My mom was diagnosed with severe COPD recently. She's been in and out of hospitals and nursing home. She's basically been homeless for many months/years (sleeps on someone's couch and lives with 4 other adults and 5 dogs in a 1000 sft home). She's currently on oxygen 100% of the time and will be the rest of her life. She'd like to go back to work but needs a portable, lightweight oxygen tank. Unfortunately it appears insurance doesn't cover. She can't go back to work and try to get life back on track without this. Anyway you can help me/guide so I can help her get back on her feet?
So if her M60 only lasts 2 hrs (120 minutes) the small M6 would last 12 minutes and she would need 5 per hour, or 20 tanks in a four hour shift. It simply is not a practical solution.
Many employers are very willing to make any necessary accommodations to allow people with physical or medical problems to keep working as long as they can. Your mom is fortunate to have an employer who is holding her spot for her until she can return.
I would definitely follow the appeals process with the insurance company, make sure you have a doctor that's on her side and willing to support your efforts with letters of medical necessity and possibly teleconference with you during the appeal hearings. Once you get the oxygen issue resolved, maybe you can help Mom work on money management. That's something that's hard for many of us (myself included), but it's something we can work on and continually improve.
Best of luck to you. I commend and admire you for stepping up and being the one to help your mom and fight for what she needs. Please do let us know how this turns out for you both.
I recall that trying to get an oxygen thing for my Mom was impossible too, and she has probably needed one most of her life, with asthma and allergies and struggling along without one when it would have helped her a lot. I don't know why oxygen is more difficult to get than prescriptions. Yes, it is dangerous and more difficult to use but so what. If you need it, you learn, and if you can't, then you don't get one, but to not have the option makes no sense. I think you are stuck, I would try what has been recommended here just in case, but you might need to look into drugs that would help her breathe like a steroid, or whatever a doctor might recommend. Just be sure to go with her to the doctor as insurance that she is getting the right information and understanding it..... not to say your Mom isn't smart, just since I don't know you, you might want to just listen to what a doctor says about it, instead of relying on what she says when it might be very complicated. Good luck.
I hope that getting on oxygen full time gives your mother a new lease on life.
If you had explained about your mother's work history in your first post I think we would have avoided some skepticism. Generally it is very hard for the homeless to maintain employment. We probably made some understandable but erroneous assumptions.
I hope you'll stick around. We generally are a pretty supportive bunch when we understand a situation. I'd love to hear how the appeals go for your mother.
Whether or not she is able to go to work, if you can help her find safe and clean housing and other supports, that would be awesome. Take hera63's advice to heart, and go through an appeals process, if Mother's doctors are willing.
How old is your mother? Does she have other health issues? If she can't work or has only limited ability to work, consider helping her apply for disability help.
Good luck to you both.