Every breath you take,

Every move you make,

Every claim you stake,

Every vow you break....

I called Blue Shield today to find out when they would resume paying UCLA for Janni's care. Surprise, surprise, they knew nothing about the State's Department of Managed Health overturning their denial. They asked me to fax the letter from the state to them, then told me that UCLA had not sent medical records to them for the last 15 days so they were about to deny care again! I don't understand how they can deny when they have already denied. That would be a denial of the denial. I suspect they were going to turn down the "standard appeal" (read: waste of time-appealing to an insurance company, that is, because they lack a human heart). For those of you who have been denied care by an HMO, call the State Department of Managed Health.

At any length, Blue Shield has five days to start paying and I suspect they are going to take the full five days. What bastards. The truly independent doctor who reviewed our case for the state was horrified by Blue Shield's claim that Janni was stable enough to be downgraded to a lower level of care. In fact, he specifically wrote "transfer to a ... Read moreless restrictive setting may well engender another episode of severe regression, as it has in the past." However, when I called Blue Shield today they didn't immediately apologize and commit seppuku like they should. They told me instead that they planned to deny the standard appeal because UCLA was not providing medical records. They are going to continue to weasel around and I am going to continue to fuck them in any way I can. As a friend of mine put it today, "fuck Blue Shield."

Fuck them, indeed.

With all this fighting with the insurance company, we almost forget there is a real mentally ill child involved here. We saw Janni today and she was not the best. Her roommate and best friend at UCLA was discharged yesterday and so Janni has returned full-bore to playing with her demon friends (as I now call her imaginary friends). She was really wound up despite being on 125 mg of Thorazine, which, by the way, is actually humanly impossible. If you or I took 125 mg of Thorazine we would be in a coma. No joke. But even that dose is not enough. Her demons go away at 300 mg (300mg!) which makes her normal. Not sleepy or drugged out. Just normal. But her body can't take a dose that high. Now the doctors are going to try Moban (Molindone), an extremely powerful "traditional" anti-psychotic used to treat schizophrenia and schizophrenia only. It is so powerful it can only be taken for a few years without creating permanent muscle spasms.

So it is not a long-term answer, but the hope is that as she grows older her metabolism will slow down and the drugs will have more of an effect at a lower dose. Moban worked a miracle for Janni's roommate at UCLA, making her "ghosts" go away, so we are praying, praying, praying it works for Janni.

I also spoke to the Department of Mental Health ... Read morehere in LA County who are trying to place Janni in a residential program. Unfortunately, they are pushing for her to go out of state to a "program" (read "prison for kids") in either Texas or Montana. We are pushing back. We want her to go a facility in California, but all facilities in California (there are only two) require full medi-cal, which I can't get because I am employed.

And so the dance goes on....

We finally received a message yesterday that Blue Shield was capitulating will resume paying for Janni. They basically said, "You've won this round, Michael Schofield, but we'll get you, my pretty, and your little girl too."

It's not over.