Food Allergy Living Blog Tagged Results

We know what a difference getting insurance coverage makes for Neocate families. That’s why we are happy to share a new service called the Nutricia Product Coverage Navigator, currently available in New York and Texas.

About the Nutricia Product Coverage Navigator

Nutricia Product Coverage Navigator is a resource that will provide you with assistance in obtaining insurance coverage for Nutricia products, including Neocate.

All you have to do is call 1-800-365-7354 for help with:

• Obtaining prior authorization for any and all Nutricia products, including Neocate Infant, Neocate Junior and EO28 Splash;
• Answering questions regarding claims submissions;
• Drafting letters of medical necessity;
• Providing instructions on how to correct billing errors;
• Interceding with the insurance company on complex reimbursement matters; and
• Appealing a denied claim.

If you don’t live in New York or Texas, be sure to visit the Neocate website where you will find tips for getting Neocate coverage and details about reimbursement legislation in 14 states.

- Sarah

With the help and hard work of many families, there have been several states that have mandated legislation for medical insurance coverage of amino acid-based formulas such as Neocate. This is fantastic news that will help to provide financial relief for families.

The current states that require coverage for amino acid-based formulas:

• Arizona
• Connecticut
• Illinois
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Minnesota
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New York
• Oregon
• Rhode Island
• South Dakota
• Texas

Every state and every law/agreement is different so be sure to read thoroughly to understand the limitations before contacting your medical insurance company. For example, the Maine legislation only pertains to children under the age of 2. In the state of Minnesota, there is no law requiring coverage, however, the state’s six largest insurance plans have agreed to reimburse families for amino acid-based formula. We have a full list of the states that reimburse and information on each law at Neocate.com.

Tips for Amino Acid-based Formula Reimbursement

A few tips to keep in mind when pursing reimbursement in each of these states are listed in the reimbursement section of Neocate.com. For instance, most of the mandates/agreements only require coverage of amino acid-based formulas for the diagnosis and treatment of certain medical conditions (i.e. eosinophilic gastroenteritis or multiple food protein intolerance).

If your state is not listed and you would be interested in joining the fight for coverage in your state, check out the guidebook for enacting legislation from Children’s Magic. Children’s Magic is an organization committed to promoting reimbursement for elemental formulas. They have put together this guide to help point you in the right direction.

Stay tuned for a guest blog post from Brenda Eich next week. We are honored to have her share her story on her successful fight for medical insurance reimbursement in South Dakota! Does anyone else have success stories or tips to share with getting insurance coverage for Neocate?

- Sarah

Through our 1-800-Neocate information line we get a lot of questions but we also hear a lot of great stories from parents who deal with the effects of their child having a milk allergy every day. We love hearing those stories and we love to share them with other food allergy parents who are coping with the same situations.

With that in mind the old way of sharing your stories, recipes and photos – via snail mail - is slow, cumbersome and just a little tough for most busy parents to put together, pack it up and send into us. So our team of nutritionists has worked diligently to provide all of you with easier ways to share what you love to share the most.

If you have an account on Facebook, feel free to become a fan of our Neocate Fanpage where you can:

• Post questions, comments, suggestions, recipes & stories
• Add your photos (parents love to share their before & after photos of their children)
• Add videos
• Start discussions about relevant topics like the new Texas State Insurance Reimbursement Laws

If you are an avid user of MySpace, we just started our MySpace Neocate profile and you can read snippets of our blog posts over there (so you can decide quickly if our latest informational post is of interest to you), see photos and interact with us there by commenting on our wall.

And for those avid Twitter users out there, we didn’t forget you either. We’ve got our own Neocate Twitter account where we tweet out links to our latest blog posts, answer questions about Neocate and give suggestions where we can. We’re also looking into hosting some Tweetchats in the future about dealing with food & milk allergies, so keep your eyes open for that! We recognize that in today’s busy world sometimes it’s just easier to connect with us through the places where you are already actively participate and we wanted to make it easier for all of you to do so. So come on over and join the discussions, we’d love to hear what you have to say!

- Sarah

With help from State Representative Todd Schlekeway, a group of families in South Dakota have introduced a new bill that would require insurance companies to cover amino acid-based formulas like Neocate.

Keloland Television in Sioux Falls, South Dakota recently did a story on the bill and shared the story of the Kurtz Family whose two children, Annie and Quincy, both have milk protein allergies. Annie relies on Neocate for the nutrition she needs to survive, and her mother April is eager for the bill to pass so that it can bring some much needed economic relief to her family.

Hopefully South Dakota will pass the bill requiring reimbursement of amino acid-based formulas and join other states like Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Texas, which have passed similar legislation.

If you are interested in introducing reimbursement legislation in your state, please visit the Children’s MAGIC website and download the "Guidebook to Enacting Legislation," which can help you get started.

- Sarah

We are happy to announce that we have added four additional states to our Nutricia Product Coverage Navigator program!  The program assists patients in obtaining insurance coverage for Nutricia products, including Neocate.  When we first launched in November 2010, the program was only available in New York, Texas and Massachusetts, but now it is offered in Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois and New Jersey!

If you are a resident of Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York or Texas please call 1-800-365-7354 for help with:

Obtaining prior authorization for any and all Nutricia products, including Neocate Infant, Neocate Junior and EO28 Splash;

• Answering questions regarding claims submissions;
• Drafting letters of medical necessity;
• Providing instructions on how to correct billing errors;
• Interceding with the insurance company on complex reimbursement matters; and
• Appealing a denied claim.

If you don’t live in Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York or Texas, please visit the Neocate website where you will find tips for obtaining coverage and details about reimbursement legislation.

- Sarah