[BeyondtheRainbow]

Last year I changed from a PO Box to a regular mailbox. I clearly remember calling my Medicaid caseworker (I'm on disability medicaid so they only pay if I meet my spenddown which requires serious medical needs in a given month--but a hospitalization rapidly reaches that point and I'm on the edge of that still) and leaving a message with my new address and a question. Her message said not to call again so I waited a month and tried again, that time not leaving my new address I don't think. She finally called me a month later, sort of answered my questions and then disappeared.

March 30 I got paperwork that was due March 20 because they sent it to my old PO Box. I called and left a message (can never talk to a caseworker) about what happened and that I'd send everything in immediately but obviously it was past the deadline since I didn't get it until then. So I spent hours gathering up the papers and mailed then I think 2 days later. The next day I got something that said I had to re-apply. So I started to do that. I was down to one question left (and if you've done this you know how much detail they require, it takes forever when you are not manic and sleepless) and logged out to finish the next day. The next day my re-application was simply gone. No records of it existed anywhere. I called my case manager and left a message on the 9th. That's when I got really sick and I didn't call her again as I should have but I also got a letter that said they'd received necessary documentation and everything I sent in was checked off so I assumed they were using that.

Now it suddenly is the day before my re-application deadline. I can't re-apply because that option disappeared from the webpage. I don't know if they are using the stuff I sent in to do the application. I have absolutely no idea what is going on except that I can't do anything to fix it until tomorrow when I will undoubtedly get voicemail yet again.

I've been waiting a year for an answer to a question I've left numerous times about how they track payments so that I know if I have to personally try to track my June surgical costs until my spenddown is met or if their computer does this. I'm probably getting close to having paid the spenddown amount but it is very confusing how it is set up so it's hard to keep track without being able to calmly and accurately sit down and compare July's bill to every bill since July and that's made even more complicated because Medicare has insisted that the claims are worker's comp although the worker's comp claim was for the other leg. Medicare has paid for anesthesia, the hospital, 5 months of PT, 4 casts, a boot and a brace, follow-up visits, but is still fighting about the surgery. Before care and after care is fine but actual surgery they fight. It makes no sense and makes billing really hard to follow.

And I can handle pretty much none of this. I need a caseworker to manage my caseworker. I know that they have very chaotic, busy jobs. I just wish one would return a call just once.

And that I could just be able to handle this without delaying until the deadline, something the not-bipolar me would never do.

I've got a big mess now. At worst I have to start from scratch but doing that right now would be so hard.

It feels so out of control when there isn't any explanation of what is happening with my very personal details submitted both online and via mail.

[cashart10]

I don't have any experience with this but I too have medicaid (just insurance) so I know what it's like to never get a call back. I am so sorry you are having to go through so many hoops and still not getting anything resolved. I hope they figure it out soon.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

If previous experience is a guide they won't figure anything out and I will have to do my best. My old county was much better. I don't completely understand as the poverty rate is the same if not a tad better here. And my old caseworker was kind of rude and uncaring but she's been replaced and so I thought surely that meant my caseworker would work with me.

I spent so long listening to patients and families talk about how frustrating it was and I knew how frustrating it was to submit paperwork and have them hold it 6-8 months and then return it to be done over. I went into Medicaid aware of what it is like and prepared to get frustrated at times. But nothing prepared me for the reality of nobody returning phone calls, which is just rude. I used to be so frustrated because they didn't have a clinician line where I could call with questions or to dispute a denial; now I realize they would never make themselves so vulnerable to humans.

I'm sorry, I'm very bitter about this tonight. Partly I'm frustrated that I didn't follow up like I should have and partly I'm frustrated that the few times I've needed something from them they have refused to help. And there is no way they are getting out of paying for that surgery last June, nor for hospitilzation if that happens now. I'll re-apply from scratch on the first and if that confuses the system then they should have called me back. (Even if they accepted everything as a re-application they should have called me for a phone interview to make sure I'm not hiding money under my mattress or off-shore... you know, the huge amounts I make from SSDI ).

Oh well. I guess at least I did get paperwork in and tried to re-apply and tried to find out what was going on when it didn't work. I tried. A little.

[Victoria'smom]

I have to always go in to get anything done.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

So this will sound stupid, but they actually SEE you if you go in? I figured if they don't answer the phone going in would involve being sent away immediately. I'll happily park my manic butt in their office all day tomorrow if that will get results (and I'm just agitated enough to make anyone nervous enough to get me out of there...if I don't take anything to do with my hands I start looking pretty odd pretty fast . )