Finally, finally, finally, finally...

Congratulations, Werewoman!!! That is just awesome!! What a relief!

Are saying people should argue their own cases before a judge?

No. Hire an attorney to argue your case for you. If you apply on your own, you can miss important stuff that you were not aware was necessary.

If you are denied, which is highly likely, you have to do an appeal. I swear they have a rubber stamp that says "Denied". I was denied four times. The second time I appealed and that was also denied. Finally after literally years of fighting this battle, I hired an attorney. If you go that route, their fee is paid out of any back payments you're owed. In my case, because it took sooooo long, I'm getting about $47,000, but they took out $6000 to pay the attorney. The case is argued by the attorney, though I sat next to him. If you apply and are adjudicated disabled the first time around - I've heard it does happen - that's all you do.

There's one huge problem, so I found out, that no one warned me about, I had to go on Medicare. If you don't have health insurance, that's fantastic. If you do - I get it through my husband's work - you're screwed. Medicare is now my primary insurance carrier, and my old insurance is secondary.

I go once a month for a ketamine infusion booster. The cash price for a treatment is $500. I was paying $150 and my husband's insurance paid the rest. We could barely afford that, but the treatment has been very successful.
So, last week I arrived for my booster and handed them my Medicare card. Poor Kaitlyn, she just looked at me sadly and told me they don't take Medicare. I was like, oh that's fine, I still have my old insurance too. She was like, I doubt it but we'll try.

Guess what? Now NO ONE is paying for it. My old insurance won't because they expect Medicare to cover it. There aren't any ketamine clinics in my area (all two of them. &#128580 that take Medicare. The clinic has taken pity on me and said I could do it for $250 instead of $500. It's now paid for out of my disability checks, so I can afford it. I only get $1150 a month, though, and I'm pretty sure none of my providers take Medicare, soooooo now all of my disability is going for medical bills. I'm actually worse off than I was before. I could change a few of them to another doctor or therapist, but I have a TEAM of them and I've been seeing most of them for over a decade. How do I let go of that?

Did you get a medicare gap plan?

I don't know what that is.

All I know is that I was sent a Medicare card in the mail about the time I received my first payment.
Then I was told that medicare would be my primary carrier and my insurance from hubby's work is secondary. It only works if I use a Medicare provider, but there's no ketamine clinic near me that takes it.

Silly me, I thought that the secondary insurance would cover whatever medicare didn't, but it doesn't work that way. If medicare won't cover it, they won't either even though they've been paying for it since last December. Idk. That's just the way my life has been. If it can go wrong, it does, or if there's a way to eff it up, I'll find it. I no longer expect anything from anyone, that's good, that is. It just doesn't ever work for me. I know life isn't fair. I don't expect it to be, but geez Louise can I catch a break once in a while.? Just once, please.