The Run Run Runaround
So Medicare told me in a letter that I'm denied the Medicare Savings Program because I am "active in another case." Yeah, another case where they lost my paperwork and told me to resubmit it, which is what I did. The letter came Saturday. I always get crap like this Friday night or Saturday afternoon, when there's nobody in an office I can call to start dealing with it. So I left a voice message for Legal Aid Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday and faxed a copy of the letter Wednesday while waiting for a response from them.
My Legal Aid lawyer called me at 4 p.m. today, unfortunately when I was napping and thus was too groggy to really question WTF when she told me Legal Aid can't help me any further in this. But, hey, I'm articulate and surely I can handle requesting for a fair hearing myself and representing myself in it! In my experience, whenever a lawyer, doctor, or the government tells a disabled person that they're "articulate" it's right before they belittle your problems and toss you into the deep end of the pool. I remember being so stressed out and terrified in the last fair hearing that I could barely speak. Legal Aid managed to rush groggy me off the phone before I really had a chance to look at the letter and see that even though it mentions an "insert" instructing how to request a fair hearing, that insert doesn't actually exist in the envelope. I left a voice message for them about this but doubt Legal Aid will call back.
I dug through my massive pile of old paperwork and found a telephone number to request a hearing with. After being on hold for 45 minutes, I gave up around 5:20 figuring they were closed now. I went online to fill out a fair request hearing form but after giving me a load of bs about filling things out wrong, I got a server error twice that stopped me from submitting. I'll try again tomorrow. I get to try to submit an application for a fair hearing during a week when offices will constantly be closed.
My Legal Aid lawyer called me at 4 p.m. today, unfortunately when I was napping and thus was too groggy to really question WTF when she told me Legal Aid can't help me any further in this. But, hey, I'm articulate and surely I can handle requesting for a fair hearing myself and representing myself in it! In my experience, whenever a lawyer, doctor, or the government tells a disabled person that they're "articulate" it's right before they belittle your problems and toss you into the deep end of the pool. I remember being so stressed out and terrified in the last fair hearing that I could barely speak. Legal Aid managed to rush groggy me off the phone before I really had a chance to look at the letter and see that even though it mentions an "insert" instructing how to request a fair hearing, that insert doesn't actually exist in the envelope. I left a voice message for them about this but doubt Legal Aid will call back.
I dug through my massive pile of old paperwork and found a telephone number to request a hearing with. After being on hold for 45 minutes, I gave up around 5:20 figuring they were closed now. I went online to fill out a fair request hearing form but after giving me a load of bs about filling things out wrong, I got a server error twice that stopped me from submitting. I'll try again tomorrow. I get to try to submit an application for a fair hearing during a week when offices will constantly be closed.