Medical Mileage....A little PO'ed here

[tubes]

Does anyone else get Medical Mileage Reimbursement?  Driving to Dr. appointments, dialysis or driving loved ones to these places. 
I've been getting medical mileage since December of last yr.  It has been very helpful.  I drive 72 miles RT ( round trip) 3 x's a week.  I get .22 a mile and that's $15.84 every trip I make.  I have to keep track of each trip and turn in the paperwork every 2 weeks.  So I am reimbursed $95.04 every 2 weeks.  It takes several weeks to receive the check.

I have to renew every 6 months.  My last renewal was November 11th.  Before this last renewal I was getting 76 RT miles.  I was told I was getting a few extra miles to help out with maintenance on my car.  With those extra miles I was receiving $100. 32  every 2 weeks.  That doesn't make much of a difference, $5.28 I'm shorted now.  I don't know why it changed but it did.

OK, here is why I'm PISSED.  I've been DENIED.

So November arrives and I call The Kansas Medical Assistance Program to renew.  They ask all their questions....which I didn't know all the answers.  The lady kept putting me on hold, I thought they were going to deny me over the phone.  I didn't know the address or phone number or the name of my unit.  Where Fresenius now and the outside of the building still says Renal Care Group.  I couldn't even find the unit in the phone book.  If I could sweat, I'm sure I would of been.  I was getting very upset. 
The lady finally told me everything looked good and she was going to mail the paperwork to me.
I finally get the form to fill out, (it doesn't make much sense to me) I fill out what I could understand and fax the rest to my doc.  I forget why, but they don't fax it back to me.  That was ok, becuz the next week I had an appt to see Dr. Kovach anyways.  I get the form back and mail it the next day.  Well it was mailed right back becuz it wasn't filled out completely.  I take the form with me to dialysis and the head nurse helped me fill the rest of it out.  I remailed it Dec. 2nd. 
The letter that says I was denied was dated Nov. 30th, and states....
NO FURTHER DOCUMENTATION RECEIVED WITHIN 15 WORKING DAYS.
REQUEST DENIED.
How the heck is that possibly?  I didn't get the form back until the end of November and mailed it back to them the beginning of Dec.
I am able to appeal.  I have to file a request for a fair hearing before an impartial hearing officer.  To do that, I have to file a written request with the Office of Administrative Hearings.  Does that mean I have to appear before someone???  Can they make it any more complicated?!?!   
My social worker is going to be at the unit tomorrow.  I'm going to talk to her and see what she says.
One last thing that puzzles me.  Since I've been denied and already mailed in my stuff.  What will they do with my form when they finally get it? 
   ***my scenario***
"Oh, Fisher has been denied, just shred it ALL. Muahahahaha" 

Anyways, I'm short almost $200 this month.  I've spent so much on christmas already, I don't know what I'm going to do.
What a time to get screwed over!!!

Well I feel a bit better now.    for reading my 1st rant.


Oh yea, just so you know............ALLTEL sucks too! ! !

[angela515]

This is the first time I have heard of medical mileage reimbursement.. how do you apply for this? Is it a state program, or is it through the goverment?

I hope you get this straightened out soon, and it sounds like the appeal is in front of someone, but it could be over the phone... i dont know though.

[goofynina]

Tubes, dont let them get the best of you amigo, hopefully your social worker is a good one and can resolved this matter, one bad thing is i doubt you will get your money before Christmas but one good thing is think of all the after  Christmas sales    Good luck to you, keep us posted, k..

[Sluff]

Always a positive spin. Good thinking Susie.

[Sara]

That sucks, Tubes!     What jackasses!

[angieskidney]

I get Medical Mileage Reimbursement but that is through my disability (and I am in Canada).

Hope it all works out. With what I have experienced here is that sometimes they send you out letters early. But that might just be where I live. I have gotten so many letters saying I have been cut off and then I get a cheque anyway because my income statement or paperwork was not in by the 22nd of the month. Their computers do everything automatically now and is frustrating .. especially when I was new to disability.

