Albuquerque?! ALBUQUERQUE!!??

Most of the people, who know me well, know that it takes quite a lot to get me angry.  They also know that when I do get angry--they don't want to be around!  I've got a rant on my mind today, so if you're here looking for one of my usually cheerful posts, I'm afraid you will be disappointed.  I'm sorry about that.  If you're not up for a rant, go ahead and skip to the next blog on your list to read.  I will understand.  I just hope you come back again later when I'm in a better mood.

My husband often says that his biggest pet peeve is people not doing their jobs.  So often, it seems, the reason things aren't going the way they should in our little world, is that someone didn't do his or her job properly (or at all) in their little world.  Because of the things that have happened in the last few months, more and more, I find myself agreeing  with his pet peeve as being a number one complaint.  Sit back, and I will tell you my tale of woe.  It really has become a sort of comedy of errors that seems to have no end.  If you find yourself chuckling along the way, that's OK, because it really is a most ridiculous story.  

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know that my mother passed away at the end of January this year.  She was in a nursing home for the last two years of her life, and I was in charge of paying her bills and handling her finances.  When she passed in January, I had already paid the bill for her health insurance coverage for the month of February.  

I called the insurance company to notify them of my mother's death and request the refund for the coverage for the month of February that I had paid for.  I am the executrix in charge of my mother's estate so I am in charge of getting all the loose ends tied up.  They told me that they usually have to wait to be notified by Medicare of someone's death before they can send a refund, but that if I wanted to, I could mail them a copy of the death certificate to speed things along.  I sent the death certificate off to them in the mail right away.

A couple of weeks later, I hadn't heard anything from the insurance company, so I gave them another call.  They said that they had received the certificate I had sent, but they couldn't issue a refund until they got official word from Medicare through the Social Security Office.  Apparently, it made not one bit of difference that I had sent the death certificate to them.  They weren't going to do anything until they heard from Medicare through the Social Security Office.  So the first person that I talked to at the insurance company was the first person on my list of "people not doing their jobs," because she had told me that sending in the death certificate would be sufficient notice to allow them to issue the refund.

After a couple more weeks went by, I decided to contact the Social Security Office myself.  The funeral home had told me when I made the arrangements with them that they would notify the Social Security Office of my mother's death.  However, when I contacted the Social Security Office, they had not yet been notified!  The funeral home had not notified the Social Security Office of my mother's passing.  The people at the funeral home became the next ones added to my list of "people not doing their jobs."

Social Security told me that I could send THEM a copy of the death certificate, and then they would notify Medicare who would notify the insurance company of my mother's death. (Remember, the insurance company already has a copy of this certificate that I sent to them directly.)  I'm not very happy with the way things are going at this point, but I've been tangled up in red tape in these sorts of situations before, and I know that it is best not to get upset, but to just focus on the job at hand that needs to be done.  So, I dutifully sent off another copy of the death certificate, this time to the Social Security Office.  I waited and waited.  And then I waited some more.  Still, I heard nothing from the insurance company.  

I called the insurance company again.  (Let me just interject here that I think I called the insurance company about eight times overall in the last few months, and every single time I got a different person on the other end!  Every single time!!)  I told the person on the line my story.  The person said that they had not yet gotten word from Medicare.  I waited some more.

Finally on May 3, I received a letter from the insurance company saying that they had been notified by Medicare of my mother's death. So it took three months for them to be notified. The letter I received said that if the estate was due a refund that they would send the check out, and I would receive it within two weeks after the date on the letter.

Of course, two weeks came and went and I didn't receive the refund.  Apparently "someone else wasn't doing his or her job."  When I called again, I was told that the check had been sent on May 13 and that I would receive it soon.  I went back and forth with the insurance company calling them and telling them I had not yet received the check.  Their reply was always the same.  The check had been sent and I would receive it soon.

In the meantime, I got all the other loose ends connected with my mother's estate tied up.  I had told my lawyer (and the court) that I was still waiting on the refund.  Time passed and it was July and the end of the six months waiting period (the time required by the court before I would be allowed to close out the estate checking account) was quickly approaching.  

In yet another phone call with the insurance company, I was told that the check had been issued on July 11 and I should be receiving it soon.  Say what?!  What happened to the check that was supposedly issued and sent out in May?  No one was able to answer that question.  It certainly seemed to me that "someone was NOT doing his job!"  I was told to wait two weeks after the July 11 date, and surely I would receive the check by then.

Let me interject here and say that the offices of the insurance company that I had been calling are in San Antonio, Texas.  I live in Ohio.  I asked them if the check was being sent out of San Antonio, Texas. They said, "No, it will be mailed to you from Mason, Ohio."  I have no idea why it should take two weeks for a check to reach me from Mason, Ohio.  I could drive to Mason, Ohio myself in about three and a half hours, but I digress.

Two weeks came and went again.  I called again.  This time when I called, as soon as I got someone on the line, I  said, "I'd like to talk to a supervisor, please."  I did this without explaining my situation. I wanted to talk to someone IN CHARGE.  The person on the other end of the line hesitated but finally said, "OK, I'll let you talk to a supervisor," and then she promptly hung up on me.  Obviously, she didn't want to be the one to refer me to a supervisor. ("Another person not doing her job!!")  That, my friends, was the proverbial straw that broke Daisy's back.  

Of course, I immediately redialed the number. (Side note: at this point steam is coming out of Daisy's ears.) A different person picked up the phone.  Once again I requested a supervisor.  This person wouldn't allow me to talk to a supervisor unless I told her what I was calling about first.  So, I explained my whole sad story to her.  I went through the whole rigmarole with her, giving all the verifying information about my mother's account number and date of birth and yada, yada, yada as I had had to do every single time I had called.  She listened to all that I had to say and then gave me the same response that everyone else had.  She said the check had been mailed, and I should be getting it any day now.  I once again asked to talk to her supervisor.  She put the supervisor on the line.

