It Will Never Stop

Sooooo... 2 weeks ago I spent nearly a week straightening out my dental insurance. Even though all the paperwork was duly filled out, notarized, etc.,etc., they dropped my coverage. Did I mention that I'm having some expensive crown and bridgework done? Yeah. Great timing. Took 5 days to get that fixed (I hope!).

Had a stress test last week. No word from my cardiologist, so I'm assuming it wasn't too bad. I was scheduled for a routine ultrasound tomorrow, but the hospital called to say my insurance coverage was no longer valid. What? That was changed to my name weeks ago. Nope. Called the insurance company. BC-BS had a letter from the city saying that I wanted to unenroll. Apparently, when they reinstated my dental coverage, they managed to cancel my health insurance. After several phone calls to contact the right person, city told me I cancelled it. No way, Jose. I pointed out to her that they even took the monthly premium out of my pension check the first of the month. Oops!

The last I heard, the city acknowledged that I did indeed have coverage and they were trying to contact their person at BC-BS to cancel the cancellation. To play safe, I've postponed my ultrasound for two weeks. It should be straight by then — maybe. Next step? I may have to contact one of our local TV reporters who love to ruffle feathers over stupidity.

The Check is in the Mail

Yep. Still waiting for the check from the nursing home. Called again yesterday and got the 'let me check and call you back.' 5 minutes later — the check is in the mail. Any bets that they waited for me to call to actually mail it? I get the distinct feeling that it takes a call for each step required to be carried out. How the working staff can be so great and the administrative staff so unfeeling is beyond me.

Finally tending to my own health issues. Saw my cardiologist today. Precautionary stress test in 2 weeks.

Oh, and it never stops. Used my new waterpik last night and it blew off one of my crowns. I know. At least I still have teeth to crown. I see my dentist in the morning.

One Down

The mail brought a pleasant surprise. The one life insurance I wasn't aware of, and therefore the last payment applied for. Thank you, Detroit PBPA. Your staff is the best.

Want more salt in that wound?

To nursing homes/extended care facilities everywhere: When issuing refunds of advance payments for care to surviving family members after someone in your care passes away, don't drag your heels and take a month and multiple phone calls to issue that check. Oh, and that check? Please issue it to the person who gave you the original check. Don't automatically make it payable to "The Estate of" because not all people have assets that need to go through probate.

I understand that you want to hang onto every penny as long as possible so that you can make more money, but it's not a fair and proper thing to do. You've taken what was a great experience with a fantastic frontline staff and turned it into an ulcer-inducing nightmare all in the name of bureaucratic red tape. Let me rephrase that — Bureaucratic Bullshit.

And City of Detroit life insurance? I'm listed as the primary beneficiary. Why do you need a copy of my marriage license when I'm already listed as the beneficiary? The last time your bringers of red tape 'required' proof of our marriage, it ended with a stolen social security number that the IRS and I will be dealing with forever.

Greed

Owe someone money and they want it yesterday. But, if they owe you? Whole different story. Wait for them to do the right thing, then call and get the ‘I guess we should process that.' Wait a couple of weeks more and call again only to be told to call again if it's not in by the end of the week. Call again? You bet. The name of the game? Keep the money as long as possible.

Honor your debts. Stop being greedy.

She's baaaak — Maybe

I think it's time to start blogging again. I limited myself to Facebook for a long time, but FB tends to drive me a little pazzo. Time for a new beginning. After being married to the same man for nearly 50 years, I lost him last month to multiple cancers that originated in his pancreas. The only good part of pancreatic cancer is that you don't linger. He spent only 18 days in hospice care, and he was diagnosed just 3 months before his death. This was the third go-round with cancer in 3 years. So, now I try to pick up the pieces and deal with all of the paperwork involved with pensions, insurances and the like. Oh, and there's also the little matter of home maintenance, grass cutting, weed pulling(?). So far, my wonderful neighbor across the street is cutting the grass when he cuts his grandmother's. Have to figure out what to pay him. He has a beautiful little daughter and is about to be married to a super gal, so I know he can use the extra bucks. Also need to start thinning out my husband's tools and yard equipment. He wanted our neighbor to have what I won't use. I'm converting all of the bill paying and banking to online/computer work. Spouse was a total computer-phobe and insisted on paper records. Keeping my banking data on my iPad. Gave up on Quicken. Have a $5 app that does all that I need and keeps the data backed up to my Dropbox account. That's it for the moment. I'm thinking of trying to blog once a week. We'll see what happens. TTFN