Pressure applied by the media encouraged the Hamilton’s health insurance company to hear their plea on behalf of their daughter’s healthcare, via telephone conference. However, when AvMed learned that I was sitting in on the hearing (with a camera rolling) they cancelled. (It must be noted that the rules they sent the Hamilton’s on the procedures of the hearing never barred media presence; and when I agreed to leave the room, they still refused to proceed with the hearing.)

After a second hearing, AvMed again denied the Hamilton’s the money to pay for craniosacral therapy for Mariah. However, following the broadcast of this third follow up story, a local doctor trained in the therapy offered his services to Mariah for free. And to assist with their mounting medical bills, another viewer offered to assist the Hamilton’s with a grant application that would cover Mariah because she is under 16 years of age.

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Family Fights Health Insurance Company – Part 1

This is no longer an uncommon story. The Hamilton family has a daughter with multiple chronic illnesses and an insurance company reluctant to pay for the services they are requesting.

Mariah, their 13-year-old daughter suffers with a 74-degree curvature of spine. But that’s not all, since birth, she’s had chronic cardiac maladies. Despite all she must bear, she is as happy and normal as any tween her age.

AvMed, the family’s plan, was willing to pay for a spinal fusion surgery costing nearly a quarter of a million dollars. But, the Hamilton’s and several of Mariah’s doctors say the highly intrusive procedure is risky given her weak heart, and at worst could leave her paralyzed.

But, to look at Mariah –and the facility with which she moves given her extreme scoliosis – she and her parents say is attributable to the more hands-on treatment they have discovered, craniosacral therapy. With roots in Eastern medical practices, the massage and acupressure-like treatments came to the U.S. in the seventies.

When the Hamilton’s discovered the alternative, less invasive form of treatment they felt they had nothing to lose. But AvMed  and their doctors say otherwise. The insurance company –the largest of state employees in Florida— call the treatment experimental and the results of Mariah’s physical improvement inconclusive.

Mariah has already had 14 surgeries in her lifetime and was refusing to have another.

The Hamilton’s want a chance to plead their case before the insurance company, and have been repeatedly denied.

For more information:

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080804/VIDEO/808040305

Watch: Family Fights Insurance Company – Part 2

Family Fights Insurance Company – Part 2

Provoked by our first story, the Hamilton’s insurance company, AvMed, finally agrees to give them a hearing.

What chiropractics and massage therapy once were to the Western medical establishment, craniosacral therapy is to many insurance companies today. But, the Hamilton family feel they have found in this treatment an alternative to the invasive and scaring surgeries their 13-year-old daughter has endured for her severe scoliosis.

With a series of simple “no’s” from the the insurance company, Mariah is facing the prospect of a more complicated surgery for her condition.  Armed with stacks of letters from doctors and specialists and research they’ve accumulated, the Hamilton’s prepare to present their case to AvMed  in hopes that they will pay for her therapy.

Until now, the Hamilton’s have spent more than 11-thousand dollars of their savings for Mariah’s craniosacral therapy.  AvMed, thus far, is only willing to pay for a spinal fusion operation that costs $250,000.

Does this not surprise you? If you have a similar story please share it below.

For more information:

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20080803/NEWS/670082155

Watch: Family Fights Insurance Company – Part 1

Play Stations have replaced playgrounds as primary activity for many children. With obesity reaching near epidemic proportions among adults and children, the federal government has stepped-in  in an attempt to reign in the growing problem –of growing waistlines.

Studies show 8 out of 10 obese children will become obese adults. The statistics are staggering and the evidence apparent when we look around at children.

Added to elementary vocabulary is “Body Mass Index.” It’s the measure by which a person is determined to be at a healthy weight, or not. According to the Center for Disease Control , “BMI is calculated from a person’s weight and height and provides a reasonable indicator of body fatness and weight categories that may lead to health problems.”

As public schools are expected to reinstate physical activity –gym classes lost over the years to budget cuts— so too is infamous cafeteria fare meant to take on a healthier menu of choices.

So here’s what one elementary school did to take the weight off government mandates and take control of the well-being of both students and their families.

For more information:

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/index.html