Dear List-family....

Still havin' a devil of a time receiving and sending email
(deep sigh) what with several of MSN'S email servers
being out-of-wack-and-down (now getting only one bulk
email delivery per day of about 35 to 40 messages - mostly
List-originated.  Have only been able to send a few of my
many replies tho.  VERY frustrating! (Oh... and my spell
checker still seems to have a mind of it's own, too.  YIKES!  Whadda pain!)
<whining, moaning, & generally bitching due to List-and-email-
withdrawal>

Nonetheless, I received SUCH a bizarre letter from the
Social Security Office of Central Operations, that I felt
absolutely compelled to copy it to the List and take a
chance that it'd make it online so it could be shared with
you all.

To those of you unfamilier with my just-ended15 month long
 battle with that agency to get my SSDI and Medicare benefits reinstated
after the agency made an error and stopped same,
suffice it to say, that battle was won, but at great physical and
emotional cost to myself.  It would have been even tougher for
me, except for the loving support I received throughout the
adventure from so many of our List-siblings.

Ready?  Here goes....

October 5, 1998

"Your disability benefits have been resumed for August 1996
and suspended from September 1996 on.

In your next check we will pay you the difference between the
money we have already paid you and the money you are now
due.

We did not give you earlier medical insurance because we
did not process it timely.   If you want to have these benefits
earlier, you can chose medical insurance benefits beginning in February
1994.  If you want this benefit to start earlier, you must
do the following things within 30 days after the date of this
notice:

1.  tell us in writing that you want medical insurance benefits
 beginning in February 1994;

2.  pay us $657.00. (this covers the premiums due from
May 1997 through August 1998); or,

3.  tell us we can withhold this amount from the check.

If you want the benefits beginning May 1997 but find it hard
to pay the premium amount in a lump sum, ask us about
other ways to pay the money.

You will be billed every three months for the premiums, please
pay these medical bills timely to avoid loss of coverage.

If you have any questions, call us at 1-800-772-1213.  We
can answer most questions over the phone.  If you prefer to visit
one of our offices, yada, yada, yada.... Please have this letter
with you if you call or visit an office.  It will help us answer your
questions."

W. Burnell Hurt
Director

--- ASIDE - Hahahaha.. is that name apropo, or WHAT? ---

UNNNNBELIEVABLE!  I had received uninterrupted SSDI and Medicare since 1992,
and Medicare paid for my Oct. 24, 1994 pallidotomy ($30,000).

SSA STOPPED paying my SSDI and Medicare benefits  -
without ever notifying me they were stopping , in February,
1997,ND kept paying Kaiser Permanate, the HMO I chose to
be my provider by assigning my Medicare benefits over to
 them (as is common practice between HMO's and other
contracted medical providers and Medicare recipients in the
 USA) up to and including May 15, 1997.

I first became aware of the loss of my benefits in June, 1998,
upon receiving a letter from Kaiser telling Social Security
 had retroactively stopped paying KAISER my assigned
 Medicare benefits since and IF I planned on uninterrupted
 medical coverage by Kaiser, I'd have to pay Kaiser $680 to
cover services rendered me by Kaiser during the period
between February, 1997 and May 15, 1997, which SHOULD
have been paid by Medicare - but wasn't (and I HAD had
medical attention by Kaiser up till that June letter)

Admittedly I grumbled, 'cause $680 is a big chunk of money,
but I immediately sent Kaiser a check and called Social
Security to find out  why they had stopped paying my Medicare.
Little did I know that Social Security was gonna lay ANOTHER
egg on me by ordering my to reimburse them $4,800 for "over
payment recipient's benefits".... or ELSE!!

They HAD indeed overpaid me for several months while I
was working online for Microsoft, however, during that over
payment period I TRIED, in writing,  to find out the $ amount
and was told that "accounting will notify you."  Accounting did
eventually notify me - on May 2, 1997, and I reimursed them
the $3800 they said was owed as my own records came within
a few dollars of that amount.   Heck... I ain't dumb nor am I into
defrauding our government, and had kept  the over payment
money in a personal escrow-type account, the sole purpose of
which was to reimburse the SSA.

I fired off a copy of all my correspondence with SSDI and their accounting
department, and asked  1.  was this $4800 in
ADDITION to the $3800 I'd ALREADY reimbursed to them
or 2.  was this an additional $1000 they were claiming I owed
them, bove the original amount of $3800?

I've never heard back from "accounting" and had this whole preposterous
story read into the records at my recent SSDI
judicial hearing, upon the advice of  my attorney's.

Soooooo.... "Barb's (Mis)Adventures in Social Securityland"
appears to have take another spin, and who could possibly
know where THIS will go!?

One last comment... I laughed myself silly when I first read the
SSA letter.  Really howled.... But on second thought, it REALLY
makes me wonder if the USA is  going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket
even FASTER then many believe we our.  Very sad, actually,
'cause despite it all, I really love this country.

Thanks for reading this lengthy post, to the end, for those of ya
who did that (brave souls!) <smile>

Barb Mallut
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