Delayed vaxes on Texas medicaid

[steph66]

UPDATE! GOING IN TOMORROW TO DR. AFTERALL!

We're coming up on our two month check up and we're not planning on getting any shots at this visit. I'm a little concerned about this situation though. In July we selectively vaxed our 4 year old after not vaxing her since she was about 6 months or so, the doctor's office, seemingly out of the blue, gave me a hard time about this and said that since she is on medicaid that they are required by law to call cps and that they would probably do a home visit. I finally talked them into giving the vaccines that we wanted at least a month apart. And she made me really promise that i was going to bring dd in the next month or she would be in really big trouble when they got audited by the state. so of course we did and everythings been fine so far, until thursday when both girls are going to be seen. Has anyone gone through this here in texas? I know some might suggest to switch doctors but there are not many here in town currently accepting new patients, esp medicaid patients. And besides that, I'm really among the minority among people i know that does not blindly follow along with whatever their doctor says, so theres not really any recommendations as to finding a great doc who's into a more natural approach, yk? So what are my options here? I really want to be informed and prepared for this and I REALLY REALLY don't want to deal with CPS and home visits. I've just been crazy busy with my pre schooler and my newborn and haven't had enough time to get some research done. I'm so lucky that DP is on board and said we will not be backing down. Thanks so much for any help you can give us

Edited by steph66 - 11/11/10 at 10:21am

[Jessnet]

I am in North Texas and we have medicaid and we selectively vax.

I think your dr. is misinformed about Texas vax laws. Even if she did call CPS, I don't they would have any reason to continue an investigation because luckily Texas is not only a philosophy-exempt state, but also an opt-out of registry state.

To be honest, I stopped going to the nearest medicaid clinic for WBV because of gross incompetence. They suggested I needed to start weaning at 6 months, tried to retract his foreskin without my permission, and diagnosed his baby powder as a yeast discharge even AFTER I told them, 'uh, that is baby powder'.

Anyway, the doctor did try to use scare tactics "I know of a baby that died here in Fort Worth of a VPD" to get me to come into compliance, but she never once mentioned CPS. I refused any more shots, but did promise to think about it. She let it go once I looked sufficiently scared by the dead baby story and I promised I would make a decision by his next visit. I skipped the visit. They didn't call to ask where I was.

Honestly, the biggest hassle I got at the medicaid dr. office was that the front office INSISTED that they could only see us if I opted-into the state vaccine registry. I tried to argue that the registry was optional, but they insisted it was office policy. I was sick; I was tired; my boy was sick. I signed it and then immediately went home and printed off the "Withdraw of Consent Form" (helpfully provided by the Texas Dept. of Health itself) for removing my son's name vaccine registry and sent it in.

I go to the health dept for the shots now instead. They are much nicer and don't really care what schedule I am on. (They also nicely double checked to make sure his name was out of the database for me - It was )
Now I will occasionally get a letter from medicaid saying, hey it look like it's time for -----'s such-and-such immunization. I throw it in the trash. No one has bothered me.

I know it's super scary to be threatened with CPS - my nightmare - but I think this doctor is out on a limb. She personally *might* call CPS, but I can't imagine it's a state law. Think about how many, many, many children on medicaid miss/skip visits and are behind on their shots, and mostly from just laziness (Remember, the news stories about the thousands of kids being turned away from Dallas ISD and Ft Worth ISD at the start of the school for being behind on their vaxes. Surely most of those children were on medicaid since they were waiting for hours in long lines at the health dept instead dropping in quick the private doc. office, right?)

That being said. We have an appointment with a new provider tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.

[smeep]

DS is on Medicaid in Texas and has never received one vaccination. If CPS has ever been called in regards to vaccinations, we certainly haven't heard a peep about it.

Anyone can call CPS about anything. But, I can guarantee you that it is not LAW for them to call CPS. And I would inform them of this, that you know your rights and will NOT accept their bullying and lies. Period.

FWIW, I have a friend who was investigated by CPS (for reasons completely unrelated to vaccinations). She does not vaccinate and CPS never batted an eyelash at it (she had her state exemptions already which I'm sure helped). Now, they were complete UAVs regarding everything else, but the vaccinations were not a factor whatsoever.

[Night_Nurse]

In Texas, you have a right to opt out of any or all vaxes, for any reason. I've worked in health care for many, many years and I've personally never heard of a doctor calling CPS over someone not vaxing. If if the Dr. did call CPS, they can't do anything since you can legally opt out. Maybe the doctor doesn't understand you have the right to not vax. If she says she'll have to call CPS, smile and say "okay". If that is her only reason for calling, they aren't going to do a thing.

[steph66]

Thank you guys sooo much!! I feel so much better about tomorrow and better armed to deal with this. They are usually a fairly good office and even give me a private area to breastfeed my daughter etc. I can't believe that I believed her about calling CPS!! She said she had to do it because we were on medicaid and they require her to do that! That she didn't want to do it and it was our choice to vax or not. Wow!  I've requested an exemption from the state for both of my girls and will check off all vaccinations for my youngest but what about my oldest who has had shots? I had planned on just checking off all of them as well. I also wrote the letter to have my youngest daughter taken off the state wide registry and will mail that off today. Good luck to everyone and thanks again, you guys are awesome!!!

[Emmeline II]

Your eldest can use an exemption too.

