, "ok, I will call Aetna and find out what I need to do". So she calls Aetna on their special provider phone # line and this representative tells her, "oh, no problem, you can just send a corrected claim directly to my fax (gave special fax #) and I will take care of it right away". This was on Thursday, January 21, 2010. Sounds like that would be taken care of right away, then right? OF COURSE NOT, WRONG! The following Tuesday, January 26, 2010, my advocate calls Aetna to follow up on this situation. And they tell her "it's not in the system yet". WTH?? Not in the system yet? It's been more than 2 full business days since the representative had them fax it to her desk to take care of "right away". Finally a few days later, the corrected claim shows up in Aetna's system and Aetna tells my advocate it will be about 7 - 10 days for processing. OMG can you explode? Do you see why I am frustrated? (Keep in mind that this issue is also holding up the out of pocket maximum issue and I am getting late notices from 3 other doctors that I took her to and did not pay the co-pay.)

So now fast forward to today, I receive an email from my advocate that Aetna DENIED the claim for the corrected date adjustment that was sent in! WHAT? CAN YOU HEAR ME SCREAMING? ARE YOU SCREAMING YET TOO? IS ANYONE AT AETNA LISTENING? DOES ANYONE AT AETNA HAVE A BRAIN, NO SCRATCH THAT, THEY OBVIOUSLY HAVE BRAINS TO SKIRT PAYING FOR CLAIMS, A HEART IS THE ORGAN THEY LACK. Besides sending in a complaint to the state board, I will also be seeking legal council, and contacting my senators and congresswoman, and President Obama at the White House too. Can't someone at Aetna fix a freakin date? OMG!!!!

So back to my problem / Issue #1, even after considering all this, and having them review the out of pocket maximum payments for a second time in January, they come back saying that I only spent $400+. When in actuality, I have spent, and have detailed receipts for $1596.99. Yes, that's right, somewhere along the way, I actually have a $96.99 credit! And if you don't include the speech therapy for the time that is affected by this date problem, that accounts for $129.09 in co-pays. Yes, that puts me over the top, but I have no idea, where they get off saying I only paid $400. Now, I have to wait until Issue #2 the date problem gets resolved so that I can send in all of my receipts and show them that I have indeed met the out of pocket maximum for the year.

If anyone reading this can help me in anyway, I would so appreciate it. I have tried talking to supervisors, I have tried talking to the same representative (they are usually not available at the time I call), I have tried having them call me back, (they do not), I have tried, crying, I have tried screaming, I have tried to be nice, I have tried to be mean. I have even suggested that they fix this before I have a nervous breakdown and then they will have more claims to cover. Nothing has worked. Getting an advocate hasn't worked, sure it has helped me share the burden, but I really assumed that Aetna would listen to and work with a health advocate company, that didn't work either. It actually frustrates me further in some ways because I hear from the advocates that this type of thing happens all the time. Can you say broken health care system? Can you say broken health care company? it is laughable that Aetna even has " health" or "care" in their company name. I have applied for other insurance and did not qualify, I am working on getting her social security card so that I can see if Medicaid covers some of what is not covered. But all of that is secondary to the fact that Aetna owes me this coverage and I will see it through til the day I die that they pay what the policy says is owed to me.

