Re: FSA

December 6, 2009

If yours is set up anything like mine (for the federal government), you'll have

to be careful of the cutoff dates for the 2009 and 2010 spending years.

The best way to explain my point is to use my account as an example...we have

until mid January 2010 to accumulate any medical expenses for the 2009 spending

year. Then we have until the end of April 2010 to submit a claim for

reimbursement of those 2009 expenses. So if your account is similar, the first

question would be, is the helmet going to be a 2009 expense or a 2010 expense?

If it's going to be 2010 expense, you should be fine to put aside at least $2000

(must bands cost around 3000, but it's use or lose, so you don't want to over

shoot it...other everyday medical expenses should be able to make up the

difference if it's less) and claim that reimbursement at the end of the 2010

spending year.

If the helmet will be a 2009 expense, and you are only signing up for a 2010

FSA, I don't think you'll be reimbursed for that. I know 2009 was my first year

signing up for it and I had to be really careful to only submit bills from

January 2009 on. If you did have an FSA for 2009, and you get the helmet in

2009, I might be wrong about this, but you might not have enough set aside to

cover the full expense of the band if you only have until about April to earn

it. Do you know what I mean? I'm still trying to figure this all out myself

since 2009 was my first year using an FSA.

After reading through your original post, I understand you're in a hurry to

start the banding process, but if money is going to be an issue and you really

want the reimbursement, you may want to look closely at all the deadline dates

that go with your account.

And sorry if you know all this already, but I couldn't tell from you post and

since I just signed up for our FSA for next year last week, it's all fresh in my

mind.

Jake-3 (DOCBand Grad 9/08)

> >

> > Hi all. I've just joined and have learned so much from perusing this group's

postings. What a nice support group.

> > A quick recap of my son's plagio history: At 3 months we noticed a flat spot

developing. Mentioned it to the Dr., who said it would go away w/ tummy time

and once he started rolling around. It didn't. Over the course of the next 4

months, I also asked two different nurse practitioner and another doctor in the

office about the flattening. All said it was nothing to be worried about and

would probably correct itself in time, or " it would just be like that forever. "

I even asked about whether we needed a helmet (I was unfamiliar with plagio, but

knew of some babies who had worn helmets) and was told no. I started to forget

about his head shape. Fast forward to Thanksgiving, when our visit to out of

town relatives led my Sister-in-law (who works in the medical field) to notice

's head shape and tell us we should get a second opinion, and quickly.

So this week I've poured over all the plagio info on the Internet, and I feel

certain that he has positional plagiocephaly, and likely at least a moderate

case of it. I am just sick about the fact that it's taken me so long to do this

research and angry that I listened to doctors who clearly didn't know what they

were talking about. How to deal with the guilt?

> > We have an appt. set up with a reputable pediatric neurologist here in

Sacramento next Friday. My main concern now is that this process will all move

too slowly and delay what is already a late start for banding. He turned 8

months old this week. Any tips on things I could do to speed up the process?

Should I call my insurance provider (United Healthcare) in advance of our Dr.'s

office to inquire about their coverage of cranial orthotics? Is there usually a

long wait at places that do fittings for Starbands (in our area) or DOCbands

(our nearest CranialTech is in Pasadena, 6 hours away--yikes.)? If so, perhaps

I should try to make an appt. now so that it will be already set up if/when the

neurologist sends us that direction. I just hate that we waited so long to take

action, and now fear that the laborious process of getting this all going will

cut into the months of prime effectiveness for banding.

> > Sorry for the long message. Any advice that anyone can give on speeding up

the process and/or dealing with UHC would be helpful and much appreciated. I

read UHC's medical policy about plagiocephaly online and it states that " Cranial

orthotic devices are cosmetic in infants with mild to moderate plagiocephaly.

There are no definitive data demonstrating that there are adverse health effects

associated with a mild to moderate degree of cranial asymmetry, and, therefore,

it is unclear whether treatment of these individuals provides a future health

benefit, or merely a cosmetic effect. " Doesn't sound good for our chances of

insurance paying.

> > Thanks for your help! I think this group is going to be a great help to me

as we navigate this road.

> >

>

December 6, 2009

Thanks for pointing that out . I hadn't thought much about whether the

helmet costs would count in '09 or '10. We've already spent all the $ we

allotted for our FSA in '09 (hospital birth costs were significant!), so I'd

like to allot $ for the helmet in '10, but (if we're lucky, and fast) we may

just get it in the very end of '09. Maybe the provider will let us work

something out where we can put down a down payment on it in '09, and then pay

the remainder as soon as we hit '10. We've done some more research into our

insurance and discovered that the Certificate of Coverage contains a specific

exclusion for cranial banding. Looks like we will be paying for this ourselves.

> > >

> > > Hi all. I've just joined and have learned so much from perusing this

group's postings. What a nice support group.

> > > A quick recap of my son's plagio history: At 3 months we noticed a flat

spot developing. Mentioned it to the Dr., who said it would go away w/ tummy

time and once he started rolling around. It didn't. Over the course of the

next 4 months, I also asked two different nurse practitioner and another doctor

in the office about the flattening. All said it was nothing to be worried about

and would probably correct itself in time, or " it would just be like that

forever. " I even asked about whether we needed a helmet (I was unfamiliar with

plagio, but knew of some babies who had worn helmets) and was told no. I

started to forget about his head shape. Fast forward to Thanksgiving, when our

visit to out of town relatives led my Sister-in-law (who works in the medical

field) to notice 's head shape and tell us we should get a second

opinion, and quickly. So this week I've poured over all the plagio info on the

Internet, and I feel certain that he has positional plagiocephaly, and likely at

least a moderate case of it. I am just sick about the fact that it's taken me

so long to do this research and angry that I listened to doctors who clearly

didn't know what they were talking about. How to deal with the guilt?

> > > We have an appt. set up with a reputable pediatric neurologist here in