Overwhelmed, For the Moment

I have worked very hard to avoid the feeling that I am overwhelmed, but this weekend it hit me between my eyes like a ton of bricks. I am only able to deal with so much, and, it seems, I have reached my limit.

I cannot deal with the long emails from Personal Care Attendants (who are calling themselves, personal care providers, in Wisconsin). I now understand Minneapolis' ex-crazy superintendent who asked that everything be sent to her in bullets. PLEASE send me bullets. You may want to become a writer of the next great American novel, but please, do not do this at my (or Jane's) expense.

I am so done with Dennis' PCAs not turning up on time, or simply not turning up. Actually, the same goes for Mother's attendants.

There are drugs coming to mom, that the insurance company let me know about, but they did not tell me whose drugs were being mailed.

There is always dinner....shit, I am writing this before making dinner. Be back in a jiff, folks.

Okay, slow down, Ann. Dinner will be asparagus, already purchased and ready to steam, and sea fish, of some kind, ready for lemon induced oil and a bit of garlic. Things are not so bad.

I am surprised that life has caught up with me. But it has. And there it is. I am exhausted, and do not have a whole lot to spare.

Such a Sweetie

Dennis visited with Jean, the nurse practitioner who works with Dr. Nance, today. He hasn't told me much about the visit, but he brought home a copy of a letter she wrote to his insurance company on his behalf.

She, like everyone else he encounters, noted his upbeat attitude and contagious smile. I love his goofy laugh and very peculiar sense of humor even more. Most of all, I love that he can still make me laugh.

Dennis has so many wonderful attributes that are getting lost in the mire of this awful disease. At least his humor, his enjoyment of life, has not disappeared. For that, I feel very lucky.

A Good Sunday

Happy Easter. In Minneapolis, it is a beautiful spring day. The temp is running in the upper 50's and the sun is shinning. I have two lamb shanks in the oven filling the condo with great smells. Perfection.

This is the last day of my spring break. I accomplished almost everything on my list. My taxes are done, and I get a small rebate. The insurance problems might actually be fixed, finally (keeping my fingers crossed) and there are only 8 or 9 weeks left of this school year.

Dennis has his nurse and PT visits set up for the upcoming week, and he is scheduled for another class at Pathways. He has recovered from his last hospital stay and is in pretty good spirits.

This is going to be a wonderful spring.

Ann and Dennis

Taking A Turn?

I talked with Cigna, sigh, once again, today. The lady was nice, and tried to clear up several of the unpaid bills Dennis has accrued over the past year. She was trying to figure out why he needed a primary physician while receiving care at an HMO in Wisconsin. I didn't have the energy to confuse the poor gal. Just get the bills paid and move on, is my latest thinking.

I know the people who help me the most are not paid very well. I know the people that stand in the way of happiness are overpaid, and bonused to boot. I don't understand history well enough to know if this is precisely what our founding fathers wanted for our country. I hope not.

Dennis' PT was here, again, today. She helped us understand getting in and out of bed, and it seems we have been doing the right thing. She worked him for 60 minutes, weights, exercises and walking the halls. I like what I am seeing, and Dennis seems happy with what he is receiving from the RN and PT.

Maybe life is slowing down right now. Maybe solutions are in abundance and problems are in reduction.

Getting Attention

Last night, after cleaning up the latest insurance fiasco, I went online to see what blogs were out there regarding ADP (Automated Data Processing). There were quite a few blogs relating to the stock market and ADP. I took the opportunity to leave a comment on several, regarding the inefficiency of the company.

I also found a site where ADP was recruiting new clients. I filled out a form, with the company name, Ann Is Not Happy, asking for help. I was hoping to capture some one's attention.

Voila! This morning a woman from ADP called me, letting me know she would be my personal contact at ADP. She took all of the latest information, and did one tiny thing that showed me promise. She did NOT point a finger at anyone but ADP.

Tonight, I shall do the same for Cigna.

No Wonder I Am a Cynic

Yesterday, Dennis went to visit his family doctor. Dr. Keifer is the one who Cigna denied as a family practitioner, and held up a few of the insurance claims. I asked him about his credentials, and he told me he has been, always and only, a general practitioner. He has no ENT interest, let alone specialty. Should I call Cigna and let them know?

No.

Today, I went to the pharmacy to pick up one of Dennis' meds. His insurance refused to pay, because his coverage had been terminated.

I wish I could say nice words, but none come to mind.

So I came home, called Cigna, who told me I had to call Medco (his drug coverage), who told me I had to call ADP (where he sends his Cobra payments). I spent the next hour and a half on the phone, once more, talking pleasantly to people who try hard, but aren't able to accomplish much of anything.