Now onto issue #3. This issue is a big one, as I mentioned before, Aetna initially covers only 60 consecutive days of therapy per diagnosis per lifetime. When this initial 60 days was coming close to an end in October 2009, I called Aetna to find out what I could do to get more therapy coverage for my daughter since she definitely needs much more than 60 days of therapy in her lifetime for Cerebral Palsy. At that time, the Aetna representative told me that if her pediatrician wrote a letter stating that more therapy was "medically necessary" then Aetna would cover more therapy. Sounds easy enough, right? Well as you can tell from the other two problems I have with Aetna, its not that easy; not easy at all. I am currently on my 2nd appeal, because even though her pediatrician wrote the letter stating that the therapies are medically necessary for Chianna, they denied the claim stating that they only cover 60 consecutive days. I have spent so much time back and forth, with Aetna on this issue, it has been going on for months. Aetna tells me to have the dr. write a letter, the dr. writes a letter, they deny it. I called Aetna and asked why was this letter denied if you just told me that this is what I needed? The Aetna representative told me that they didn't realize that letter was asking for more therapy. What? (I know!It's silly at this point, right? But this type of dialog is what I deal with constantly from Aetna!) So I have the doctor write another letter stating that she knows that the first 60 days are exhausted but its medically necessary for Chianna to have more therapy for at least a year. That is word, for word, what the Aetna representative told me the letter should say. They denied that claim too, stating they only cover 60 days. So now, I pull up the Explanation of Benefits and see that it is written that they do cover more therapy in some cases of medical necessity , and not for others. It is written in such a manner that it often contradicts itself. Most likely, so that Aetna can get out of covering anything. I am truly hoping that they do own up to what they said and cover the therapies because Chianna sure does need them. In addition, I think they owe me after putting me through all of this lies, and red tape. So, below is some background on Chianna and her therapies, and I will keep my blog readers updated on what Aetna does and doesn't do. From now on, actually, I am going to keep a very detailed public log of all this back and forth BS Aetna is putting us through, And now some background info:

My daughter has a right sided weakness (medical term is Hemiparesis) of the right arm and right leg due to cerebral palsy. In case you are reading this and not familiar with me or my blog, Chianna is 4 years old and my husband and I adopted her from Vietnam in April 2009. She is the joy of our world and is an amazing, resilient, determined, smart, and independent, beautiful little girl. She is currently getting speech, occupational therapies and physical therapies, as part of her physical therapy, she was also getting aquatic physical therapy in an indoor heated pool. For the insurance purposes, I should note that I was taking her to occupational therapy to a therapist that came recommended but did not take Aetna insurance, so the occupational therapy is not included in the issues #1 and #2, but now I am taking her to an Aetna network occupational therapist, so I am also asking them to continue coverage for occupational therapy past the initial 60 days. These therapies are helping her tremendously! She gets speech therapy, not only for dialect and learning English, but to help her learn to use the muscles and parts of her mouth that have been affected by the cerebral palsy and/or from just not using them. She did not know or speak any English in April 2009, and currently understands English at the same level other children her age understand, she does speak a lot of English, but is behind other 4 year olds in this aspect. She has problems with pronunciation and cannot say certain sounds. She gets physical therapy to strengthen her muscles, help her gain balance, and coax her to use her dormant right hand to help her in activities. Physical therapy also helps her motor planning, and coaches her to use her stronger left arm and hand and practice fine motor skills. When we adopted her in April, she came from an orphanage in Vietnam that housed about 300 children and has about 20 nannies on staff. She did not know how to feed herself and could not hold a fork or spoon even in her stronger, left hand, she was in diapers and took a bottle with formula. She has come an long, long way in a very short while, but these therapies are an integral part of her progress, growth, and strength. Part of the Explanation of Benefits from Aetna says that for chronic disease, the short term therapy is provided for and recommended to be continued in the home. We practice with her as best we can what all the things she does in therapy. However, we do not have the space or tools to make the obstacle course that she does at the gym in physical therapy, we do not have a tricycle for her to ride with a chair on wheels to pull her and help her along (or the space to do that either), we do not have a treadmill for her to practice walking on like she does in physical therapy, we do not have the climbing ladder she uses in physical therapy, nor a gym with cushioned pads in case she falls, there are tons of other equipment and educational toys that we do not have, and most importantly, we do not have the knowledge and expertise of a therapist to correct her when she is doing something wrong and make therapeutic adjustments to push her when she has mastered a skill, or change up the therapy if the therapist realizes that it is not for Chianna just yet. Chianna was also getting aquatic physical therapy in a heated, indoor pool once a week. Chianna loves the water and responded so well to this type of therapy, she could move her right arm in the water so much better than out of the water due to the buoyancy. She was getting strong from using all her muscles and had learned how to swim in just a few short months of aquatic therapy. This is important, on a therapeutic level because swimming uses and strengthens all the muscles, these muscles that Chianna has never learned to use correctly, are used and strengthened and developed while swimming in aquatic therapy. This therapy is so important for her to continue in her strength development, it also helps with some issues that are covered in occupational therapy as well. It helps focus on balance, motor planning, and physical multitasking. However, my husband and I are not able to continue this type of therapy at home, not only do we not have a heated indoor pool to use, we do not have the correct types (and many different styles) of flotation devices, nor do we have a licensed life guard standing by, and of course, neither of us have gone through the years of training and many years of experience that her therapist has. Speech therapy is probably the easiest for us us to practice at home, however, the speech therapist has far more knowledge and skills needed to get Chianna to the speech level that she needs to be at to communicate on the level required for school and just plain communication. A trained speech therapist is necessary to coach Chianna through saying things properly and can recognize when she is not saying things correctly and diagnose why. The speech therapist can recognize whether Chianna is not putting her tongue in the right spot, she can tell if Chianna thinks she is saying something correctly and explain to her why that is not correct. There are many nuances and aspects of speech therapy that I certainly did not know about prior to witnessing the therapy 1st hand, and I can attest to the need for a trained speech therapist, the therapist went to school and had all this training and acquired all this experience for a reason. It is not something that an untrained parent can successfully complete at home without weekly help from a therapist.

