I had a lousy night last night. I am an insomniac so this is nothing new. And to make matters worse I had a terrible dream right before I woke up. Not quite as bad as a night terror but a nasty piece of business all the same. It was similar to other dreams I’ve had where I am wandering around in some very strange terrain, only this one was a bit more specific and definitely scarier. Toward the end of this dream I followed someone I trusted and was led to a staircase going down and told to follow the staircase which was very narrow and steep. I kept going down it and suddenly water was swirling around my feet. I was swept to the bottom of the stairs and washed out into rapidly flowing waters where my final thought was that I had been duped!
Basically this down the rabbit hole feeling is what I’ve experienced since this job loss. Once you are cut free from
the occupation that formed so much of your personal structure you are in a strange land. You have to marshal all your faculties and resources for the job hunt. The job hunt becomes your job. Of course life goes on otherwise so there are lots of other little ripples that spread out from this event. One of these ripples is maintaining your health insurance. Since it was a medical issue precipitating my job loss I was very concerned.
I knew my employer sponsored health plan would send me a notification regarding COBRA provisions to continue my insurance. They have 45 days to do so. In the meantime, if you have prescriptions to get filled your insurance will deny payment because your insurance ends the last day of the month in which you were terminated. Of course as soon as they notify you regarding your COBRA election and you pay the outrageous premium they assign to you, you will be reinstated.
This year because of the Economic Recovery Act, you may be entitled to a break in your premium rate. I certainly felt I was entitled to this as I fit the criteria of having been terminated by my employer within the stated time limits. However, when I sent in the application for this I got a denial letter from my COBRA administrator, because it was stated I voluntarily left my position. No way! I was referred to the Department of Labor where I spoke to a representative named Barbara. I explained my situation and she told me to stay on the line while she called the HR department at my former employer. On the other end of other line I got to listen to some lackey deny any knowledge of my particular situation, unfortunately true, because he wasn’t the snippy person I had been dealing with.
He actually told Ms Barbara with the Department of Labor he would not be able to help her because he really had no way of knowing if she was who she said she was!
Ms Barbara directed me to their website to submit an appeal.
I filled this out and included all my documentation and sent this off. I was told a ruling would be made on my case within 15 days. During this time the insurance company is not paying for any of your drugs, doctor visits, or treatments unless you’ve paid that outrageous premium.
Also during this time I received notification regarding my retirement account rollover. This had to be dealt with, as well as my long-term disability insurance, and my life insurance.
Altogether, handling all these issues took up several days of my life.
Did I mention my resume?
Finally I got a message on my phone from Ms. Barbara that I was going to receive the COBRA reduction of premium and that I would get a notification soon from my COBRA administrator.
She wanted me to notify her when it happened. Actually I received a mail notification from her first so I faxed it to my
COBRA administrator and sent in the reduced premium amount to restore my insurance coverage. Then I followed up with them to ask if my coverage had been restored. Amazingly someone had misfiled the fax so that had not happened!
They assured me I would receive a call from Cindy regarding my new payment amount. Finally on February 1, two full months
After my last day of coverage I received their notification by mail with premium coupons. Ms Barbara had already called me to see if I was receiving the reduction of premium.
I can truthfully say during this whole episode Ms Barbara with the Department of Labor was the only person who acted like she was even remotely interested or motivated to move in a timely fashion to restore my insurance benefits. Thank you Ms Barbara!
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