His lungs and heart all sounded good by the time I saw him, but with the sudden turn to cold weather, I wasn't about to rule out the potential of asthma for him, particularly as he described the problem popping up during recess.
I called his mom, who answered the phone sounding totally bored with me before I even began. I reported that by the time I listened to him, an hour after he'd first complained, all was clear. I launched into more detail that even though they may have been clear then, after an hour of rest, his lungs may actually be having a problem in this chilly weather. Her monotone response: "Well, if he has a problem, the school can transport him to the hospital."
What.
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Would the mother be charged for the ambulance ride if the child ended up needing medical care but was not sick enough to be admitted to the hospital? It will depend on what your state medicaid program covers. An ambulance bill can easily cost $500, and those bills are not wiped out by the hospital charity funds, since the fire department doesn't profit off of health care the same way hospitals do. It is sad that to even wonder about whether it would help to use the pitch "hey if you take your kid to the doctor now you could save yourself a $500 ambulance bill later"… never mind that you would also be addressing your child's health and safety needs. By the way, do you keep a list of area pediatricians in your offices that take Medicaid/ Medical? I have a friend that is a school nurse in a very low-income gang-ridden area, and she uses encounters like yours above as a chance to sniff out families that don't have pediatricians, and send them the list. I think she refers to both stand-alone pediatric practices and federally qualified health centers, since there is a GREAT FQHC in the poorest part of the town.
ReplyDeleteI have some contacts for un- or under- insured, my problem is motivating some of the parents to care enough to do anything with the information...Some parents, no matter how much I hold their hand through the entire process, I just can't get to care enough about the well-being of their child. (And that is when the CPS reports are filed.) :/
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