To wrap up my rant, it is just plain crazy to expect that these type of therapies could be done (correctly & successfully) by parents at home. And the expenses that the therapy is costing my family is outrageous. Until this gets straightened out, and even if it is covered, until I meet the $1500 out of pocket maximum for this year. I had to cut down therapy sessions since the co-pays for all the recommended therapies for her would be over $300 PER WEEK! Yes, that is per week! Its the cost of another mortgage, we cannot afford that type of payment, I am quite certain that most families in America could not afford that. Instead, we currently are scaled down to speech once a week (instead of 2x per week), physical therapy once a week (instead of 2 x per week) (no aquatic therapy at all instead of 2 x per week), and occupational therapy once a week (instead of 2 x per week). That "reduced schedule" comes to $138 per week, and with the economy the way it is, this 2 income family is having a very tough time surviving on that. We have given up many luxuries that we used to know. But even beyond that, we are sacrificing groceries to pay for therapy. We are sacrificing going places like the park or the beach because we cannot afford the gas. Please note, that this expense is in addition to the weekly fee that comes out of my paycheck after my company already pays their end of the insurance, about $250/ week comes out of my paycheck for mine and Chianna's health insurance. Myke's is extra, he has his own plan that comes out of his check too. With the proper physical and occupational therapy, she will gain much more usage of her right hand and arm, she will grow stronger and will be able to lead a "normal" and independent life, without it, I fear that she will not reach the potential range of motion and use of her arm that is possible. Time is ticking too, these motions need to be taught while she is still young and growing. Just put yourself in her shoes for a moment, whichever hand is your dominant hand, imagine you cannot use that, try to get through an hour, much less a day, or 4 years. Imagine further, that each time your brain tells your dominant hand to move or open, or close, it doesn't respond. That is what my daughter goes through every day. Despite that, she remains a happy child with a great outlook on the world. We want to make sure she has every opportunity to be all that she can be. We are prepared to do whatever necessary to pay for her therapies and to make sure that she gets all the therapy that she needs.

Based on the problems I have had I am sure that seeking legal council is not far off. Hopefully a complaint to the state will get their attention, if not, I will be seeking out a lawyer to take my case on contingency and hope that it leads to a class action suit of all the families that did not have the time, resources, knowledge or wherewith all to see out what was due to them. Many may be currently institutionalized in mental institutions, b/c I can tell you this sure is driving me crazy, quite literally!

UPDATE!

