I became aware of the Jaco robotic arm by Kinova when I was much younger and it was still in the trial phase. I saw demos at MDA summer camp and a technology conference over the following years. The robotic arm is a nifty device that mounts on the side of the wheelchair and is controlled by your existing joystick. It can help with everything from opening doors and pushing crosswalk buttons, to eating and drinking. You can even use it to cook!

Of course to someone who has limited ability, the robotic arm would be a very valuable piece of equipment. I tried to get in on the original trial but was not accepted. It’s a very expensive piece of equipment at around $50k. A price I could never pay myself. The process of getting it stalled out until this year. A little before my birthday I got to demo it with a Kinova representative and a Kaiser hospital physical therapist. I had messaged Kinova my interest earlier and they had practically rolled out the red carpet for me. A representative had been flown in just to attend my appointment. I got to use it and it greatly impressed the physical therapist. I had a request sent to my doctor for the arm within an hour. I left the appointment happy and hopeful.

That is where the problems started.

There was absolute silence for a couple months. The Kinova representative eventually heard that a denial letter was submitted over a month prior. A letter we never received. My mother then spent over three hours on the phone with Kaiser. The first thing we learned was the letter was supposedly written by member services instead of DME which is unusual. I say supposedly since there is no record of the letter being written. There is no record of it leaving the office or who even wrote it. No copy of it either. It’s like it was just wiped from existence.

Mom opened a grievance case against member services for me. To continue I had to sign a document giving mom permission to act for me. I received the document on a Friday and signed it. It went out in the mail on the following Monday. The grievance case was closed by Kaiser because the document was apparently not received in time. I am left stuck in a frustrating limbo. All of this because I want a little personal independence.

This doesn’t mean I’m giving up. I really want this equipment. Ever since I had to stop my disability medicine, I have been losing function at a disturbing pace. I might even end up in a physical state pretty much paralyzed sooner or later. I really need something to compensate for this loss. This equipment could be that answer.

TLDR: insurance sucks