Pilot's Log

...Don't have no money. Besides pocket change, I guess.

The IRS refused my refund and won't let me appeal anymore, like I did in past years. I guess if I stay this poor they may audit me or something.

You may want to skip this entry if you have an aversion to TMI.

When my Mom had to choose a Medicare health plan, she picked Cariten because she didn't want to belong to Humana as she saw Humana being nothing but trouble. Soon after, Humana took over Cariten's business in Tennessee and it has proved to be just as troublesome as she imagined.

When she went through her terminal health emergency she was at a specialty clinic (covered by Humana) that had been prescribed by her surgeon (covered by Humana) who in turn had been referred by her Humana primary care doctor. The doctor in charge of the clinic determined that Mum's condition was so critical that either he or his staff arranged an ambulance to take her to the nearest hospital (also covered by Humana). Neither Dad, nor I, had anything to do with this choice.

Now Humana wants us to pay up for her ambulance ride, with their excuses being 1) the company operating the ambulance was "out of their network" (?!) and 2) her primary care doctor (who wasn't available!) had to approve or endorse the decision to transport her by ambulance.

No matter that Medicare should be covering this transportation, because the circumstances fit the Medicare rules and requirements on the matter.

We're looking at a bill in excess of $500, and paying it would hurt us. Dad's trying to challenge the charge, but the Humana lawyers are giving him the runaround.

Meanwhile, Humana's marketing division is still sending Mum junk mail asking her to expand her coverage to include dental care and other specialty services. What stupidity!

Went to the Tech Center's offices to ask what I thought would be a routine question about my funding. Turns out the wheels of bureaucracy were turning in an attempt to run me over.

Remember my Jury Duty over the Fall and Winter? Well, I had to abandon my school slot in the time between the grant paid for my tuition and the start of classes, so I had not actually attended that year. What happened, that I was not informed about, was that the school had to pay back my grant to the Federal Government. They also didn't tell me that my registration was going to lapse and I'd have to get my paperwork straightened out again. I wound up doing that, and I was assured my grant was still valid. But I was afraid that it wouldn't--and I'm still afraid of it getting revoked and me being on the hook for services already rendered.

Why is this year being so darned difficult?

Frickin' loopholes again.

Tennessee just changed the immunization requirements for secondary education this year, and all of a sudden they need proof that I got my MMR shots. My problem is that I got those so long ago that my pediatrician is dead, buried and had a public library named for him. I'm not sure my records have even survived the decades and moves that have happened since. But I have to have a doctor sign off on me so I can re-submit my enrollment papers to Tech School. Can a doctor just do a look-up on me just from my name and SSN? Or am I going to have to go to some state health department office somewhere?

*) Watching the snow melt...waiting for the next blast of weather on the horizon.

*) Updated Mum's Adobe Reader and we used it to extract the last chapter from one of her novels so a friend can record it as an audiobook this summer.

*) Got a form from Medicare's official website downloaded and printed so Dad can try to get THEM to pay for some of his July hospitalization crisis bills.

*) Planning out my March trip to Florida.

*) Called the Court; they told me the check for my Jury service is in the Mail.

*) Dad bought a new display jar for Mum's Jolly Rancher candies and for himself a pack of black socks.

Time to get caught up on the rest of my online world.

*) The day before yesterday, Mum began having problems using her computer...MS Word was refusing to load, and she only had a chapter or two left to complete her book. Today we took her CPU box to the repair shop, made a backup CD-ROM of her document files, and let the repairmen get to work on it. Early evidence is a problematic hard drive with possible damage from a virus attack. We won't know just what (or how much to fix) till tomorrow at the earliest--and we probably won't get her computer back till Monday. That's because...

*) Tomorrow, I have to get up at Oh-Dark-Hundred-Hours to take Dad to Mountain Home VA Hospital so he can receive a surgical procedure that I know nothing about, other than I'll be needed to drive him back here afterwards. But that's not as dreadful as it seemed early because...

*) The VA finally AGREED to pay his bills from the emergency surgeries done after the last Fourth of July crisis (whoohoo!). Now if he has no further calamities we can face the coming year with something that sort of resembles hope rather than looming dread.

PS: This morning Dad went through a box of books and found the house copy of The Great Gatsby. So Lynn?--You're forgiven. Again.

USELESS, USELESS, USELESS!

"One man's 'bureaucracy' is another man's 'law & order'."--Tepid 10:30

Went with Dad to Mountain Home VA Hospital today. Four hours driving round-trip for a thirty-minute consultation and paperwork shuffle.

Historical Note: the State of Franklin is the region of eastern Tennessee that includes Jonesboro and Johnson City. They tried to be the first State of the expansion after the Thirteen Colonies, but lost their bid. During the Civil War, it was mostly Unionist and might have split off of Tennessee the same way that West Virginia split from Virginia.