As some of you know, we applied to be a vendor with OVR (the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation) back in May. It is neat God story about connections and our faithfulness to just take the next step in our journey!
A friend of mine encouraged me back in 2018 or so to meet Paul who was the director of Bluegrass Center for Autism. I put off looking him up because making a call to BCA to talk with someone whom I have never met is a little intimidating.
Then in December of 2019, I was at a meeting of mentors for Love Thy Neighborhood where I was chatting with an acquaintance from our church. I ended up being introduced to the guest she brought with her and yep, you guessed it, it was Paul!
The amazing part is that Paul no longer worked at BCA so if I had contacted him there, I would have come up with a dead end! He agreed to meet with me and Susan and share the story of how BCA started and how it ended up being funded by insurance. He told us about one of the moms whose son was about 7 years old who fought like a bulldog to get insurance to cover the one-on-one services that her son and other students were receiving at BCA..
We parted ways after meeting for over an hour and Paul said to reach out whenever we needed anything in the future.
Fast forward to early spring of 2021. I was introduced to the woman who started Associates in Pediatric Therapy. She has been incredibly successful in helping many families of children 0 -21 get the therapies they need all over Louisville. At the end of our hour long conversation, she mentioned that we really needed to bill insurance for our services. She told me that in KY, insurance companies have to pay for a set amount of therapy monthly.
I was a bit down after our conversation because I know all the red tape that there is to bill insurance. There are many hoops to jump through and even when you jump through them properly, insurance companies deny payment for a variety of reasons. I also knew that if we were to start billing insurance, NSTP would have to hire someone to do all the paperwork and stay on top of it. I started to do some research on what insurance has to cover and how much they pay and I was getting more and more discouraged :(
So, after commiserating with Susan about this conundrum, I remembered Paul’s story about the mom who was a bulldog with insurance companies! I reached out to Paul who was true to his word that he would help us when we needed it :) He put me in touch with Janelle AKA the Bulldog. She was amazing!
She had moved back to Kansas with her son, but was more than willing to share her story and see how she could help. She had already read about our program on this website as well as checked out our Facebook page. Quick little note, we were in the midst of our first 16-week session and trying to figure out how to pay for everything!
Janelle and I spoke for a long time and right off the bat, I shared with her about the possibility of needing to bill for insurance. She had the same reaction that I did and she had firsthand knowledge of how difficult a feat this would be! The Lord directed our conversation and right at the end she said, “Wait! You don’t need to bill insurance! There is a program through the state that pays for programs like yours! You are already doing what they pay for!” My heart leaped for joy and I had hope that we were on the right track! Janelle agreed to send information about the program and she also would help us apply, for free! She mentioned that she had a family wedding to go to over the weekend but would email the information by the end of the following week.
On the Tuesday of the following week, I was on a call with two women from OVR. They had heard about our program and wanted to hear more about it. It was a good call and I was very encouraged. They asked me if I was interested in becoming a vendor and although I had absolutely no idea what that meant, I told them that I would pass along written information about our program for becoming a vendor (honestly, I was thinking it would have something to do with showing up at a convention and having a booth, LOL!) I was even more encouraged when I found out that OVR was the state program that Janelle was telling me about and that these women were wanting us to become a part of it so that we could service young adults and get paid for it!
A month or so later, NSTP was invited to be on a regional call with OVR counselors and vendors and present our program. It was a great call and they encouraged us by saying that we have a valuable service that will benefit these young adults. The woman who invited us to the call said that she would put in the application for us and that she would put in a good word for us.
Then, we waited. And waited. I reached out to her every couple of months, but the answer was pretty much the same. The state was working on it. So we waited some more.
Throughout the spring and into the fall, I had been attending monthly Zoom meetings for CWD (Coalition for Workplace Diversity). It is a fantastic organization that connects employers and employees who may have a disability, who may have a criminal record or who may be a veteran. I have found the meetings helpful, but Zoom is a difficult way to network, so I was thrilled when we finally had a meeting in person! I love the face to face interaction and the organic conversations and networking that occurs at a live meeting.
At this August meeting, I “happened” to meet Eric from OVR who is a supervisor. When I explained who I was and what we were waiting on, he told me that he would help us out as he would be our supervisor when we got approved! What an answer to prayer! Eric and emailed back and forth several times and he helped us submit an online application (they switched to those after our original one was submitted) and also strongly encouraged us to take an online course regarding OVR and supported employment.
Fast forward to October 24th, we got the email that our application was approved, and then on Oct 27th, I finished the online class regarding supported employment and am not certified to offer these services! There are still some hoops to jump through and paperwork to fill out, but nothing like regular health insurance and I have a supervisor to help us through the process!
If you are still reading this, thank you. I love sharing the thread of our journey because you can see God’s hand in it and how He works everything out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.