Mass Health

Yesterday I spent 90 minutes on the phone with MassHealth trying to get my MIL’s registration renewed. I have a thing about bureaucratic incompetence. Diane is always joking  about it because it bothers me so much and she finds it funny when I get sucked into it.

First I called the number on my most recent paperwork.  The number is not in service. I had to google it and find the new number

Then I called and worked through the prompts. When they ask if I would be willing to take a survey at the end I say yes. I’m then put on silence. I waited one minute then hung up and called again.

I worked through the prompts and said “no” to the survey. This got me to a pleasant sounding person very quickly. I had to give her my name and phone #, the name of my MIL, her DOB, her ssn, her Medicaid # and her address. She confirmed that I was an appointed authorized person for her and then she asked what I needed.  I told her I want to see if MIL was currently enrolled. She looked it up and stated that she needed to renew. Then she saw the paperwork recently submitted renewing her for Medicare premium assistance.  (This is only one small element of MassHealth). She told me to call back in 2 days and they should have made a determination by then. I pointed out that this was the least of my concerns. I needed to see if she was approved for long term care. She told me that was another department and she would transfer me.

The 2nd person I got requested all of the same information as above. She said that I needed to renew her SACA form (never figured out what this stood for) She then told me I had the wrong department and she would transfer me.

The 3rd person I got took all of the same information except for the Medicaid number. She then told me I was not an authorized person. I told her that the first person I spoke with confirmed that I was. She asked for the Medicaid number. Then she said that I had the wrong department. I needed the Sr. department. She would transfer me.

The 4th person I spoke with took all of the same information then asked what I needed. I told her I needed to renew the SACA form. She told me that the application was received but not yet processed.  I pointed out that the in-process application was only for premium assistance and that I need to apply for long term care. She asked if MIL was in the LTC facility. I told her that no, she was in the hospital but was not returning home. She then told me that I can’t apply for LTC until she is in a nursing home.  I told her that the hospital social worker told me that they needed to have her LTC MassHealth approved before a nursing home bed could be secured. She then said that we could fill in the application over the phone but not list the LTC facility or date of admission until that happens.  I said OK.

We proceeded with the lengthy phone interview. I almost busted out laughing when the first half dozen questions had to do with the sex or gender identity of my 95 year old MIL.  What in the world would any of this have to do with her LTC approval? Anyway, the questions continued and I had to dig through my files, my MIL folders, my SS folders and my phone for copies of all her documents. We got through all of this then the woman asked if my MIL was currently home. I told her again that she is in the hospital and would not be returning home. She then suggested that maybe we could finish the LTC application by putting her hospital admission date and address. She went away to check on this. Upon return she said we could so we did. After all of this she told me that she was going to play a recording that I had to listen to. It would be 11 minutes long. After that she would return and get my approval for her to sign in my place.  I placed the phone of speaker and listened while I opened up my dinner bottle of wine. Then I used the time to refile all of the papers I had pulled out while I relaxed with the wine.  After that she asked if I agreed to all of this and I said “yes”.

We ended the conversation. I wished that I had asked to be sent to the survey! ha ha