Success At Last

Success at Last
Yesterday was chemo day—actually that would be two days ago since it is 2 AM as I write this. Thursday was a very successful day. Josh and I were out of the house on time for a change, and I even had time to shower, wash and style my hair and put makeup on before we left. We stopped at VITA Administration in Mountain View to drop off my first COBRA check so that the pharmacy portion would be reinstated prior to my chemotherapy appointment. Thanks to help from Laura Gothic in human resources, the cancellation of my health insurance was reversed within 48 hours of my phone call to the benefits office. I arrived a bit early to the ITA (infusion treatment area) to have my blood drawn and then met with Bea Bravo, my oncology social worker, who is helping with the rest of my benefits that have been cancelled. We went over my list of questions for the benefits office. When I tried to ask my questions prior to the time my benefits were due to be cancelled, I was told I would have to submit any questions in writing first and the benefits office would then respond to my list of questions. They did not promise to answer the questions, just to respond to the list. Bea suggested she review the list first to be sure I did not omit any areas that might be important or come up later. We were just getting around to doing that because of time constraints and the fact that I have felt so rotten the past couple of weeks. I took notes on her comments and revised the list. I called Laura on Friday to verify her email address so I could send her the list of questions. She told me a benefits specialist named Monique had been assigned to me and that I should submit the questions to her. Monique was to call me on Friday or Monday. I emphasized to Laura that the clock is running on converting my supplemental life insurance. I know that my portion of the premium is $91.77 per month, but I will have to pick up the Stanford portion of the premium as well. I do not know what that amount is.
On Friday, I received an acknowledgement in the mail of the check I dropped off on Thursday and enclosing 18 envelopes and payment coupons for my 18 months of COBRA coverage. By the end of that time, I should be eligible for Medicare. The ominous cover letter contains several warnings: the premium can be changed at any time and VITA may not notify me in time to change the amount of my monthly payment; that if I am late in a payment my COBRA will be cancelled permanently and nothing can be done to reinstate it; and payments are due on the first of the month. I am paying $617/month for my health and dental insurance. That is 7404/year. It seems like quite a lot, but the expense of not having insurance is far worse. I will have to be very good at budgeting things, but I think this can be done.
Also on Friday, I received my first social security check. There was no explanation of the benefit amount and I was told by the paralegal at the disability law firm that I was approved for $2012/month. This check was for $1500 so we are guessing the law firm got their 25% of the first check fee. They did absolutely nothing to deserve this fee as I ended up doing all the work. This included calling them all the time to ask what they had done. All of my requests for a written documentation of the work done were ignored. They promised to send it and never did. This included my most recent request for documentation of work performed by any member of their law firm. I tried to file a complaint with the state bar association, but was told I do not even have enough information to do this as I was always passed off to a paralegal and never spoke to any attorney in the firm. The bar associate I spoke to insisted there had to be a lawyer working on my case because it is illegal for a paralegal to handle the case alone. If there was an attorney, I never had his/her name, never spoke to him/her on the phone, and never received any correspondence signed by anyone other than a paralegal. In addition, this firm of 60 attorneys has only one fax line so it was impossible to send a fax during normal business hours. This seems like malpractice to me. To tell a client to fax something to you without mentioning that you will likely get a busy signal for hours, is at the very least extremely rude. Add to it the fact that your entire client list consists of people who are permanently disabled and may not be physically capable of staying next to a fax machine for hours just to hit the redial key every time amounts to intentional infliction of physical and emotional distress. Josh feels I should just let it go. The firm got $500, which he feels, is a lot less than they expected. We also felt the first check was going to be larger since we applied for benefits in August 2008. Evidently, there is a 5-month waiting period to receive benefits. My first check is for the month of March. Social Security deducts the amount of my state disability from the federal award until the end of 12 months, at which time my state disability benefits end.
Finally, Friday’s mail brought the great news that my insurance company has approved the $30,000 statement I received from Stanford for payment. That was when I did not know Stanford cancelled my health insurance and I went into the ITA for a blood transfusion, fluids, anti-nausea meds and electrolyte replacements.
One more thing that could be considered a plus for a day of mail---I did not receive any bills to be paid! There was cute card from the Toolbox team with individual notes enclosed from everyone who attended the meeting. I wish I was well enough to travel to San Antonio for the meeting, but I am now trying to get strong enough to travel to Gabby’s opera and then NJ and San Antonio. Tina told me yesterday that she is going to come to San Antonio with Josh and me. She cannot stay the entire time we are in San Antonio but she can help with the flight there and help take care of me, which will give Josh more time to do his schoolwork. Also found out the hotel where we are staying has a spa and if my platelet count is high enough, I want to have a massage while we are there.