Mojo & Teazyka enjoying their first bit of fresh air August 5, 2008
Mojo (left), and Teazyka (right), September 19, 2008
Enjoying the fresh air is a nice pastime for the brothers.
We need one of those covers for the roll. G says,
Archive for October, 2008
Money, money, money, Part 1
One of the kittens (they’re nearly identical so I don’t know WHICH FREAKING ONE) danced across the keyboard and did something to my post, destroying it. I’m going to attempt to recreate it. The only thing that autosaved was the title. Grrrr…
My stress level the past few weeks has been on a real high, and although I don’t think that being bipolar had anything to do with it, although, it couldn’t have helped. Start with a stupid issue with the retailer Eileen Fisher (do NOT use a gift card online in conjunction with another form of payment for the balance; you will be charged the full amount until the gift card clears. Nowhere on their site does it state this, and they did this with my debit card for $270.80. They ended up overnighting my order for free.) Then came the aforementioned COBRA debacle, which was finally resolved. My father was generous enough to loan us a thousand dollars cash to cover the first month’s payment, with the understanding that as soon as we sell my car (this week), we’ll pay him back. That’s right, we’re selling my car to pay for our health insurance. We really don’t need an extra car with G working from home, I mean, if there’s an emergency and he needs to go somewhere, he can always call a neighbor or take a cab, right? And if he has to take one of the cats to the emergency vet 25 miles away in White Plains? Oh well. I need to get the brakes checked on the Toyota (my little VW is now sitting in front of our house, detailed and cleaned, devoid of bumper stickers, not accruing any more mileage), the brakes feel like they slip in the rain and snow. Niiice.
Anyway, Ryan from COBRA called me the day after I sent in my Express Mailed my money order to tell me that they had indeed received it and no, there would not be any waiting time for it to clear, but that it would take approximately 48 “business hours” for my enrollment to start. Le sigh. Whatever. I’d done everything I could, now it was in their hands. I reiterated that I was out nearly $1400 for prescriptions and let him know that my father had loaned us the $912.81 that I had sent in, and that I was selling my car in order to pay for the following months’ payments. Dig, dig. He told me to call the next day to see how things were progressing.
Not an hour later, my cell phone rang. It was Ryan. “Your enrollment is final, you can go pick up any prescriptions you need, and you can get reimbursed from the pharmacy. They can resubmit the claims and refund you the money.” I started to cry.
We always file and extension for our income taxes, so October 15th is our April 15th. G got the call on the 9th that the taxes were ready and that we could come pick them up. Over the past months, there’s been lots of back and forth, requesting documentation, numbers, all sorts of stuff. We figured that they would ask for everything they needed. Hah!
I went down to the accountant’s before work on the 10th, around 12:30. I picked up the papers, and got back in my car. I opened up the thick blue folder to take a peek and almost fainted. The amount owed was a little over $14,000; $8,000 federal, $6,000 state. Due TODAY. I walked unsteadily back to the accountant’s office and tried not to freak out. I asked if our accountants were there (it’s a group), no, they weren’t. Another accountant in the office came down to try to make heads or tails of our return on the fly, and started in on me. “You have rental property? And you didn’t do this? And this? And this?” Et cetera. I said, “I sell jewelry for a living, my husband is a computer consultant. You are our accountants. WE DO WHAT YOU TELL US TO DO.” Finally, he said that our guys would be in on Monday, and that we could talk to them then. “But what about the fact that they payment is due TODAY?” I said. “So you’ll pay a little penalty, it won’t be much, a few dollars.” Easy for you to say, the penalty is probably a percentage, and any percentage of $14k is enough. Whatever, they weren’t there, and obviously, no one was going to reach out to them for us.
Part Two, coming soon!
How do you budget for this?
Following is an email I sent to employee@whji.com, allegedly someone from whom I can get some answers.
“Please note well item six in the following paragraph (italics mine):
“Termination of COBRA Continuation of Coverage: The law also provides that your continuation of coverage may be terminated for any of the following reasons:
1. Whitehall Jewelers no longer provides group health coverage to any of its employees;
2. The premium for your continuation of coverage is not paid on time;
3. You become covered under another group health plan, unless the plan contains any exclusions or limitations with respect to any pre-existing condition you or your covered dependents may have; (see Duration of COBRA continuation section, below);
4. You become entitled to Medicare;
5. You extend coverage for up to 29-months due to your disability and there has been a final
determination that you are no longer disabled;
6. Bankruptcy of Whitehall Jewelers.”
“Since Whitehall is indeed in bankruptcy proceedings, what am I supposed to do about my COBRA coverage, which was supposed to start September 1st? I called and spoke to someone named Susana on the 3rd, since I had not yet received my packet, and she said that she would be sending it out ‘right away.’ I told her that I was concerned about there being a lapse in coverage and she told me not to worry, that COBRA is retroactive and that I ‘could just pay out-of-pocket until my coverage reinstated.’ I told her that it would be at the very least, hundreds of dollars in medication costs and that I could not ‘just pay out-of-pocket until my coverage reinstates.’
“On the 23rd, I called again, and spoke to someone named Liz since I had still not received my packet. She said that she would look into it. She called me back the next day and said that they would be sending it out ‘right away.’ She called me again and left a voice mail for me that if I wanted the packet emailed to me, I could have that done. When I went to the pharmacy on the 28th to pick up two prescriptions, the pharmacist handed them to me with a total of over eleven hundred dollars. Eleven hundred dollars. He said, ‘Your coverage expired August 31st.’ Interesting to me, since I had given my notice on August 4th with my letter of resignation and end date of the 10th, giving you all more than enough time to get out my COBRA packet for there to be no lapse in my coverage. I was able, with a Prescription Savings Card, to get the total amount due down to the paltry sum of $875.83. Mind you, I cannot live without these medications, and they are not the only two I take.
“At 9:15 am on the 30th, I spoke to someone (I neglected to get their name) who told me that in order to get reimbursed for the $875.83, I was going to have to fork over another $912.81 per month for every month that I want my husband and I to be covered under COBRA. That total is more money that I bring home in a month. Even if I work very, very hard and sell lots and lots of jewelry, that’s still a very hard number to come up with. And on top of that, I still end up paying over $200 out-of-pocket for medication. With insurance.
“Today, I printed out the email with the attached pdf file with the COBRA packet (I have yet to receive the paper copy — will I ever? I’m guessing not at this point) and read this line: ‘Your health plan coverage provided to you and your family by Whitehall Jewelers will be terminated as of 08/10/2008 due to Termination.’ As stated above: I gave notice on the 4th with intent to leave on the 10th. Why am I only now receiving this packet AT MY BEHEST OVER A MONTH LATER? If you people had done your job and sent out the packet on time, I would not have to had lay out $875.83 for two prescriptions and I wouldn’t have this lapse in coverage. I have to go to the pharmacy again in about a half hour, and it is going to cost me another $199.73. I guess I can ‘just pay out-of-pocket until my coverage reinstates.’ And forget about groceries for dinner tonight.”