Evidently Aetna saw my blog post. Maybe they are listening? Someone from Aetna called me on Tuesday to try and help me resolve my claim issues. I received an email today (Wednesday) from them, but I do not know yet if the corrected date has been settled for sure. He did mention "the corrected claim" when he said that with it, I have only met $1200 of the out of pocket maximum. He said that they would be gathering a detail of all the claims. I wrote back and mentioned again that I have bills and receipts totaling over $1500 and that I wanted to get this cleared up very quickly. I will keep you all updated! I should also mention that I have an appeal hearing for my request for more therapy next week. (That is not new, it was already scheduled.)

Lunar New Year of the Tiger Celebration

2010-02-14T23:00:00.006-05:00

We were very excited to be able to go to a Chinese New Year celebration that included other families who have adopted from China & Asia. The celebration was in Orlando on Valentine's Day, which was also New Year's Day for the Year of the Tiger. Here are some pics from the event.

Dancing with Daddy

The ever- elusive group shot!

Mr Myke and all his girls having so much fun!

Until it gets to be a bit much for Mr. Myke!

Teaching Chianna Lots at Time4Learning.com

2010-02-06T17:19:00.004-05:00

Time for Learning at Time4Learning.com

One of the best things I have found in our quest for teaching Chianna English and general pre-school learning concepts has been a great kids educational website called Time4Learning.com. We started it before she had started pre-K and now use it to reinforce what she is learning in the classroom.

Depending on your child's level, they can do this on their own or, as with Chianna, I sit with her and click what she points to (whether its wrong or right, since the site does corrections for me, and rewards her when she's right).

Here are some screen shots from Time4Learning.com:

Learning P and the "P" sound.

Which word starts with "P"?

Learning words that start with "P".

I should mention here that Time4Learning.com gave me one month free in exchange for posting a blog post review about our experience with it. I have to say that I totally love the innovative and fun way it teaches Chianna very important learning principles. She also loves doing things on the computer since Myke and I are both on our computers so much, she feels like she is included. Time4Learning.com makes learning fun for Chianna and something that she asks to do on a regular basis.

Blog catch up!

2010-02-06T16:00:00.011-05:00

Hello, Blog! I have missed you so! I just don't seem to have time to get to blog along with everything else, but I figured I would do a quick picture catch up and try to get back in the blogging groove!

So, its been almost 9 months that we have been home with Chianna and we could not be happier. She fits in with us perfectly and impresses us everyday with her resilience, determination, smarts & sense of humor. She has quite the personality, almost always happy and smiling!

Daddy's Girl Photos:

June 2009

August 2009 Seaworld Luau

Sept 2009

Dec 2009

Jan 2010

Family Photos:

May 2009 With Baba and Pa

At the Seaworld Luau August 2009

With Myke's Family August 2009

The Magic of Papa Oct 2009

Papa & Chianna Oct 2009

Autumn Moon Festival October 2009

With Jack, Pryscilla, Dee Dee & Xzavior Oct 2009

Cousins & BFFs:

Instant Friends this is the day we got home. May 2009

June 2009

July 2009

June 2009

August 2009 Sleep Over

Oct 2009

November 2009

Dec 2009 at Animal Kingdom

Me & My Baby:

Mommy Day 1: April 28, 2009

July 2009 at the beach

October 2009 At the Pumpkin Patch

October 2009 Baking pumpkin seeds.

October 2009 Autumn Moon Festival

Xzavior - The Blue Eyed Boss!

2010-02-05T22:23:00.004-05:00

In this world for 10 months and in our hearts forever!

The Wonder Pets Rule!

2010-01-11T23:35:00.000-05:00

Today's Chianna"ism": Her and I were watching Live to Dance onDemand. It was the one with a dance off of 4 groups to get to the finals. After they all performed, I asked Chianna which one she liked best. Her answer: The Wonderpets. Very matter of factly. What? I said, "no, which dancers?" and she said "I don't like dancers, I like the Wonder Pets". ROFL

Video of Dee Dee's Puppet Show Campout

2010-01-11T20:16:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Dee Dee!

