Medicaid mistake leaves baby without insurance

A mother turned to FOX 4 for help after her baby was suddenly removed from the state's Medicaid rolls. She had no way to purchase her baby's costly medication.

At six months, Maverick Perry was diagnosed with eye cancer and had to have right her eye removed. Medicaid covered her surgery. But three months later, Nichole Perry was shocked to learn Maverick had been removed from the Medicaid rolls.

Baby Maverick is a happy little girl who doesn't seem affected much at all by only having one eye.

"It was before her six-month checkup and her eye would water so bad,” Nichole recalled. “It would look like she's crying."

The concerned mom asked her pediatrician about it and was quickly referred to Children's Medical Center.

“The doctor did an ultrasound on her eye and diagnosed her with Retinoblastoma, a tumor,” Nichole said.

The surgery was successful, and little Maverick was on her way to healing. But then came a shock.

"At the ophthalmologist clinic, they called me up to the desk,” Nichole recalled. “They said her Medicaid has been declined. I didn't understand why."

Her doctor still saw Maverick. But without Medicaid, the single mother of two couldn't afford to get Maverick's $300 antibiotic cream from the pharmacy.

“I called the office,” Nichole said. “And they said I was making too much income.”

But that turned out to not be true. Nichole's mom, Donna Perry, stepped in to try to help.

“They would say they didn't complete the case. We'll send information out to the office to take care of it,” Donna said. “We never heard anything from that.”

FOX 4 asked Medicaid what happened. The next day, a phone call came that Maverick was back on Medicaid. A spokesperson said the state apparently removed Maverick from the rolls by mistake.

“I was like, ‘Oh, really?! Thank you so much,’” Nichole said. “We rushed to the pharmacy to fill her prescription.”

It’s unclear if the mistake that removed Maverick from Medicaid was an isolated incident or part of a larger problem. Nichole believes the error may have occurred during her renewal process.