Long Term Care Assessment

[dnvrdave]

Has anyone else had this kind of experience?


I have LTC (Long Term Care) insurance that pays for my home care. The insurance company requires an annual Benefit Eligibility Assessment that is done by a third party. I’m C5/6 complete so of course I will always be eligible. The assessment can be done by Zoom, but now they are saying I have to have someone with me during the assessment. I had this requirement waived in the past (I did the Zoom call solo), but apparently not this year. They normally would send a nurse to my house for the assessment instead of Zoom, but they say no one is available in my area (Denver Colorado). I think it is a violation of the ADA for them to require me to have someone with me. It also feels humiliating and discriminatory since no one is actually needed to do the assessment via Zoom. My caregivers don’t want to be here for the assessment (and I don’t want them here, out of my own pride) and I don’t want to ask a neighbor because it feels discriminatory. The company seems to assume that disabled people can’t be alone. Aren’t they required by ADA to provide reasonable accommodation for the assessment? Since they’ve done the assessment solo on Zoom twice before, obviously they can make accommodation.

[funklab]

That does seem pretty unreasonable. If it was me I’d probably go one of two ways, either telling them someone was with me, but “oh shit they just stepped out when you called, idk when they’ll be back or telling them I prefer not to do it via zoom and they can schedule for whenever they have a nurse in the area to do it in person.

I once did something a bit similar to the first option when coming home from the hospital. I was in a new town for school and I’d just spent several days in the hospital for a UTI. Nearest family was 300 miles away and the nearest real friend I could rely on was 200 miles away. My apartment was a mile from the hospital and there was a bus that went straight there (though I never took it unless it was raining because it was only a mile). The hospital wanted someone to come pick me up, so I said sure, they’re on the way. The wheeled me to the pickup/drop off area and I acted like I saw my ride at the end of the line and then just kept wheeling myself down the street and back home.