Hi everyone:

Just got back not too long ago from the ALJ Hearing I had today concerning the future of my Home Care Management case and I have some *cautiously* good news to report.

That is that, at least for the time being, I do **NOT** lose my current Home Care Management services (Those of you on the CPN MSN Community know pretty much what an refeerring to as brought this up in my intro post).  However though, CFMC (Colorado Foundation for Medical Care) *does* have to submit an explanation of *why* I was admitted into the program WITHOUT any type of benchmark scoring done upon or just prior to admission to the program despite the fact that I **LATER** scored well below the minimum eligibility requirements during the first review, which was done almost a year after being admitted into the program.  The judge thought that was intriguiging and the nurse representing CFMC called it "a random thing" (some Financing Committee run by the State arranged this "pilot" program).

As such, the record remains open pending the receiving of this statement by CFMC.  I am debating as to whether I should ask the court if I could file a post-hearing motion to have the local Housing Authority submit whatever the court needs from the HA so the court can make a more well-informed decision.  I know I should've obtained this information already, however it may well be determined that anything the HA submits might not even be considered relevant to the case at hand (even I would concede to this).

I also pretty much had to admit that while I do have Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy and I do experience lower back pain when walking for lengthy periods of time plus I do have problems with my feet (I'm quite self-ambulatory and sufficient in other areas), I do *not* need the nursing level of care which CFMC provides (This I pretty well knew I had to admit to going into the hearing).  Though I did ask, if possible, CFMC to provide me with some names and numbers of people who *do* provide the services I need, but *don't* get paid by an agency which provides services which I *don't* need (the agency who does the actual housekeeping is someone other than CFMC, though they are utilized by CFMC and Home Care Management on an almost regular basis).

So, right now, things are pretty much status quo, however thaqt could very easily change in the next couple of weeks.  I'll keep you guys posted as it could mean my having to move to a different county.  We'll have to wait and see.  In the meantime, I don't plan on getting my hopes up too high as my odds of winning are just as slim as they were when I got up this morning (especially with having no legal counsel at my side, even though I did consult with one prior to the original hearing date, which I failed to attend because I was under the impression my attorney would.  Problem was, she was never served by the court to represent me.  This was mostly my mistake, though this wasn't discussed at great length at the hearing).

Well....that's all the news that's "fit to print" for now gang.  Apologies for the lengthy post but the details are quite complicated (read BUREAUCRACY at its finest here).  Like I said, I'll kepp everyone posted as developments occur.  :-)

In the meantime....Cheers for now my friends  :-)

Patrick Cook
[log in to unmask]
Denver, Colorado
http://home.talkcity.com/MinivanAve/patrick32/ (A proud member of the Cerebral Palsy Network)