The Document Saga

So ok, since I last wrote much has happened. School has gone back into session, but I'll post later there. I also started making attempts to get Mom some services.

Mom's Medicare was easy to change, The Medicare and the United Health people were great to work with, but then we tried to change Mom's address with Social Security to apply for Medicaid. That was when it got fun.

First we called the local office, who told me they couldn't do it, and they didn't "take" Power of Attorney (POA). They said we needed to come to the office or set it up online. I opted for going to the office. We went to on a Wednesday, which happens to be the day they close early at noon. Well, they see us, and they tell us sure, until we give them Mom's Louisiana driver's license. It turns out to have been expired, and un acceptable. Mom's Medicare card is not allowable because SSA issued so it doesn't count. Off we go to see about getting an Arkansas ID.

We go to the Tax office and wait a few minutes. It turns out that the expired ID means no Arkansas ID for now. We will need a birth certificate.

So we go home, and I look up how to obtain a birth certificate and a marriage certificate. This should be easy. I also decide to set up an online Social Security account for Mom. Well, that doesn't work because the identification questions are odd, and they indicate stuff on her credit history which should not be there. I check out Mom's credit reports, and the questions make no sense. So no online SSA. I try phoning them, but I can't wait the hour on hold so that was a no go. I am stuck waiting for the certificates, so I order them.

Jeff Parish gets me a marriage certificate right off the bat. We learn, however, that they gave my dad the wrong birth date and made him TWENTY years younger than he was. Oh dear. I also realize I have screwed up the birth certificate request, So I Priority Mail a new request.

Three weeks later I get mail from the Office of Vital Records. Two letters one a return on the screwed up request, and the other the birth certificate. However, the birth certificate is for some guy born in 1973. AT this point, I'm like, of course. It's worse I have Mom's Medicaid phone interview the next day.

I start fixing the birth certificate issues, but there won't be any Medicaid right now because I need family to live in the house or to sell it. Siiiiiiigh.

Good news, we received the corrected birth certificate, so at least, we can get the ID to get the address changed. Everything else, we continue to work on.

I have a new respect for Kafka now having walked through bureaucracy hell. At least I can laugh.