'No amount of Patreon or Ko-Fi help is going to fix this' or: I got the letter from Medicaid today... · 10:41pm Sep 13th, 2021
Okay. Let's get right down to this: I am not asking for money. Nothing about this blog is a request for fiscal aid, and you'll see why shortly.
(I do have a Patreon problem and it's been going for about two weeks, but... that's a separate issue. If you're a sponsor, please be sure to read the last part of the blog.)
Today's letter was the Medicaid Estate Recovery's division announcing their intent to collect. I have twenty days to respond, and I'm going to call them back tomorrow. I have a number, and the name of the person in charge of my mother's account. I just didn't do it today because I was trying to get a chapter posted, and... because just opening the letter put me in a state of deep stun for a while. I had to stop and take a walk just to recover enough for more writing: attempting to speak with anyone would have cost me the day.
The letter comes in two parts. One is a helpful summary of every charge my mother ever incurred through Medicaid. I'm supposed to review this. (Remember: not a gift, but a loan.) This is because the grand total adds up to the maximum which the MER will pursue.
The first is the announcement of intent. It also tells me what my rights are: twenty days to make contact, which includes disputing any charges or trying for hardship relief. I do intend to look at the summary statement and see if there's any hospitals in foreign countries which made it in. But as for hardship relief... I don't think I fall under any of the circumstances which qualify.
(The short version seems to be that if settling up would qualify the household for Medicaid, it's too much.)
I am now going to transcribe a relevant part of the letter directly into the blog. Any boldfacing is mine.
I advise everyone to be sitting down before they read it.
In accordance with federal (42 U.S.C. 1396p) and State (M.J.S.A. 30:4D-7.2a and 7.2a.a) laws, the Division is required to notify you that it must assert a claim against the above-referenced estate. The amount sought represents funds expended by the New Jersey Medicaid program for medical and health-related services and supplies received by the deceased on or after age 55. The claim against the estate which, if the estate is insolvent, has a priority equivalent to debts and taxes with preference under federal law or the laws of this State under M.J.S.A. 30:4D:-7.2d, is in the amount of $116,193.31 (subject to change). However, please note that the Division's ultimate recovery is limited to the value of the estate.
I bolded that part for a reason: because it's why Ko-Fi and Patreon don't do anything here. They can take her possessions. Based on what I know, they can't go after mine. I just have to be very careful about drawing a line between the two. This includes accounting for my coin jar: with the car, that's still registered under her name and I can only hope to buy it back at an affordable price.
So in other words, if all they can get is, say, $5000 from everything of hers -- then that's where it stops. I won't ask anyone to help me pay this because ultimately, I'm not the one paying it. However, there is one other piece of fallout.
I'm giving up on the lawsuit.
Oh, I'm still filing it, or my attorney will -- once I finally have the necessary papers from the surrogate court. But if our side wins? I was initially told that in the case of a settlement -- which, because I am filing the suit on my mother's behalf, would be part of her estate -- Medicaid will normally take a third.
I have now seen the debt number. I don't think 'normally' applies any more. So even if it's a victory, I feel the new division of settlement funds is one-third for the law firm, two-thirds for the government, and I get custody of whatever answer the care center provides.
It's enough.
Does this cause problems for me? Well... in one sense, I'm in the same boat I would have occupied for a loss: I have nothing, I lost nothing except the money it took to get the necessary forms. (Contingency case: we lose, no fees.) But my hopes had been to use any portion of in-theory settlement I might retain as a moving fund. Get me out of the apartment, and hopefully the state. I now consider that option closed. I'll have to find another route. And I have some time there, because I wasn't going to really think about moving until after her affairs were settled -- in other words, when MER and the case were both wrapped up. That should still take a few months.
I do realize I could be wrong here. Maybe it'll be a win, and MER will settle for a third. But with that much owed? I no longer see it as a real possibility. So until proven otherwise, I am no longer placing any hope in the suit. Not fiscally. I wanted an answer as to how she got out and broke her hip: that's why I started this. I just hope that ultimately, it's what I receive.
But that debt number? I can't pay it. I can never pay it. Medicaid doesn't appear to have any expectations that I will, and may have an equal lack of requirement.
And there's one more thing.
My mother was with Medicaid for just under twenty-five months.
That number represents a percentage of her incurred costs over that time. Only the portion which they loaned out, with Medicare taking the rest.
Welcome to the American medical system.
Oh, the Patreon problem? At least one pledge didn't go through: this is usually a bank communication issue. And when that happens, Patreon usually tries to collect it later in the month. But until that collection is made, something in the code removes that person's name from the rolls. They aren't listed anywhere, including previous records. And since I don't have everyone memorized, it makes it hard to contact anyone. It's unusual for this kind of issue to reach the 13th, so... as long as I'm typing...
(Even if I did have it all recorded separately, having their name taken down cuts off the Email link. Not everyone has the same ID on FIMFic and Patreon alike.)
So basically: if you're a sponsor and you can take a quick peek to see if everything's normal? You might want to do so. I'm guessing that anyone who's gotten email notifications on my posts this month is probably fine.
See? Separate issue.
Jeezus. The kinda post that makes me wanna burn capitalism to the ground. Yeah, that's far too many numbers to the left of the decimal. What even is the point of assistance at that level?
5581646
The assistance is the point. The costs are the result of the American political conservatives spending every waking moment trying to find ways to punish people for needing assistance in the first place.
Voice Of Experience
Because of the "no eviction" rule, people have not been paying their rent.
Landlords are hurting & rents have SKYROCKETED. They're up +30% in Phoenix since January. They want guaranteed income of 3x rent + a credit check before they'll let you rent.
