Southlake (WBAP/KLIF News) – The STAR Kids Program took effect today and 5600 Texas children on Medicaid’s Medically Dependent Children’s Program may have to find new doctors to care for them. Thousands of families relied on MDCP to help develop a special team of doctors for their chronically-ill children.
Under the new program, families who were previously on Medicaid will be forced to transition to one of two private insurance companies. Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission created the program for 180,000 children and disabled young adults under 21 after lawmakers agreed to it in 2013.
Natalie Gregory’s daughter Christina has Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome and requires round-the-clock care. “Her lungs and brain work fine. Basically, her brain forgets to tell her body to breathe. There’s a nervous system disconnect.” said Gregory. She said she fears her daughter will lose the team of doctors it took two years to build.
“Honestly, we just want the choice as a family to be able to say this is the care team I’ve put together, the care team my daughter needs, the care team we need to keep in order to have Christina thrive,” said Gregory.
She said there is no guarantee Christina’s doctors will be able to treat her under a new plan.
“The physician will need to be directly contracted with a new insurance company. The problem is the physician will have to agree to this private, for-profit insurance company’s terms,” she said.
The program also requires the insurance company to send out a representative to re-evaluate the level of care her daughter needs.
“To me it seems like a pretty big ethical question to have a company that is paying for services to be the ones evaluating the needs for services to begin with.” she said.
She said at the end of the day she just wants her daughter to thrive.
“My greatest hope is that Christina continues to develop just like any normal two-year-old does and that she has a full and healthy sustaining life.”
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