In addition to having the oxygen cylinder delivery this morning that was rescheduled from yesterday, we also had our food stamp phone interview. The interview was necessary because our six month eligibility period expired in the middle of last month. We didn't get the paperwork for weeks after it was sent and it finally did arrive while she was in the hospital. Once she was home we completed it and sent it back.
Of course with the delay in the mail as well as the additional couple of days delay on our end it meant that we didn't receive our food stamps this month as scheduled. We expected that. We didn't expect the new wrinkles with the program, but, I guess we should have.
The interview took over an hour and
really did a number on Sandi. She was in bad shape when it was over so she needed a nap for a bit before she could tell me what she had understood from the interview.
Apparently, while it appears we do still qualify, our level of assistance will now be cut nearly in half by $180. Furthermore, we will get not assistance at all until we again supply all copies of all the medical billings, tests, procedure paperwork, insurance claims, etc going back to the first of the year. Not only did they not keep what we
already supplied earlier this year, they no longer will contact the hospitals, the National
Transplant Registry folks, doctors, or anyone medically involved with her directly to obtain the
records. We have to supply everything we have so that THEN they can
initiate contact with the medical folks to verify her medical situation and the accuracy of the bills.
Between us submitting and them verifying her health status this could take weeks. In the meantime we will get nothing for this month and going forward until all this verification is done.
After all that we both were pretty worn out. Karl was off on a date today so I drove my car across the complex to get the mail. One has to get out of the car to access the mail boxes in this complex as we don't have drive through capability like in some places. Unfortunately, gravity won at one point while I was trying to get the mail and I fell hard on the ground next to the boxes. I managed to not break anything, but it hurt really bad. One of these times I am not going to be so lucky and stuff is going to be broken.
So, that is where we stand on things at this point.....
It's a horror what they are putting people through. I am convinced it is designed to make us give up and go away. But you must keep going and, if my encouragement means anything at all to you, here it is.
ReplyDeleteYour wife can request to have you speak for her. Steve did that for me when I was applying for SSDI. I did not have to relinquish legal responsibility/authority to him. I only had to state, over the phone, to the SSDI rep that I needed him to do the actual speaking for me at my direction. It was very easy. He still had to go through it, but when I was in a lot of pain and unable to sit still for more than a minute or two at a time, I was at least able to rest.
You won't believe what my captcha is— agerfu
I don't know if the state food stamp folks would have allowed me to do that, Reine. A lot of questions were asked about her time at Mayo too for some reason.
ReplyDeleteYes, especially if there were questions you might not have enough knowledge of to answer for her. But anyone with a disability, and disabling illness is a disability, has the right to a personal care assistant (PCA) who could be you or any other designee. Just today I gave my verbal agreement, over the phone, to have my financial advisor speak for me on certain specified financial topics with my former employer and those companies where my retirement funds are invested. Just saying—if it's easier for her…
ReplyDeleteWell, we don't have that to deal with. lol
ReplyDeleteI just got lucky, Kevin, with my employer's long-term disability plan. But the SSDI and other government agencies are the same. Our medical expenses have been exceedingly high, as have our children's. I found a financial advisor to help me recoup the money that I have earned, and he is helping me do that. It doesn't matter how little or how much you have, because there's somebody waiting to deny what is rightfully yours or to take it away from you.
ReplyDeleteVery true.
ReplyDelete