When it rains, it pours!

It started raining yesterday while I was on the phone with Aetna. Just as I was hanging up, getting ready to call Medicare, the electricity went out and cell service at my parents’ house in the woods disintegrated. I’ve not had any service worth mentioning since then, even when I drove home. Electricity came back on around 9 p.m., but cell service and internet are still spotty.  

The reason I was going to call Medicare is that the Aetna rep said that Medicare could STILL switch mom over at her request, despite the March 31 deadline. All we have to do is call. The Aetna rep said, however, that Medicare will probably want to verify with Mom, which might be a problem. Since my parents will still likely have no phone service, I will have to go somewhere I DO have service, and I can’t take Mom with me. It’s an all-day affair to get her into the wheelchair, then the car. Plus she’s in pain the whole time.  

If we CAN simply make a phone call to get her back into traditional Medicare, it will infuriate me even more. Of course I’ll be happy because that means Mom can be admitted to a skilled nursing facility to get good care immediately and that Daddy can rest. But I will be furious because it seems like so much wasted time and energy. Why didn’t someone just tell us that? The only logical conclusion I can come to is that it costs too much money for too many people to know how simple it is and workers are instructed not to say anything unless they’re asked. 

Gosh, when it rains, it really pours sometimes, doesn’t it?