Medicare Part D with Extra Help

May 30, 2012

I am having so much difficulty in getting approval for Extra Help. I had a

patient advocate at the HIV clinic I was assigned to help me fill out the

application. What I didn't know at the time was that back pay from Social

Security Disability payments should not, and are not to be used as resource for

determination for approval. My patient " advocate " simply went ahead after a

brief raising of the tone of his voice, and asking me how much money I had in my

savings, whereby I hesitated, " you are making this much more difficult than it

has to be " . So I told him that that was back pay from Social Security (voice

tone becomes more gruff) " how much money do you have in the bank? " I said about

$16,000 dollars. He put that down as a resource. Granted I was ignorant at the

time about what could or couldn't be included as resources. He should have known

...being a patient advocate and now I have been denied Extra Help and must go

through an appeal process. Now I have no way to pay for my HIV and other meds

...except for out of pocket. I have already spent over $10,000 dollars on out of

pocket expenses for co-pay from my previous insurance company .. that canceld my

policy as of May 18th. They said: it was because they were no longer going to

provide major medical insurance .. yeah, right.

Question: Anyone else have this problem? Does anyone know which insurance

provider is the best for people on Part D and will cover their medications

without a lot of hassle? My nerves are shot. I have talked to several " agents "

from Social Security and Medicare. One agent, who I forgot to get her name,

seemed to understand the situation and said she would correct the error made on

the original application and resubmit it. They have no record of that

conversation. Nothing .. and they become adamant when I mention it and refuse to

look into it. Was this agent, who seemed to be so helpful, just telling me a

bunch of crap to get me off the phone? It's all so disgusting that they have

these incompetent people who don't even know a patients rights and play stupid

when a relevant question is asked. If anyone has any ideas on how I can approach

this problem I would be so grateful. I am also at blueeyes9455@...

Recommended Posts