In the Thick of It and Sick of It

or...the nasty side of insurance, Medicare, and a tale of stolen money.

Oh yes, here we go...

This is not as much griping as it is relating a series of events. Y'all already know how annoyed I am!

So let me begin the second week of January. This is at a time when I didn't write down names, dates, or number of calls actually made. This is when we first found out that there was a screw-up 'somewhere' in the system that resulted in my mom's prescription drug coverage being denied. At that point, I thought it could be solved with a few phone calls. I was naive.

From that first call to her new drug insurance company to ask, "What's up with this?", here is the list of idiots (I'm sorry, is that too rude? Naw.) that I have spoken to, through Wednesday, February 27th.

At Alcatel-Lucent, the company that my dad retired from and which controlled the benefit plan, I have spoken to Vashawn 6 times. Oh, Vashawn, you never should have been so demeaning. You shouldn't have implied that I was lying. You shouldn't have spewed out the canned response, "I understand your frustration, ma'am", a half dozen times in a row. In response to your poor public relations attitude your boss will be receiving a letter from me as soon as this matter is settled. Trust me, it won't be good for you.

At Humana, the company my mom enrolled in, I've spoken to Jason and to Tina. They have tried their best but their hands are tied by Medicare.

At Medco, the company that will not appropriately disenroll my mom, I've spoken to Debra, Linon, Nosa, and Marquanei. They are very talented at passing the buck. I get a different story each time I call Medco. It's beginning to seem like the company enrolled my mother without authorization. Now they tell Medicare that they have resolved the issue with my mom. Problem, folks. THEY HAVEN'T!

And finally, Medicare. The government agency that is so screwed up they will believe anybody but the Medicare recipient. At Medicare I have spoken to Dwayne, Karen, Jessica, David, Jacqueline, Marcus, Alana, Kim, Pammy, and Timothy. Nearly every one of these individuals has told me that they have taken care of the problem and that within 48 hours I will receive a confirmation call. Hasn't happened. Three filed complaints, Pammy disconnected me and I shall never forgive her for having to redial and wait an extra 15 minutes for an available representative. Which brings me to the last, Timothy, who had the audacity to suggest that my mother try to reinstate Medco (who finally, incorrectly agreed to terminate her coverage 2/29/08, rather than retro-actively) and pay their premium for an additional year. Yes, the company that has been unbelievably incompetent.

I think not. And I told Timothy a definite NO. Timothy has now re-enrolled my mother in the Humana plan, effective today, March 1. I asked what would happen about the prescriptions paid through the temporary coverage of two weeks that Humana had provided assuming that all would be made retro-active. Timothy didn't know. I asked who should pay for the medicines that my mother had paid full price for in Feb. He said Medco. But, she didn't make any monthly insurance premium payments to them. He didn't know what would happen.

Strange that Medco would insist that they were her insurance plan yet they never billed her for the coverage. Strange that they would say that she enrolled on 12/12/07 when she was already on that plan. (She requested termination effective 12/31/07). Why would anyone enroll in a plan that they already belonged to?

This is more than screw-y. Next, we get to wait and see if she does indeed get the letter of acceptance and the membership card from Humana.

Now for me. I try very hard to give the benefit of the doubt. I also try very hard not to exactly identify, in public, individuals with whom I have a gripe. I'm very close to making an exception. I won't, but a few of you may know of whom I write.

At the close of November 2007, I phoned an order to a small company that I have done business with for probably 10 years. Obviously, I'd never had a problem. After the first few orders which the total costs were charged to my credit card, I changed to being billed upon shipment and I would pay immediately by check. When I say immediately, I mean the check is in the mail the next day. Really. So when I received the shipment I knew the bill would be enclosed. When I opened the box and examined the merchandise, I was astounded to find that it was defective. I put the merchandise back in it's original box along with the bill, wrote a note explaining why I had returned it, and shipped it back. A couple days later the company owner called me to apologize for the defective cloth (pinholes in a bellows cloth that should be airtight). He had no other stock to send as a replacement. I thought that was the end of the tale.

Until I looked at my credit card bill that arrived two weeks later! He had charged the amount for the cloth to my credit card without my permission! (Had the cloth been usable I would have sent payment...I would have double paid.) Since it is hard to actually catch him 'in', I decided to send an email stating that I was dismayed that he charged my card without permission, and since the merchandise had been returned, to please remove the charge from my card. I heard nothing back. I waited. My January credit card bill arrived and the amount had not been removed. I called the credit card company.

Yeah, more phone calling. Their representative said to give the supplier a call and ask one more time. I called and got voice mail. I left a detailed message. I never heard back. A few days before my February bill was due to arrive, I called the credit card company to see if the charge had been removed.

Nope. So, the credit card company has temporarily removed the charge and filed a dispute with the company. They give them up to 65 days to respond. In the meantime, I have heard that another piano tech has been unable to reach this guy. I wonder how much money he's holding on to that isn't his?

And now for the good news...
I've almost finished doing all our income tax returns. A total of 21 pages!