E Broadway Ave — Reported Hillsborough County Story Location
Sawyer Stuart is 11 years old, has autism and significant developmental disabilities, and sleeps in a trampoline his family converted into a makeshift bed. His mother, Kelli Stuart, says it is no longer safe as he gets bigger, and she has spent more than 18 months trying to get Florida Medicaid to cover an enclosed Cubby safety bed that his own doctors say he needs.
A Case Dismissed Over a Missing Accessory
Stuart, who lives in the Tampa Bay area, has appealed Medicaid’s denials of the specialized bed for a year and a half, according to Tampa Bay 28. She recently attended a fair hearing, described as the final step in the appeal process, where officials dismissed her case after determining that a different bed had been requested and that they no longer had jurisdiction. Stuart says the bed itself had not changed — only additional accessories had been removed to bring the cost down, making it cheaper but still, in her view, the same request.
Hearing officials gave her one week to prove the requested bed was the same one under review, the station reports. Stuart says the most recent denial claimed she had not proven that lower-level options could not meet Sawyer’s needs, and those listed options included reverse locks on bedroom doors. She says she will not lock her son in his bedroom, calling that approach unethical and unsafe, and she fears he could suffocate without an enclosed, monitored bed designed for children like him.
Five Providers, Three Denials
According to the station’s report, the Children’s Medical Services Health Plan, operated by Sunshine Health, has denied Stuart’s Cubby Bed request three times. She presented letters from five types of providers backing the bed as medically necessary — a developmental pediatrician, primary care physician, neurologist, occupational therapist, and behavioral therapist, per the same account. Stuart says Sawyer wakes during the night in distress and has banged his head on the floor, a detail she has raised as she has fought for her son for eight years…