I asked the guy, who happened to answer the phone at Cigna, how many calls had been placed on Dennis' behalf since January 1, 2009. Over 75 calls, most of them from one of us, have been generated to fix Dennis' insurance problems. This does not take into consideration the calls to ADP or his drug provider.

No wonder we have been sleeping so much during my spring break.

An Insurance Related Phone Call

You are so lucky if you have never had to make one of these phone calls. Being put on hold is the least of the worries. Here is what I have learned, and maybe someday this information will help you. I hope you never need to do this.

• Dial the number and pray that automated questioning and answering is not the beginning of the sequence.
  
• Skip the above sentence, because you will never again hear an actual person answer a telephone when you call an insurance related company. Sorry to have even put the thought out there.
• As soon as you get a message, push zero. You probably will hear that this is not an appropriate response, but do it anyway. At some point, pushing zero, will get you set up with an actual person. Whether, or not, that person speaks your native language, or not, is a crap shoot.
• When you are required to talk to a phone system, talk slowly and clearly, enunciating every single letter and syllable. Do not, under any circumstances, get cocky and start answering the question before, or while it is being asked. You will only be sent back to Go. Trust me, oh smart alack Ann, I know.
• Push zero once again. At the very least, it may give you a sense of power over technology.
  
• When you do finally get transferred to a holding tank, find something else to occupy your mind for a while, but do not put down the telephone or remove the blue tooth. If you miss the pick-up on the other end, you will be cut off. You will need to start over one more time. By the way, by now they have taken up at least 30 minutes of your life.
• Someone will answer, most likely with a slight Indian accent. This is fine if all you need is the information that shows up on a computer screen. It is not okay if you have an actual question. If you need further assistance, ask to talk to a supervisor in the US. This is the last time that you will talk to someone friendly, by the way. So if it is at all possible to get your problem solved in India, go for it.
• Once you are speaking to someone in the US, always get the full name, the city and state and a call back number before you begin any business.
  
• Write down the following information and read it to the person who answers. I encourage you to to follow this step closely. After you have been asked to repeat these details for the 3rd or 4th time, you will either become frustrated and get snappy (my style) or get flabbergasted and get sloppy.

1. name
2. social security number
3. account number and group number
   
4. birth date
5. address, complete with zip

• If you are calling on someone else's behalf, be prepared to hand the phone to that person to repeat all of the "security measure" questions. Evidently, these phone call bank people can tell one person from another by simply answering these questions. Often I simply disguise my voice and repeat the above information. Sometimes they don't believe me, but usually, if I am being nice, they will let it go. If I am snippy, even one tiny iota, they will however refuse to talk with me.
  

That's enough for today. I have so much more, however, and am willing, able and ready to share it all with you, oh lucky readers.

Ann and Dennis

He's Home

I have not developed a habit of reading my daily horoscope and I have very few feelings about their value one way or the other. But I do find them at times amusing while at other times eerily accurate. They also seem to appear in almost any type of written material that one finds at a hospital. And where have I been biding my time lately?

Today, one of the horoscopes I ran across seemed to be talking to me about the struggle with insurance that we ran into, once again, today. Let's see what you think:

Your ability to be clever under pressure might just save the day for you, but you'll need to carefully watch every step you take today so you don't make a critical mistake. Taskmaster Saturn forms an irritating quincunx to your key planet Mercury now, indicating your inability to solve a problem once and for all. Instead, you'll need to keep coming back at it from a different angle, again and again. It's not that your strategy is ineffectual; it's just that things are more complex than they seem.

I don't understand the planet stuff, but the rest fits perfectly.

Here is a synopsis of today's insurance woes.

In order for Dennis to go home today, the hospital staff wanted one of three things to happen. One, a short term nursing home stay, which neither of us want to have happen again. Two, a short term stay at the hospital, with 3 hours a day of therapy, which the doctor seemed to think would not be a good fit for Dennis. Or three, a PT, OT and nurse to visit Dennis at the house for 30 minutes a day. We needed to agree to one option yesterday.

We were both open to the second and third option, with our preference being the home visits. The hospital social worker told us she would check the insurance and arrange for home visits for Dennis. Since the issue of being covered by an HMO in one state over had been fixed after two months of frustration, we did not anticipate a problem.

Today, she came to us and told us the insurance did indeed cover this option, and she had set us up with the in-house service, but that we had not made his monthly premium payment.

If you know Dennis at all, you know this is the last thing that he would let happen. He not only makes these payment on time, he pays them two months ahead of time.

