Medicaid backlog fallout continues: Cary family left waiting nearly a year for Medicaid approval
CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Medicaid backlog first began in the summer of 2013, and we are still hearing from families who have been affected.
The Williams' kids are happy kids, but kids who have been impacted by Wake County's Medicaid backlog.
"Of course nobody answers the phone, I haven't received any email response from anyone," Mariel Williams said.
Williams said Medicaid has always covered her kids, but when she reapplied last March, she met many obstacles.
"So I thought, 'OK, everything is going to be fast like always, one month, two months, you know,'" she said.
But two months turned into months and months of waiting.
"They haven't had checkups, vaccines, or all the stuff they have to have," Williams said.
Williams continued to call, email, and go to the Wake County Social Services office to find out why her kids weren't covered, but said she got no answers.
"I just want something fair for my kids," she said.
She finally thought it was solved when she got one of her son's Medicaid cards in the mail, but when she called the doctor to make an appointment something was still wrong.
"It's not active," she said.
After more than 10 months of waiting, and no coverage, Williams was fed up.
"I asked Diane for help. I need help, I need help," Williams said.
We got in touch with Wake County Social Services and a rep confirmed her children were part of the Medicaid backlog.
A social worker reached out to Williams, and her three kids now have the coverage they've been waiting on for nearly a year.
A rep with Wake County said they've made a lot of progress on backlogged cases but are not completely caught up yet.
She added that they're aggressively bringing on new staff and training them and look forward to making even more progress this year.