You can get an apartment without a credit check. It will cost about +50% more.
IMO, you might be better off staying put & subletting the extra room.
Estee, I think you should continue with the lawsuit. I’m not certain, but if Medicaid settles the debt by taking your moms assets before the lawsuit is settled, they can’t come back for any further payment.
If the lawsuit is settled before they settle her estate, which is probably unlikely, then they should only be able to collect the amount they announced in the letter. Hopefully, along with the answers you’re seeking, the settlement will be more than enough for that and for you to start again in a new place.
Best of luck! You know we’re here for you.
,
Honestly seeing stuff like this always makes me wonder how we haven't had any crazy, radical gunmen go and murder hospital or insurance CEOs.
Remind me again why this is a controversial issue?
Hospitals should be transparent in their pricing, pharmaceutical companies shouldn't be able to sell medicine that people WILL DIE WITHOUT for hundreds or thousands of a markup %, nor should they be able to advertise drugs in the way that they do. Also insurance companies should actually protect their clients, which is why cutting out the middleman and just having it be through the Federal Government, who are many things but for profit is not one of them.
Some of this stuff is literally the way capitalism is supposed to work, and the rest of it is doing society a collective good and saving money for like 70% of Americans, which is kinda part of that social contract.
Goodness...American health care exhausts me.
5581718
Try telling them that.
5581705
Seconding this, but also ask your lawyer about it. They would know, or at least be in a good position to find out, whether your fears re: the lawsuit are founded or not.
Answers are worth something even if you never see a cent out of it. Making them pay might make you feel better too; you seem to feel it was all their fault. Not quite getting it myself, they’re a clinic not a prison, preventing “escape” of “prisoners” is not really their business, but I could be wrong about that.
Is moving all that expensive though? Is entertaining bronies (thanks BTW!) your full time gig? You can do that anywhere on the planet and some parts are MUCH cheaper to live than anywhere in The Land Of The Free. Just pack a laptop in your carryon and go.
5581734
Memory care centers are generally expected to have increased, well... Let's call them 'patient retention methods'... as memory care patients will, on a 'bad' day, think that it's a been a very pleasant visit, and they should go home now.
in my case, the patient in my case was my grandfather. He was deemed 'not bad enough to be permanently placed in a facility', but that was rather cold comfort when I was literally restraining him from trying to go down to the corner and hail a cab to take him home without his wife.
Specifically, he was trying to reach a corner which would NEVER see a cab pass by, as we were in semi-rural Iowa, not metropolitan New York.
Specifically, his home in Connecticut. A home he hadn't been in since his daughter graduated from compulsory education.
Specifically, this was the middle of the night in the dead of winter, and he didn't bother to change out of his pajamas.
5581718
Half a century-ish of the ongoing Red Scare. Different names, same propaganda.
5581734
When I moved about two and half years ago, total costs were... Hrm, about $4k. Not including the down payment on the house since it was cheaper to buy one than to rent in the long run. Also not counting the credit hits from getting utilities, internet and the like.
It really depends on where to, where from and how much stuff is going. Across town can be 'cheap', out of state adds up.
5581705
I don’t have a clue if it works like this, but I really wish it does.
I have long since given up on humanity.
That the situation Estee is faced with EXISTS at all (and that others will have it even worse) is one of the many, many, many reasons why.
Frankly, I'd trust Microsoft Windows to be a better ruler and organiser if it suddenly gained sentience/sapience.
Yes, humans, it has reached the point that, let aside the likes of Doctor Doom, I'd trust CLIPPY more than you.
Be sure to contact your attorney to discuss dropping the lawsuit. He/She may know things you do not, and with some more base data available options might be available.
5581806
5581705
I need to clarify. I'm not dropping the suit. (I can't. It hasn't even been officially filed, so how could it be dropped?) I've just given up on the concept of ever seeing a penny of any potential settlement. I still want my answer -- but even in the event of a victory, I will not expect a single-digit, two-decimal-places check.
5581812
That just testifies of realism. Looking at this and trying to be real as to the yields. Anything it delivers is a welcome extra gift.
Yikes
There’s nothing fair or even close to tolerable about what you’ve experienced in the last few years. It’s simply unconscionable that any person in this age of incredible prosperity should be forced to bear such - the only word I can think is abandonment - by society. If there’s any possible good to come from all this (and, yeah, I’m the type of person who ALWAYS looks for the silver lining,) it may come from the bestselling book you’ll write demonstrating just how bad a failure is the US medical system, and how it’s finally time for the US the join the rest of the democratic world and implement medical care as one of the benefits of citizenship that enable society to function, like access to roads, education, sanitation, libraries, equality under the law, and the vote, (screw the labels - all of these are part of the social contract.)
Rant over.
Write the book.
5581746
The problem is, she wasn't actually in a memory care center. She was in a facility with a memory care center. In a separate wing. Which is where the added "patient retention" would have been. Or at least that's what we were told in the Discord before she escaped.
The slip and fall stuff though is tricky. And as an added wrinkle it looks like they may have changed the law since then too. No idea if that matters or not.
Good luck, Estee.
"hugs you all kinds of tight"
5582113
It shouldn't, as the issue is whether they obeyed the law as it was at the time. Problem is that finding out what the law used to be isn't always as easy as finding out what the law currently is, so depending on how the law shifted, an unscrupulous lawyer might take advantage of that.
5585692
In this case (assuming New Jersey is even the right state), the opinion was to establish that a business had a reasonable length of time to deal with snowfall and that they actually weren't expected to somehow keep the sidewalks clear during a snowstorm (or maybe overnight immediately after one).