2010-01-10T18:36:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe that Dee Dee turned 7 on January 5th! Where does the time go?

We had a blast celebrating her birthday. She had a sleepover party with Chianna! I made Dee Dee's favorite for dinner - chicken fingers! Then, they baked a beautiful cake together (with the Myke's help, of course) and camped out in our living room. Then we went to see the Lippzaner Stallions show!

The best part of baking a cake is licking the bowl!

The Finished Product! Myke decorated it and Dee Dee's reaction: "I love it, that's just my style!"

Matching PJs from Papa

Matching horsies to sleep with too!

Reaping the benefits of the baking!

Camp out time!

Getting ready to go to the Lippizaner Stallions show. It was cold and rainy out, so we all got bundled up!

And here are the Stallions:

Foreheads or Three?

2010-01-08T08:55:00.000-05:00

I have always wanted to keep up on my blog and these short little Chiannaism posts are a great way for me to do it. With the help of TimeHop, an app which emails you your posts and checkins from year ago to remind you where you where the same day last year just sent me a Chiannaism from the past so that I can share it and post it from the day it happened.

Chianna rocked it out in her speech & language evaluation this afternoon! It is amazing to see how much progress she has made in the last 6 months! The highlight was when her speech therapist asked her to point to her forehead. Chianna looked at her puzzled and said, "no, 3 heads" and pointed at Ms. Susan, me, and herself! LOLOLOL

Lady Bug Tea Set

2010-01-07T14:44:00.000-05:00

Chianna loves. loves, loves the Lady Bug Tea set that Auntie Kim & Uncle Ron sent her!
Thank you to Kim & Ron!

She plays with this set almost every day. Its very funny, she usually insists that it is coffee, not tea.

I took tons of pics of her opening the set so that Kim & Ron could feel like they were here and see her reactions.

Anything that gets her using both hands is awesome! You know she really loves it when she tries like this!

She poured one for Daddy. . .

She poured one for Mommy . . .

And one for herself!

So we decided to set up the auto picture button on the camera. Something we never did before (which is part of the reason we don't have a lot of pics of all 3 of us together.) So after some fidgeting with the camera, Myke figured out how to set the delay. We all sat down together and smiled at the camera and . . . .

Aku walks right in fron on the camera right when the picture snaps!

Finally got it to work right! Tea (or coffee) for three, please!

Some Christmas Thank Yous

2009-12-28T22:28:00.001-05:00

Chianna loves this Santa from Baba & Pa's friends the Hunts! Thank you, Doris & Jack!

These monkeys are from cousin Nancy - thank you cousin Nancy, she loves these monkeys!

Christmas Night 2009

2009-12-27T20:27:00.002-05:00

After opening all the presents Christmas morning, Christmas brunch and a nap, we woke up to start making dinner again for Christmas night. Myke's parents & Nonie and Papa came back over, as well as my dad, my brother, my sis in law, Dee Dee & Xzavior. After dinner we had round 2 of present opening with Dee Dee & Chianna!

Myke's yummy dinner menu:
Grilled chicken, ribs, sausages.
Spaghetti Squash
Spinach
Potato Casserole

A cupcake maker for Dee Dee since she loves to bake with Uncle Mykie

Chianna & Dee Dee playing with their new toys!

Of course, Aku is supervising everything!

Papa with Xzavior

Christmas Morning 2009

2009-12-27T12:03:00.001-05:00

Myke and I had dreamed about this day for a long time! The day when our daughter would experience the magic of Christmas that we love so much. Today was a very big day! So happy to have shared it with our family!

Added even a few more gifts under (or around) the tree when Papa arrived!

Waiting for Chianna to wake up and come out!

Video of Chianna waking up coming soon. . . .

She asked Santa for "A Big Horse" and as you can see, was thrilled to get it!

One of the things we got Chianna for Christmas is the mini recliner chair that matches Mommy & Daddy's chairs. She loves to have her own things that are like ours!

First we open up our "socks".

Chianna got a Tinkerbelle phone in her stocking, she totally loves it!

