As a follow-up to my earlier post “Medi-Cal Nightmare” I called the State Hearing Division this morning; I wanted to make some corrections for the record.
I told the customer service rep that I absolutely did not request the postponement even though the letter stated I had. I wanted it to be noted that I had merely asked if I could be faxed a copy of the “position statement” that Medi-Cal had neglected to send me despite the fact that it was mandatory.
With a sigh the young man told me that their system was very outdated and that there was no way of changing the verbiage in the letter but that he would add a narrative to my case file so that the Judge would know.
Then he offered that the trial shouldn’t have been postponed at all!
Wow!
So, of course, I asked him if the hearing had not been postponed then wouldn’t it be the case that there would have been no “position statement” or any other evidence or defense offered on the part of Medi-Cal? He agreed that would have been the case.
“Well, then I would think that no documentations or statements from Medi-Cal should be allowed because after all they (Medi-Cal) missed their chance, and let’s face it I need as much help as I can get.” He agreed to add this to the case file also.
I was pretty content with those wins today, I was happy I made the call, and even happier with the outcome.
Then, just prior to lunch time, I got a phone call: It was The Department of Managed Health for California (DMHC). A very ditsy sounding lady asked if I had “powers” over my daughter then quickly answered her own question, “oh, of course you do”.
She rattled on so unintelligibly that I had to stop her and ask her to start over and to speak slowly and clearly this time because she sounded garbled.
She began again: “I am calling from DMHC, and I just want to know if your daughter has all the care …” she interrupted herself, “is this behavioral health?”
“What?” I was puzzled, “Why are you calling now?”
“Well, we received a notice of a hearing, and I wanted to make sure your daughter has all the care she needs. Is this a behavioral case?” she asked, then continued, “We want to help your daughter.”
I held the phone out and looked at it for a moment in disbelief, then I responded; “I’m not sure who you are or why I’m getting a phone call now. It’s nice that you are showing interest but my daughter has all the help she needs at the moment. I would like to say that I would truly have been impressed if this offer had come about 19 months ago.”
We mutually ended the conversation.
Let’s now fast forward to that evening. Going through the daily mail I opened a letter from the “Franchise Tax Board”. They were notifying me that I did not qualify for head of household status on my tax return because my daughter was over 18 but was not a full time student, so could I please pay them the additional monies, taxes they thought I owed them.
There is a process to dispute this kind of thing but I would have to send payment in full along with my letter of dispute. Oh, and they are very backed up, so the resolution could take some time, but if they did find in my favor they would send me interest on the original payment.
I’m ready to get off this ride now!