venting about my work

I need to vent here now, so if you do want to listen, I understand. I do not want to get into if it is a good or a bad idea to use blogs for venting, not right now anyway. I would appreciate any comments you might have for me, though. Thank you! For a brief history, I am a private care provider for DD/MR and ABI adults and children. Officially now, I am the owner of a business that providers these services. I used to be a private provider but after October 1st , I became an official business. The name of my business is “Cheyenne Assisted Living & Support.” I decided to go private because I had some issues with the philosophies of all the places here. Also, the money is much better and I get to work the hours that I like to and not the over-night stuff. What happened is that I ended up with 6 clients, so I needed to hire someone. Also, a ‘friend’ of mine that I worked with before at one of the places in town, left that job. One of the parents said she only wanted my ‘friend’ to work with her child. I have worked for 3 other places, two here, one in Laramie. My ‘friend’ tried to get certified to be a private provider, but she could not get it. The State of Wyoming Developmental Disabilities Division has so damn many moronic and tree killing rules and regulations that they chock providers with their ridiculous amounts of paper work and red tape. To a certain point, I can understand and agree with the regulations, but they make it unbelievably difficult to get things done. This ‘friend’ worked with this little girl for nearly a year for free because she could not get her certification done. It took me 4 months to get mine. At one point, the “lady” at the State LOST my paper work! I was told that I could just hire someone. We put my name on that little girl’s plan and I was going to hire my ‘friend’ so she could get paid. Then, I found out that I can not just hire someone while using my own personal SS number. I have to use a EIN number. Otherwise it is Medicaid fraud and I would have to pay back all of the funds I billed. Fortunately, I did not do any billing from that time. The case manager for the little girl did know about this, I just happened to find out from another provider who was doing the same as me and had to do some “bill-backs.” So, one would assume that all they would need to do was just get an EIN from the IRS. That is what I was told, anyway. It took me all of 10 minuets on the phone with the IRS to get one. Just give it to the State and I can hire. WRONG! I had to fill out a 30 page “packet” and had to change all of my plans. I got the packet in August, the third week. It took until October to get it approved. The State told me to estimate my units I would use and have the case managers make new plans with those units that are left over. I did that. Well, on the little girl, the State said the numbers were wrong. They were wrong because they did not see any billings for the estimated hours. Hello!! I had not billed for them yet!! Would a person not think that they would allow for that?! Guess not, that would be too easy. After 3 weeks, I finally got hers taken care of and approved. However, I lost a weeks work that I can not bill. That is such BS!!! Okay, I need to explain. That 'friend' moved to Texas in August, so I have been working with the little girl since then. I do not mind putting in extra. I do a lot of it. I lost a few days working with her anyway, no big deal. Better than her not having any services and that happens, a lot. The State knows they can get away with lapes in funding and just take advantage of people like me. I almost always show up early and stay longer than what I billed. There are late night phone calls, movies on the weekends, transportations, visits with their families, none of which are billed. Yes, it is free for the State. I do not mind, not at all. I am getting good Karma from this and the clients need it. I would rather have good Karma than money anyway. I spend time with some of my former clients, as well: movies, my son‘s football games, lunches, dinners. We are like friends and family. I am happy to have them to do things with and to go places. Sure, I miss deep intellectual conversation and feedback. Then, today, I get a notice in the mail that they denied my claims for one of my other clients for the last 2 weeks of September. It is $1,800 worth!!! The place that actually pays us, a pay service the government uses, ACS, told me that I was not approved because I changed my provider number. They told me that I have a different provider number and my old one was not valid. HELLO!! You are the ones who changed it! It was valid when I was providing the services!!! Yes, it is not now, but it was then, damn it!!!!!! I did exactly what the State told me to do and now I am getting screwed by them! ACS told me I have to talk to the case manager about it. They have nothing to do with that end of, so pass the buck. I have lost over $2,000 because the friggin’ State’s moronic rules and regulations. Then, the State has the nurve to complain that we do not have enough providers in our State for the number of people who need services! What do you idiots expect?!! We all should work for free? Then, I found out that any one who works with children, which is any client under 21, or any one who works with any age ABI client, they have to have a college degree. Okay, understandable, but what about a person who has worked with them for many years? I can guarantee it, people, experience is far more worthy and necessary in this business than a damn college education. No problem for me because I have more than they require for a degree, plus over 4 years experience, but that is going to kill me for hiring someone. That eliminated everyone from my list. Now, I do not know anyone that I can hire. The adult wavier program does not require a degree, yet, it pays more. They want higher educated and more experienced providers, but they want to pay less. Go figure! Well, since I had to wait so long to hire someone, I lost 4 of my clients. Now that I have all of this done and I have busted my ass getting it approved, I do not need anyone. It is for the best, I guess. Those other clients were non-compliant and very difficult to work with and, well, that just sounds like a cop-out to me. Things work out for the better, I just am frustrated with the damn “system” right now.