Turned down for Medicaid ...

donna723

Well-Known Member
Yes, the fateful letter from our local Dept. of Human Services arrived today. I have an official case number and case worker assigned to me and everything! The letter starts out: "DHS has decided you don't qualify in any of the groups of TennCare Medicaid ..." Well, pooh! Whatever will I do now?

But I guess I would be a whole lot more upset about it if I had ever actually APPLIED for Medicaid! Which I didn't! What the heck???? I have never, EVER applied for Medicaid! Never even crossed my mind! I retired last September after working for the State for 24 years. I have my State pension and I'm on Social Security now ... no way would I be eligible for Medicaid. Yet I have a case worker assigned to me and an official case number now and they spent 33 cents of tax payers money to mail me a letter saying that I don't qualify! Are they also sending rejection letters to the millions of other people who don't qualify for Medicaid and never applied? I can just see the thousands of case workers it will take to send out letters to all those millions of people who HAVEN'T applied for Medicaid! That's a heck of a lot of 33 cent letters to mail! Mind boggling!

And just to make sure there is no doubt that I understood that I was rejected, they also informed me in Spanish, Bosnian, Somali, Arabic, Kurdish-Badinani and Kurdish-Sorani!

Just for fun though, I'm going to call my "case worker" tomorrow and ask her why I got this letter. And then I'm going to tell her that I didn't really understand the letter because my English isn't good and I only speak one of those African tribal languages where they make those "clicking" sounds, then demand a translator! :whoopdedoo:
 

nvts

Active Member
Hey Donna! you may want to check around...this sometimes happens when your identity has been stolen. Make sure that you don't end up with a bunch of credit denials or anything like that as well. Just to be on the safe side, I'd run a free credit report with the 3 biggees.

Beth
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
DDD, it doesn't have my social security number on it or anything, just my name and address. It has two pages of what the qualifications are to get Medicaid and all these phone numbers and addresses to appeal the "rejection", then another page with it all translated into different languages. Lord only knows what it's all about!

Beth, that's a good point. I'll ask about it when I call my "caseworker" tomorrow.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Donna...Im pretty sure I know what happened and you may not have to worry about identity theft.

You just retired right? Im assuming you recently started getting medicare right? Not just Social Security but the Medicare too, right?

Well, when that happens it does kick it over to the medicaid dept because if people have an income that is above the SSI income so they arent receiving SSI then they check to see if they are eligible at all for any of the other medicaid programs to help out with such things such as paying for your Part D, Medicare Part B premium or your deductible. Thats all. Its basically a routine thing that people dont have to apply for but the government checks out for people so that just in case you wouldnt know that you might be eligible, you would find out.

See...in NC, the SSI payment is like 658 or something but the Medicaid for Disabled Adults income limit is like 870 for a single person. This means I actually qualify for medicaid along with my medicare because I only get 756 in disability. Now there are higher income limits if they only pay your deductible or only pay your part b or you just receive assistance for part D. Its a whole lot of stuff that I cant really get into because I cant remember it all anymore...lol. I just know that the letters are things like MAD, MQB, MQA, etc.
 

klmno

Active Member
Geee....... I guess that explains why the state has been too busy the last TWO YEARS to find difficult child's father (even though they have address, photo and previous file from his first child's case in same jurisdiction) and get his rear to court to pay some CS.

At least I know they are doing something useful in that state. NOT!
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
Thanks, Janet. I hope that's all it turns out to be! I did just go on Medicare the first of this month so maybe that's it. Seems like a lot of trouble on their part over nothing though! This whole thing has been so confusing and a lot of it is just so much gibberish! Some of it doesn't make much sense! Like when you start on Medicare ... they send you this thing to fill out to see if you're eligible for "extra help" in paying for your prescription coverage. On this form it asks you how much you earned in salary that year and I put the figure down - I worked nine months out of 2010 and then retired. I knew I probably wouldn't get it but I figured "what the heck" and filled it out anyway. They sent me a letter saying that my income was too high to qualify ... well, duh! I just RETIRED last year! Just because I worked part of last year and earned a salary doesn't mean that I will do it this year! What part of the word "RETIRED" do they not understand? Then there's the company that I have my Medicare supplement through ... so far they have sent me three different letters containing six (count'em!) SIX duplicate insurance cards to carry in my wallet! It boggles the mind!
 

Star*

call 911........call 911
Xhosa translator at your service -

Molo - Hi!
Unjani - How are you!?
Ndiphilile!! I am ALIVE!!!

Ngubani igama lakho?
What is your name?

Igama lam ngu Donna
My name is Donna (donna was a givvy not?lol)

Now the clicks -
the X clicks are like the sound you make to ride a horse (like the side of your cheek) all vowels A,E,I,O,U

the C clicks are done on the roof of your mouth with your tongue - like you would call a puppy - but don't flatten your tongue all the way

the Q clicks are done - like a POP gum sound in the deep part of the roof of your mouth - longer than C's and louder.

Hope this helps when you call tomorrow - Since Apartheid? English is really the official language there - but about 11 languages are still recognized -you'd better get a really good translator.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
Janet, that's probably what it was. I only filled it out for the heck of it and because I figured that everybody else probably did. All they could do is say no. And in the original letter they sent me, it didn't give any income guidelines or limits. It's just the "Medicaid" thing threw me.
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
Be happy that you are not dependent on Medicaid....especially for MH issues. Our new Florida Gov. is aiming to cut those services and on PBS tonight I watched that other States are aiming to reduce the deficit by elimiinating or greatly reducing Medicaid. I think that's tragic. DDD
 
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