But I don;t know how things are in the USA.

[stauffenberg]

Keep in mind that all this complex, Kafkan bureaucracy involved in accessing welfare benefits is no accident, but is part of a deliberate effort by capitalist countries -- whose ideology is that the society should be run as a giant factory for the benefit of the rich -- to discourage people from even applying for the benefits they deserve.  You can bet that when it comes to rich people and giant corporations getting investment tax credits and all the special perks and bonuses that the government has available to reward weath, the forms are remarkably easy to fill out, the bureaucrats are excruciatingly polite, and the procedures quite smooth.  These are the same countries that are willing to send working class people overseas to kill people in order to control foreign markets and raw materials to make the capitalists back home even richer, since don't doubt for a minute that they would be willing to allow more than a few of their own sick citizens at home to suffer or die because of lack of benefits just to make taxes lower for the rich.

[BigSky]

 Things like this can happen with computers.  Sounds like an automatic trigger by a computer when it doesnt get the info despite what a human is doing in the matter. 




On another note.

I assume you are going to resign your American citizenship fairly soon stauffenberg since its soooo bad here.

[angieskidney]

Things like this can happen with computers.  Sounds like an automatic trigger by a computer when it doesnt get the info despite what a human is doing in the matter. 




On another note.

I assume you are going to resign your American citizenship fairly soon stauffenberg since its soooo bad here.

stauffenberg sounds a LOT like my friend who went over to Korea and Thiland instead saying that Canada wasn't good enough.

[MattyBoy100]

Hey Tubes,

that really sucks!  I'm going to an appeal for my disability benefit here in the U.K. on Monday.  I've been told that everyone here has their first application turned down and you HAVE to appeal. Doesn't make sense, but that's the system.

Hope you get things sorted!

In the meantime, here's a little song for the "working class"...

THE WORKING CLASS CAN KISS MY ASS,

I GOT A FOREMAN'S JOB AT LAST!

[tubes]

Hey Tubes,

that really sucks!  I'm going to an appeal for my disability benefit here in the U.K. on Monday.  I've been told that everyone here has their first application turned down and you HAVE to appeal. Doesn't make sense, but that's the system.

Hope you get things sorted!

In the meantime, here's a little song for the "working class"...

THE WORKING CLASS CAN KISS MY ASS,

I GOT A FOREMAN'S JOB AT LAST!

       good one mattyboy
Thanx for the input everyone.

Ok, I talked to the social worker friday.  She called The KMAP for me. (Kansas Medical Assistance Program) They told her they had received my renewal form a couple days after they sent my denial letter.  Also that it would take up to 10 days before I would here anything and that they were sending my form through.  Well here is the funny thing....I get home from dialysis about 11 am, I check my mail.  There is a big packet in my box and I knew it was from the KMAP.  I had been approved. 
So why the hell did they not tell my social worker this over the phone?    Making me think I will have to wait up to a week before I find something out. 
Freaking BS! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Now I just hope I can get my money from November 13 till now.  I need to get my car into the shop....like yesterday.....

[jbeany]

Hey Tubes,

that really sucks!  I'm going to an appeal for my disability benefit here in the U.K. on Monday.  I've been told that everyone here has their first application turned down and you HAVE to appeal. Doesn't make sense, but that's the system.

Everyone gets denied first time here in the US as well.  I have to wonder if they even look at the apps the first time around.  My doctor wrote me a wonderful letter that was very insistent that I needed to be on disability.  I was amazed he was so vehement in his wording, and asked him about it.  He had another patient who had also been denied on his first disability application.  The patient had been in a car wreck and broken his neck - he could still breathe on his own and had just barely regained the ability to move his hands - but he had to appeal!

Now I just hope I can get my money from November 13 till now.  I need to get my car into the shop....like yesterday.....

Hope you get your money soon, tubes - nothing worse than having someone squeeze a budget that is already to tight it squeaks!