Immigrants Suffer with New Medicaid Policy

Anyone who has ever been at the mercy of a state, local or federal government entity in any form knows wholeheartedly one thing: it sucks. Imagine tax issues with the IRS. Arguing relentlessly with the DMV. Now imagine being in a foreign country, sick and possibly dying, and with no assistance. The changes to Georgia's Emergency Medicaid Assistance Programs leave undocumented or "Illegal" patients sick, defeated and without hope.

On January 1, 2006, the Georgia Department of Human Resources implemented a state-wide crackdown on the availability of access to healthcare by many of the state's residents.

Prior to January 1st, any undocumented person requiring healthcare services at a hospital was able to receive the services he or she needed, be it dialysis, chemotherapy, services through the emergency room, inpatient stays, outpatient surgeries, etc. Certain documentation, such as a photo identification, Social Security card (if applicable), income and resources, medical bills and medical records were required to accompany the Department of Family and Children Services' (DFCS) Medicaid application. A three month ongoing maintenance approval of coverage for a condition was granted in conjunction with the patient's hospital visit, to ensure proper and adequate time for treatment and follow-up.

However, effective January 1st, the policy changed for immigrants. A meeting was hosted by J. Duttweiler and B. Dowd of the Dekalb County DFCS office on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 to outline the new changes. The new policy was rolled out to surrounding Metro Atlanta area hospitals to ensure their compliance when dealing with this particular patient population. Grady Memorial Hospital in downtown Atlanta was in attendance. Grady is a public hospital, the largest hospital in the Southeastern United States, and it also serves as the exclusive training hospital for Emory University and Morehouse School of Medicine.

The policy concluded that patients who are not citizens of the United States will not have access to Georgia State Medicaid insurance under the following healthcare circumstances:

• A 3-month condition is not an emergency - it is ongoing maintenance

• Dialysis is not an acute symptom. Although a person may be in need of dialysis treatment, missing a treatment should not
kill them the same day. Dialysis is ongoing maintenance.

• Cancer drugs for ongoing chemotherapy are not acute symptoms.

• Ongoing maintenance ex: a girl is hospitalized from January 2 - 9th of this year due to an acute symptom. The treatment
received in the emergency room will be coverable because it was performed to save her life. The remaining hospitalization
will not be covered because the treatment given was for stabilization and research purposes.

The meeting also stated that DFCS may indeed approve a case, but that their departmental approval does not necessarily guarantee payment - payment is ultimately determined by the Georgia Medical Care Foundation (GMCF).

In order to determine a patient's eligibility for Medicaid services, certain documents must be submitted as acceptable proof of citizenship; as citizenship must be verified for every case in all classes of assistance. A birth certificate, immigration or naturalization papers, a resident alien card, work permits, photo identification card from your country of citizenship, Social Security's Third Party Query (commonly known as a TPQY), and military records are all acceptable forms of proof.

For many immigrants, they have arrived into the United States, with little or no identifying documents, therefore will not be eligible to receive proper and humane care in times of illness under the new Medicaid laws. All this may not seem like a big deal, but many hospital in Georgia are not seeing this population of patients. If you go to the hospital, you, and American citizen, and do not have health insurance, you can be rejected. However, kudos to Grady Memorial Hospital, as it retains its own financial resources, offering a sliding scale anywhere from 100 - 0% pay for any patients residing in Fulton or Dekalb counties.

Illnesses such as renal failure and cancer are extremely serious and require on-going maintenance for the sheer survival of the patient. No matter what side of the political fence each of us are on, or own personal feelings, and views on the "illegal" aliens in this country, the changes in the Georgia State Medicaid policies should strike a cord of sympathy and outrage at the inhumanity of denying sick people healthcare coverage.