Next we opened this basket of presents that were all from Moses. He is one busy shopping puppy!

Nonie showing off her spoon that Chianna made her!

Baba showing off the spoon that Chianna made her too!

Uncle Brian helping Chianna put together her Zhu Zhu pet track.

Mo sitting with Nonie & getting some of that good loving only Nonies know how to give!

Look at that happy smile! Worth all the anticipation, right there!

Check out the videos on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/ssmshari

Christmas Eve 2009

2009-12-26T22:36:00.001-05:00

Christmas Eve 2009. Myke's whole family drove down from Orlando: Baba, Pa, Uncle Brian, Nonie & Papa Nick - oh and Moses, the dog too! Also Myke's cousins Ara & Janet drove down too for dinner.

Nonie & Papa Nick - so glad that they could be here with us and that Chianna gets to spend time with her Great- Grandparents!

Moses "Mo" the dog, so named because he was left at the vet's door in a basket.

Our happy girl clapping hands!

Myke's dinner menu:
Apple & onion stuffed pork. (Except for Brian & Janet who got chicken.)
Broccoli casserole
Spaghetti Squash
Mashed potatoes

Myke's special s'mores cake! YUM!

After dinner Chianna wanted to read books with Uncle Brian!

It is so great that she has this special time with Uncle Brian, she always wants to read books with him!

McConahay Christmas tradition is to open 1 present on Christmas Eve. She also got to open her gift from Cousins Ara & Janet - some My Little Ponies!

Chianna's first Christmas Eve present:

Monkey Christmas Pajamas & Monkey slippers!

The children all tucked in their beds. . . .

After she was in bed, Santa's helpers were able to put all the presents under the tree:

And her new car, which didn't fit under the tree!

And with Mo there all curled up & sleeping on the couch . . to all a good night!

Chianna the Dare Devil!

2009-12-23T18:55:00.000-05:00

Chianna's favorite part of Disney World and Universal Studios were the Roller Coasters! This was the 3rd trip on the Woody Woodpecker Roller Coaster at Universal Studios Orlando.

Christmas Decorations 2009

2009-12-20T21:00:00.001-05:00

My favorite Santa!

Chianna's room decorations:

Chianna's pink tree - she picked out herself! And that is the count down calendar that Myke grew up with!

The stockings are all hung with care!

Our Christmas table!

Our tree this year was inspired by Chianna - all pink!

These are actually last year's outside decorations, I didn't get a chance to take pics of the outside this year. It was a lot of the same, but there were new light posts with Santa flags hanging and candy canes lining the walkway too.

Santa guarded Chianna's room & was watching to make sure she was a good girl this year! (And of course, she was!)

This is Rudolph the Red Nosed Car!

Chianna's First Halloween

2009-10-31T23:31:00.005-04:00

For Halloween, we met our friends Minouche, Delfim & Yasmin at The Walk in Coral Springs, where all the stores were set up giving out candy to trick or treaters. they also had a DJ and some other fun Halloween stuff going on!

Getting ready for some monkey business!

Daddy's Little Monkey

Chianna & Yasmin

"One"

Hello, I would like one monkey face, please!

Before

During

After!

Monkey Face in full effect!

The monkey family

Some new version of hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil, I guess!

What Halloween Means to Me

2009-10-30T01:17:00.003-04:00

H = Heartburn
A = Aggravation
L = Little Sleep
L = Lots of Stress
O = OMG
W = "Where the hell is my costume?"
E = Evil, idiotic customers!
E = Endless bottles of pain killers.
N = NO your charity can not have some free stuff.

And trying hard to make sure that Chianna does not grow up feeling this way! Hopefully she can see the fun and magic of the holiday!

FCC Halloween Party

2009-10-25T21:55:00.000-04:00

In October we got together with our FCC friends and family for our annual trick or treat luncheon! We were so happy to finally have Chianna home to celebrate with us!

With the expression on both of their faces, I guess they are upset that I'm taking a picture instead of filling their tirck or treat bags!