Fighting For
I have some good news on the Medicaid-Medicare issue. Medicare still considers me dual eligibility so (so far) my prescription plan change went off without a hitch. I phoned in the change Thursday to be safest. It'll take 10 days (January 1 on) for the new prescription card to arrive so I put in early refills for the meds I could get away with. (The Nortriptyline I refilled too recently and I hope lasts long enough for the card to arrive.)
I found my way to Medicaid's conference unit in the city Wednesday, and after a lot of drama they claim my Medicaid will return Wednesday or Thursday and that all things will be covered retroactively. Though I was shaking and my head nearly exploded when they first claimed that I couldn't have Medicaid because I have Medicare and Medicaid was paying for my Medicare Savings Program. (This is right up there with Medicaid reps telling me in the March fair hearing that I couldn't be in the Medicare Savings Program because I was in Medicare.) I told her there was no one in the world who'd forsake Medicaid's prescription coverage and paying 40% of medical bills in favor of Medicaid paying off a premium that's just $96 a month. I pay fees monthly to put a few hundred dollars into a trust monthly for that? I mean, in the case of a particular specialist one visit would cost me $66 without Medicaid. I'd never be able to afford getting MRIs or going to the ER again. Eventually the supervisor came back and was all "Ohhh, I didn't know you were in a trust." Like I hadn't told them that several times just that visit and it wasn't already in the notes they have on my case.
The supervisor said to call her individual work phone number if my Medicaid wasn't turned back on by Thursday.
Even more amazing, Legal Aid, which had unceremoniously dumped me without explanation earlier in 2010, called me back on my panicked 12/21 phone message and said that if I didn't get my Medicaid active by Wednesday call her and she'll start agitating. I only left a message in a hope it would do me some good but expected nothing. It may have helped that I said the fair hearing on the Medicare Savings Program was one of the things Medicaid claimed was screwing up my renewal, which was the truth, and Legal Aid had set that up for me. Seriously, the current story is that someone in Medicaid saw that I had that fair hearing in March, made assumptions about what it was for, and kicked my renewal to a department that doesn't renew.
Yeah. Now I have to watch to see if January's income is missing the $96 Medicare premium or not. I get that payment in my account on the 3rd, before Wednesday. If the $96 is missing because Medicaid didn't pay it for me, that's something to bring up to my lawyer and the Medicaid conference unit.
Turns out that all my phone calls over two and a half weeks did nothing. It turns out those departments have nothing to do with renewals, and if they'd started anything at all the conference unit wouldn't be able to do anything for me(!) and I'd have to wait even longer.
I was having such panic attacks over all this, so... I'm glad I was finally given an address to go to and that some things are still working properly. I feel a little less nervous but know there's still the possibility of more screw-ups.
Seriously, when the supervisor gave me that initial line of nonsense I was shaking. I shook for nearly an hour.
How do some people manage to do Medicaid-Medicare fraud? Even people who actually deserve those services have to fight to get and keep it. They must have amazing lawyers for it.
Also, the city finally plowed Sunday's snow off my local roads. I finally got to go out for groceries Thursday. They did a craptastic job initially, and yesterday I needed my downstairs neighbors to help get my car out of the ruts made when I tried to park it in a new spot, but tonight they removed more snow. We still have a lot of snow left, and it's sloppy on the roads and in about 5 to 6 feet icy barriers in places where the snow was plowed aside and together.
Our mayor still has absolutely no idea why it took so many days to get plowed. So he claims. (He's the mayor. Shouldn't he have some idea?) At least he's no longer sarcastic about his citizen's complaints. We had two days of his sarcasm and basically calling us whiny babies.
He keeps doing a will-he-or-won't-he? routine about possibly running for president, so this show of incompetence and stupidity comes at a bad time for him. His ego is overdue for a good puncturing. The last NYC mayor who screwed up so badly on snow removal had his political career ruined by it. I can hope it holds true again.
I found my way to Medicaid's conference unit in the city Wednesday, and after a lot of drama they claim my Medicaid will return Wednesday or Thursday and that all things will be covered retroactively. Though I was shaking and my head nearly exploded when they first claimed that I couldn't have Medicaid because I have Medicare and Medicaid was paying for my Medicare Savings Program. (This is right up there with Medicaid reps telling me in the March fair hearing that I couldn't be in the Medicare Savings Program because I was in Medicare.) I told her there was no one in the world who'd forsake Medicaid's prescription coverage and paying 40% of medical bills in favor of Medicaid paying off a premium that's just $96 a month. I pay fees monthly to put a few hundred dollars into a trust monthly for that? I mean, in the case of a particular specialist one visit would cost me $66 without Medicaid. I'd never be able to afford getting MRIs or going to the ER again. Eventually the supervisor came back and was all "Ohhh, I didn't know you were in a trust." Like I hadn't told them that several times just that visit and it wasn't already in the notes they have on my case.
The supervisor said to call her individual work phone number if my Medicaid wasn't turned back on by Thursday.
Even more amazing, Legal Aid, which had unceremoniously dumped me without explanation earlier in 2010, called me back on my panicked 12/21 phone message and said that if I didn't get my Medicaid active by Wednesday call her and she'll start agitating. I only left a message in a hope it would do me some good but expected nothing. It may have helped that I said the fair hearing on the Medicare Savings Program was one of the things Medicaid claimed was screwing up my renewal, which was the truth, and Legal Aid had set that up for me. Seriously, the current story is that someone in Medicaid saw that I had that fair hearing in March, made assumptions about what it was for, and kicked my renewal to a department that doesn't renew.
Yeah. Now I have to watch to see if January's income is missing the $96 Medicare premium or not. I get that payment in my account on the 3rd, before Wednesday. If the $96 is missing because Medicaid didn't pay it for me, that's something to bring up to my lawyer and the Medicaid conference unit.
Turns out that all my phone calls over two and a half weeks did nothing. It turns out those departments have nothing to do with renewals, and if they'd started anything at all the conference unit wouldn't be able to do anything for me(!) and I'd have to wait even longer.
I was having such panic attacks over all this, so... I'm glad I was finally given an address to go to and that some things are still working properly. I feel a little less nervous but know there's still the possibility of more screw-ups.
Seriously, when the supervisor gave me that initial line of nonsense I was shaking. I shook for nearly an hour.
How do some people manage to do Medicaid-Medicare fraud? Even people who actually deserve those services have to fight to get and keep it. They must have amazing lawyers for it.
Also, the city finally plowed Sunday's snow off my local roads. I finally got to go out for groceries Thursday. They did a craptastic job initially, and yesterday I needed my downstairs neighbors to help get my car out of the ruts made when I tried to park it in a new spot, but tonight they removed more snow. We still have a lot of snow left, and it's sloppy on the roads and in about 5 to 6 feet icy barriers in places where the snow was plowed aside and together.
Our mayor still has absolutely no idea why it took so many days to get plowed. So he claims. (He's the mayor. Shouldn't he have some idea?) At least he's no longer sarcastic about his citizen's complaints. We had two days of his sarcasm and basically calling us whiny babies.
He keeps doing a will-he-or-won't-he? routine about possibly running for president, so this show of incompetence and stupidity comes at a bad time for him. His ego is overdue for a good puncturing. The last NYC mayor who screwed up so badly on snow removal had his political career ruined by it. I can hope it holds true again.