You've researched and gathered information about the Katie Beckett medicaid waiver in GA, and decided to move forward with applying. After countless hours making appointments, working with physicians, filling out forms, and prepping hundreds of pages of materials. Believe it or not, at some point, you'll start to see a light at the end of the tunnel with all of your reports, results, and physician forms coming in. When this happens, plan a tentative date when you'd like to submit your application. Of course you may have to adjust it by a day or two, but start looking at a submit date and planning accordingly.
You're on the home stretch! It's time to put all of this together into one easy-to-navigate package and send it in!
Blank Forms from GA Medicaid Site
Click through to download your blank starting forms from the GA TEFRA Katie Beckett Medicaid website.
Disclaimers
I am not an attorney, medical professional, or professional advocate. I'm just a mom who has been through it and would like to help others have a smoother experience than I had. 🙂 I'm hopeful that these resources will be helpful to you and I will do my best to keep them updated and relevant, but please note that following my advice is no guarantee of approval. Also, please note that I live in Georgia, and Medicaid applications are state-specific. If you live in another state, find resources specific to your state to use as a guide.
Make a Table of Contents
It's time to make a Table of Contents! You'll leave the page numbers blank for now, but the TOC should include your child's name, date of birth, and a picture of them. This will be the first page the reviewer will see, so make it easy for them to see your child, your child's information, and to feel confident that they will be able to find everything they are looking for in your application. You'll generally put all of your materials in the following order:
- Personal Application Forms
- Physician Forms
- Therapy Evaluations, Plans of Care, and Notes
- Physician Evaluation, Visit Notes, Reports, and Test Results
- Any additional documentation you decided to include in Step 4.
As you are building your Table of Contents, review the lists of required documentation and make sure you aren't missing anything. And don't forget to request the updated notes from your speech, occupational, physical, and/or behavioral therapists. Remember how we requested 90 days of therapy notes in Step 2? That may have been a couple of months ago now, so 5-10 business days before you are planning to submit your application, remember to ask your therapists for the notes from any sessions that have happened in the meantime. Make sure they are signed, either by hand or via a verified electronic signature. Copies, scans, or faxes are all fine.
To view an example of a Table of Contents, click here.
Number the Pages
Next, gather all of your documents in an order reflected on your Table of Contents. A few items to note here:
- You'll add any attachments applicable to a form just behind the corresponding form. For example, if you have a history/diagnosis page to add behind the DMA6, you'll put it just after the DMA6.
- You'll add the Psychological Evaluation Report you obtained in Step 2 just behind the DMA6.
- You'll put a copy of your IEP or IFSP just after the Level of Care Statement.
- Depending on how involved or confusing your child's Physicians Reports section is, you might consider adding a Patient History Summary at the beginning (Item 4.1 in the Table of contents example).
Once you have all of your pages in order (and you've double-checked!), you can add page numbers. Adding them in by hand with a small number in the bottom of the page is just fine as long as they are clear and accurate.
Sign, Date, Prep, & Send!
Go through and enter the signature and date on every place you left blank in both the Physician Forms and Personal Forms. You'll need to triple-check this! A missed signature or date can quite possibly result in a technical denial, so be very careful here.
Use a binder clip (or two) to hold your package together, and prepare to take it to the trackable mail delivery service of your choice. While some folks recommend delivering the package to the Katie Beckett Review office by hand, the problem with that approach is that you don't have a third party confirmation that it was delivered and it becomes one person's word against another's. Whether you prefer FedEx, UPS, or USPS, take your package to the establishment of your choice and make sure you are able to both track your package and receive a signature confirmation of package delivery. Package delivery a couple of business days out is fine, but don't do more than that; you don't want your application to expire before they have a chance to review it, which is why you went to all that trouble to make sure your dates were as close to mailing it out as possible.
You'll be sending it to the following address:
Katie Beckett Medicaid Team
2211 Beaver Ruin Rd, Suite 150
Norcross, GA 30071
Save your receipt once you leave the store and make an electronic copy of it for your records. In a couple of days, you should receive an electronic confirmation of delivery along with the name of the person who signed for it. Save this for your records as well.
Now, We Wait...
Once you've submitted your application and recieved the confirmation that your package was delivered, now is when you wait. For us, it was right at a month before we heard a response, and I am told that is pretty fast. During the waiting period, make sure you answer calls from numbers you don't recognize; sometimes your case reviewer may call to ask a question or request additional information. Additionally, make sure you open EVERY piece of mail; the Katie Beckett team utilizes third parties to send out their information, so it may be from them even if it doesn't say anything about Medicaid on the return address.
My goal in writing this guide is to have a clear, accurate, step-by-step process that makes your life a bit easier. Have a question about something I wrote on this page, or see an error that needs fixing? Contact me and let me know!
Additional Resources
My original sources for pooling all of this information...
Webinar from P2P
Parent to Parent has an hour-long archived webinar that walks you through the Katie Beckett application in detail, including each of these Physician Forms. You'll submit your email address in order to receive a link to the video, but their emails are worth getting anyway.
Cam & Madi's Promise
Sheila Carter has two special needs kiddos and knows her stuff inside & out. She founded a nonprofit, Cam & Madi's Promise, so she could help parents with this application at no cost. She was an invaluable resource to me and answered dozens of questions on these dizzying forms!
Professional Advocate
If you'd like a professional to help you complete these forms, consider engaging with a professional advocate that does this for a living. There is nobody more experienced than Debbie Dobbs. She does charge a fee but she will also save you a ton of time and headache.