So I get on the phone, all fired up and more than a bit ticked off. I called Medco, his insurance company, who told me that he was still considered an active member. But, since the did not take the payments, they could not guarantee that they had been made. This took two separate calls, by the way.***

Next, I call the payment collection company, ADP, and talk to a very nice lady in India, who of course cannot help me. I ask to speak to JoAnn, who has helped me, inefficiently, but finally effectively, in the past. She does not answer. I ask for her voice mail. India does not know that. So I ask for a different supervisor.

On hold. Bad music. On hold. Music gets worse. On hold.....

Finally, Harry from Detroit, answers. I go through my story again. We get disconnected.

I call again. Yes, we have made the payment and are up to date. They haven't let Medco know, yet, for some reason. It's only the 3rd of the month, he says. He says he will help me, but from past experience, I know that he is simply placating me, and has no intention of following through with promises give.

I call Medco again and explain the story, only to get disconnected once again.

I call again, and am now beginning my second hour of trying to straighten out something that should not need fixing in the first place.

To make a incredibly long, boring, and stressful story short, Dennis will receive the care he is entitled to, and ADP finally let Medco know that he is paid up in full.

But, unfortunately, as my horoscope suggests, this battle is not finished. But as Dennis' job is to fight Parkinson's, my job must be to fight for his rights.

Why does anyone have to fight so hard?

Ann and Dennis

***I will explain the process of each phone call at a later date.



I

Score, Times Two

Oh, my, it's been a very long time since I posted. I am sure that all of my faithful readers have left me! Perhaps I should Twitter instead of blog. I suppose I could get a sentence out each day. Or, maybe I should just work a bit harder at what I have already started.

Actually, I have always been a gal that gets bored easily. I dabble in this, and then I dabble in that. I tend to think of myself as a connoisseur of many interests, but a master of very few. Maybe I have a touch of attention deficit disorder. I will have to look this up in the DSM IV and self-diagnosis myself. Someday, when I have nothing better to do with life.

In the meantime, we have had a few wins. We received notice from Dennis' insurance company that they will cover an initial visit with the movement disorder specialist from Mayo. Score! We also have finally convinced the insurance company that having an HMO from Wisconsin cover him is not acceptable, since we live in Minnesota. Score, 2!

We are lucky. We have the resources to get what we need. We are educated, resilient and resourceful. No one should have to fight this hard to receive what is rightfully coming to them. Yet, we do.

Obama, fix this! Please!

Until later,
Ann and Dennis

We Are Not Happy

I try very hard, these days, not to get angry. I am suppose to be mature, at 56, and I am suppose to have learned to control my temper. I am also suppose to be a role model for the children that I work with. In addition, I am suppose to have learned something about the advantages of control and assertiveness, over aggressiveness and being overtly pissed off.

Most days, I win at this game. Some days, I do not do as well. When I am tired of a fight, or I find no sense in a particular stance, I do not do as well as I wish I could. I don't feel too guilty; I am sure most of us have a particular weakness that does us more harm than good.

But I am sick and tired of this insurance business. I imagine that a big part of the problem is that I do not understand the rules. I barely understand simple insurance, let alone, the complications of a Cobra account. I really am not looking forward to Medicare or Medicaid, whatever it is that Dennis deals with next.

This is not right. We throw good money at insurance. We expect our insurance companies to protect us, not fight us. Maybe the whole idea of insurance has become a joke. I, as a consumer, could not argue that insurance has been our friend.

I know that I am naive about matters of making money. Money has never been my number one priority. But I am not stupid, either. I do not like being taken advantage of, as a consumer, and I will fight back when I feel that I am.

And I must quit now, before I say something that I will regret for a long time. And there is something rather sad about that statement, too, isn't there?

Until later,
Ann and Dennis
being screwed by big companies with big money

Odds and Ends

Dennis finally heard from Mayo regarding his last heart test. He failed, again. Now we know for sure that he does not have Shy-Drager.

Dennis' insurance is more messed up than we thought. Nothing is being covered right now, and one customer representative told me that he only has coverage from an HMO in Wisconsin. Huh? Another mess to sort out.

Dr. Kimpinski, at the Mayo, is trying to find help for Dennis to see a movement disorder specialist in Rochester. Perhaps if this insurance issue gets straightened out, he might still get the help he deserves.

Dennis showed me why he believes he has about 2 or 3 years to live. On all of the Parkinson's scale, it appears he is moving into the final stage of any movement disorder disease. Well, I already knew that, but haven't wanted to admit it to myself.

Justina, Dennis' Thursday and Friday PCA, is working out fine. Dennis enjoys her, she works hard and is nice to Dennis. For the first time in a while, I have been feeling better about going to work daily.

We were lucky enough to receive a few inches of snow just in time for my winter carnival event at school. Whew....I was getting a bit worried.

Have a great week ahead.
Until later,
Ann and Dennis