Just a very brief update…..
I am taking my cell phone with me absolutely EVERYWHERE. I am NOT going to miss the call again from the Medicare independent contractor, CMS. Because, as you know, if you miss the call, you can NEVER talk to anyone. Out of sheer exhaustion one afternoon this week, I go to lie down, just for 20 minutes or so, and put that cell phone under my pillow…like shotgun….I am NOT going to even think about RESTING without that ordnance by my side.
Lo and behold, that cell phone vibrates under my head like a 25 cent bed in a cheap motel. Of course, I’m in a dead-to-the-world sleep, but, as a caregiver, I am so committed to alertness that any signal of distress, alarm, help, or hunger has me jumping up like a thoroughbred at a starting gate.
“Hello? Hello?” I’m yelling into the phone like it’s a crank phone with a party line.
“Hello. may I speak to Cathy?” says the other line.
“Yes, this is me,”I say.
“This is Rebecca at CMS, the independent contractor for Medicare Appeals!” (you may wonder why I always put that in italics. It is because they use that phrase like it is a papal dispensation for everything that is about to follow)
So I carefully and slowly and without rancor(really I try as hard as I can to keep under control, “more flies with honey than with vinegar” theory) explain to Rebecca that I have sent them the necessary documents for my AUTHORITY for this appeal, three times.
( n.b.(which means ‘note well’) they readily admit they have all the documents for the ACTUAL appeal, they just claim to not possess the documents needed for ME to appeal. And you wonder why caregivers sometimes pretend to be 96 year-old men just to get something accomplished. I digress……)
To her credit, Rebecca stays on the line with me for 10 minutes or so and by listening to me as I document every date and page I have sent them, and looking, really looking: EUREKA! She finds ‘my authority’!
“Ok, she says,” now I have to see if it was filed in a timely manner.”
Since I KNOW it was filed in a timely manner, I just sit on the other end of the phone with steam coming out of my ears waiting for her to confirm that.
As we wrap it up, she tells me:
“Okay you will get a confirming letter re-opening this appeal from it’s dismissal in about 2 to 3 weeks. Then we will review the appeal and send a notice of our decision.”
“So, just so I understand, since I have to report this to the collection agency,” I say through clenched teeth,”you will let me know you FOUND the paper work I’ve sent you three times and THEN weeks or months from now you will let me know your decision on the appeal?”
“Yes, ma’am, that’s correct.”
“Thanks, Rebecca,”I say as I reach for the Pinot Grigio and go back to bed.
You just have to laugh……..
Cathy Sikorski