Naturally, I had to explain the entire story ONCE AGAIN to the supervisor.  She clucked, clucked about how she didn't understand why it was taking so long, but that if I could be patient and just wait a few more days, I would surely receive the check in the mail.  I was not amused with her patronizing attitude.  I think if  I had been sitting in front of her instead of talking to her on the phone that she would have actually reached over and patted me on the head.

I asked her just how long I was supposed to wait before calling again.  She told me to wait until a month had gone by from when the check was issued to make sure it had time to reach me.  I asked her why it would take a month to mail a check to me from a place that was a three and a half hour drive from my home.  She mumbled something about processing time, but couldn't give me an acceptable answer.  I talked to this supervisor (another "person not doing her job") on August 3rd.  I was supposed to have closed out the estate account on July 31, but obviously that didn't happen.

I waited until a month had passed since the check (remember this is actually the second check--I don't know what ever happened to that first one) had been sent out as the supervisor had suggested.  Still no check arrived.  I called the insurance company again.  

This time I talked to a gentleman named Chris.  Chris, amazingly enough, was finally able to shed some light on what had happened to the check that I was waiting for.  Although he kept me on hold for 20 minutes while he searched the files, he did pop  back in twice during that 20 minutes to tell me that he was still working on my case and for me to please continue to hold.  

When he returned, he told me that the check had been sent not to my address as it was intended, but instead was sent to the nursing home!  Why would they send the check that was to be made out to my mother's estate to the nursing home?  The insurance company had my mailing address listed as the one to use for all correspondence.  They had, in fact, had it from the very beginning.  I was the one who had been receiving and paying her bills, not the nursing home.  Additionally, at least three different times during my previous calls requesting the refund, they had supposedly checked my address against the one they had in their files to verify that it was the one they had used to mail the check.  So here we have another three or four people, at least, who had "not done their job!"

But wait, there's more!  Yes, really there is!  Not only did the insurance company mail the check made out to my mother's estate to the nursing home, but the nursing home cashed it!!!  This is what the gentleman named Chris was able to discover for me.  Say WHAT!?  How could the nursing home think they were entitled to cash a check made out to my mother's estate, and what's even worse, what bank allowed this transaction?  Here were at least two more people who "DID NOT DO THEIR JOB!"  

Oh, and here's one more little tidbit that the very competent and helpful Chris found out for me.  The check was cashed by the nursing home on July 19!!  Remember that supervisor from a couple of paragraphs ago?  I had talked to her on August 3.  Surely if the check had been cashed on July 19th, she would  have seen it in the records on August 3rd.  That is, she would have seen it if she had bothered to look in the files, which she DID NOT.  She simply did not want to be bothered to have to take the time to "DO HER JOB!!"

I was reeling a bit at learning all of this information.  I asked the very helpful Chris what I was supposed to do now.  He said I should contact the nursing home and try to get the money back from them.  I pointed out to him that his company was the one who had mistakenly mailed the check to them.  I asked what should I do if the nursing home refuses to give me back the refund.  He said that if that happened to call the insurance company back, and they would take care of it.  So the very helpful Chris was only helpful up to a point.

I called the nursing home.  I was told that the person who handles these things was on vacation and wouldn't be back for a few more days (Well, of course!).  I explained the situation to the vacationing person's underling and asked if she would pass the message on to her superior.  I called again on the day the superior was to return from vacation only to find out that the UNDERLING was now on vacation so my message had not been passed along after all. Add one more to the list of "people not doing their jobs!"  Honestly, how difficult would it have been for her to send an email to her supervisor and explain the situation?"

Anyway, I thought that finally I had found the person in charge who could help me!  Since this person was a local person and someone I knew, I thought that perhaps I had finally found the light at the end of this very long and very dark tunnel.

No such luck, of course.  This person explained to me that she couldn't refund the money to me because all checks from the nursing h0me were issued by their corporate offices in Albuquerque.   ALBUQUERQUE?!!  Oh for the love of Pete!  It has been a week today since I talked to the person at the nursing home.  No check has arrived, so I called her again today.  She told me that it takes time to get the checks sent out and that I should just keep waiting and I would get it eventually.   Can you say, "Deja vu"?  

So, let's see.  How many people not doing their jobs does it take for a person to receive a refund check from an insurance company?  Well, so far, it has taken at least 12 people not doing their jobs, by my count, to make this refund happen (or not happen, obviously).  I haven't yet received the check so who knows how many more will need to be involved.  I'm sure the folks in Albuquerque will want their turn at "not doing their job" too.  Doesn't anyone have a work ethic anymore?  Doesn't anyone feel a sense of responsibility for the work they do?

I really don't care about the money.  It is an insignificant amount that will be split between my brother and I.  It is my job to settle all matters with the estate, and this must be taken care of before I can finish things with my lawyer and the courts.  I certainly didn't expect this situation to domino into the ordeal that it has become.  I do hope that I am finally close to putting this matter to rest.

Now if you have read this entire outrageously long diatribe of mine, bless your dear heart, and please forgive me for this rant.  I appreciate the fact that you took the time to read this.  Even if no one reads it at all, I feel better having written it all down.  Even if you skimmed over this post to get the highlights and then dropped down to read this paragraph (which is probably what I would have done in your shoes), I still thank you for caring.  I'm starting to feel better already just getting these thoughts written down and out of my head.  I promise the next post I make here will be a cheerier one.  I hope you will return.