Read here:

http://www.vaccineinfo.net/harassment/index.shtml

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...texas+medicaid

A Federal Judge just ruled that the State of Texas will no longer be able to
deny Medicaid benefits to parents who don't immunize their kids.

I would tell her that she has been misinformed, and whomever told her that is encouraging her to file false reports...which is a crime. Texas law specifically prohibits punitive action for not vaccinating. Medicaid is administered by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, and DFPS (i.e. CPS) falls under the that same commission.

Texas Medicaid Program - Overview Info

GOVERNMENT CODE
SUBTITLE I. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
CHAPTER 531. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION

§ 531.0335 (2007)

§ 531.0335. Prohibition on Punitive Action for Failure to Immunize

(a) In this section:

(1) "Person responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare" has the meaning assigned by Section 261.001, Family Code.
(2) "Punitive action" includes the initiation of an investigation of a person responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare for alleged or suspected abuse or neglect of a child.

(b) The commissioner by rule shall prohibit a health and human services agency from taking a punitive action against a person responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare for failure of the person to ensure that the child receives the immunization series prescribed by Section 161.004, Health and Safety Code.

(c) This section does not affect a law, including Chapter 31, Human Resources Code, that specifically provides a punitive action for failure to ensure that a child receives the immunization series prescribed by Section 161.004, Health and Safety Code.

Edited by Emmeline II - 11/10/10 at 10:48am

[Jessnet]

Good stuff Emmeline,

OP, you'll have to tell us what happened with your visit, tomorrow.

[steph66]

wow, thanks so much for that information. I know that it will come in handy. DP and I have talked this over and we have decided that we're not going to be going in tomorrow after a

ll

since they were only going in mainly for that texas health steps check-up and since i know that we cant be kicked offfor not complying to these visits. i just really dont want to take my 8 week old to a tiny cramped office (they recently moved.....ugh!) full of sick kids for basically nothing. My oldest DD hasnt been to one of those checkups since she was about 9 months old and no ones ever told me anything, however my SIL told me that last year both of her kids were taken off medicaid for not going to the check ups and dentist. thats the only reason wewere going tomorrow.

[steph66]

Sorry for two posts-seems there are some kinks still. it wouldn't let me type anything else or edit-weird. We are just going to start interviewing and calling family practitioners (right now we have a ped.) and just go from there. I am so happy that i am more informed and ready to deal with pushy dr offices, thanks so much mamas!!

[steph66]

OK, so we didn't go into our appt this morning which was scheduled for 11am but I completely forgot to call and cancel. we slept in today since dd1 didn't have school and saw that I missed two calls from the dr. office at 9am, they NEVER call to make sure that we are coming in but when I called them back they said they were just reminding us of our appts. THEN I received a call from someone at Driscoll childrens (the plan we are on) asking if Nikita had been seen for her two month check up, I panicked and said she was being seen today. They said that's fine and then hung up. WTH is going on? I've never once received calls for anything regarding my oldest daughter and they weren't even asking about her, it was my youngest they're concerned with. Is this the norm now or are we on someone's radar? So we're going to go in tomorrow at 11am and get these checkups over with and I'm going to print some of this information out and bring it and just hope that it goes ok, I'm so super nervous now.I've definitely got some work cut out for me tonight! Wish us luck!

[Jessnet]

Oh, that is odd, but I wouldn't go into panic mode. There are still reasonable explanations.

  Is the doctor you saw last a new doctor at the clinic who is out save the world and hasn't learned to relax yet, lol? Maybe there is new staff / rules at the front desk? And maybe it is because she is a new baby and they do seem to treat new parents on medicaid as clueless.

  It's been awhile, I DO remember a call when my son was young ( a few months old) from our plan (we have Amerigroup) asking how things were going, if I needed any help, if I was feeling depressed, how the WBV visits were going, did I have a support system, did I need transportation to my child's doctor, and to remember to never, never shake my baby.  They didn't have any real personal information (other than our names and ages) and I'm sure it was a routine call. In fact, just yesterday I got a recorded call from my plan with "very important information" that I ignored.

Don't panic mama, you're doing a great job.

[Jessnet]

Also, when I was renewing my medicaid when my son turned one, I ended up actually talking to my medicaid worker a few times because of some technical issues. Anyway, she explained to me that after children turn one, they get transferred to a different Medicaid department, because up until then, the babies are still technically on mom's Medicaid plan. We, as end users, are not supposed to see or experience any of this as it is an internal changeover, but a change over does happen.

The point is, my maternity, first-year coverage was different now that I reflect on it. They were much more proactive and would reach out to me. I was assigned a very friendly maternity counselor who called about  3 times during my pregnancy just "to chat", and tell me about the pregnancy (eat well, take vitamins, etc), make sure I had support, and make sure I didn't have any health concerns. I suppose that's why when I got calls when my boy was younger I didn't blink or even think about it until now. But now that I think about it, that has all stopped since he has gotten older.

It IS probably all because you DD is newbie

[steph66]

Just wanted to update everyone on how our visit went. It went well and we just told them that we weren't planning on getting any shots for them for this visit and luckily (?) oldest dd was under the weather and they said oh shes been a bit sick so we don't want to get her the shots now. We just went along with it and everything was fine, no problems at all. We've been there a couple of times since with no other hassels or questions at all I still get calls every once in a while about my younger dd's WBV though. so everything turned out okay and I really appreciate everyones comments! I'm so glad I can count on MDC mamas