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Nicole Richards is the same as many people. She loves her dog Sammy. She’s a Ball State graduate who has a good job working in human resources.
“I have my own house,” she said. “The past 25 years have been pretty good to me.”
Richards faces unique challenges every single day because of what happened in one instant 25 years ago.
“I was in a car accident when I was 17 years old,” she said. “I was a senior in high school and I was in Muncie at a Ball State gymnastics meet. On our way home, we got into a big accident, 20 cars, and I was the only one seriously injured.”
Richards was paralyzed from the waist down and has been in a wheelchair ever since.
She’s a familiar face here on FOX59. We traveled with her to Chicago as she began her recovery journey. We caught up with her again in 2013 when she faced a new fight after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Two things have been constant since her accident, her St. Bernard companion dogs and her Medicaid coverage.
“Since I was permanently disabled, they would pick up and cover everything that my health insurance, through work, didn’t cover,” she said. “So I’ve been on and off of it for the whole 25 years.”
That coverage helped her pay for a home care agency to come to her house 40 hours a week, helping her get in and out of bed, prepare meals and showering. All was normal until this past fall when she got a call from the agency.
“They called on November 1 and said I was no longer eligible and that was shown on their computer,” she said. “So I called the Medicaid office and they said they were reevaluating everyone and I needed to resubmit all of my forms and documents.”
Which she did, Richards was told it would be a quick process to get her coverage back. But as the weeks went by, the agency continued to tell her she still wasn’t eligible for her services. This also meant having to pay for medications and doctors visits mostly out of pocket.
“It was a lot of back and forth phone calls and no one could give me a straight answer,” she said.
Her loved ones stepped in to help her navigate her home.
“I’m grateful that I have family and friends that will help me no matter what but I don’t think that other people are as lucky as me,” she said.
She said it wasn’t until she finally told the Medicaid office she planned to speak with FOX59 that some movement finally happened on her account at the beginning of January.
“They came back a few days later and said, you know, we talked to the supervisor and it’s been turned back on, your Medicaid, the home health agency can start coming back now,” she said.
Problem solved, she thought. But not quite. Richards said she was only approved for six hours of home agency care per week when she needs a full 40 hours of help.
She said she does everything right. She has a steady paying job with health insurance, she doesn’t pull from Social Security Disability insurance and she pays $187 a month into her Medicaid coverage every month. She said she even paid three months in advance to try and help her situation.
“If this happens to me, it’s probably happening to others,” Richards said. “I know the Medicaid is a big issue in Indiana right now, but for people that are truly disabled and need the help, it’s rough.”
A report from the end of 2023 showed that Indiana’s Medicaid expenses were nearly $1 billion more than than its predicted need.
In the wake of the pandemic and ballooning Medicaid recipient numbers, many states across the nation have looked at ways to bring costs down and re-evaluate people’s needs.
Data from KFF shows the number of Medicaid recipients in Indiana dropped by almost 250,000 people from March 2023 to October 2024.
When the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 ended continuous Medicaid enrollment tied to the COVID-19 emergency, Medicaid recipients were required to submit current household and income information to stay enrolled.
Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration said that unwinding period took 12 months starting in April 2023 to return to normal operations. That would have been over by November 2024 when Richards lost her coverage.
The Indiana Medicaid website says it can take up to 90 days to determine eligibility for the program.
“Just don’t give up,” said Richards.
The good news is that as of February, Richards’ full home agency hours have been approved. This means she went more than three months without her full coverage. She wanted to share her story to encourage others to be persistent and document everything.
“If you don’t follow through, they’re not going to follow through with you right now,” she said. “So just hang in there and just keep calling. Be a good self advocate for yourself.”
A spokesperson for FSSA said they can’t comment on an individual member’s case due to federal regulations.
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