Please help me make Social Security do what they know is right and proper.  I have been fighting with Social Security for a year in trying to get my Medicare reinstated with what started as an issue with the US Postal Service losing my payment in December, 2013. I have tried appealing with Social Security, a state congressman and my state's insurance commission, but to no avail.

It all started back in December, 2013.  I have been on Medicare since October, 2007 for a physical medical condition.  I pay my Medicare premiums myself; therefore, I amass my payments and mail them towards the end of every quarter.  I mailed my payment for the months October, November, and December, 2013 on December 26, 2013, by Priority 2-day Express Mail and certified services. 

Towards the middle of January, 2014, I received a letter from Social Security, saying that they had not received my payment so my Medicare Part B coverage was canceled.  I looked online and saw that the USPS was reporting that my letter had not arrived:  That it had been lost in transit in Memphis, TN. 

I contacted the USPS and opened a claim, and on January 14, 2014, I received a letter from the manager, Consumer and Industry Contact for my local USPS district, confirming that my letter had been lost in transit.

Then, to my amazement, just a few days later, I opened another letter from Social Security, informing me that the credit card I had used for payment had been declined.  Unsure of what had happened, I resent payment and I wrote a letter explaining what happened, sent copies of my receipt showing the payment was sent Priority 2- day mail on December 26, 2013, and the letter from the USPS service agent referenced above and asked Social Security to please reinstate my Medicare Part B.  I did not hear anything else.

Not long after, we were informed that my husband was going to be laid off at the end of March from his position at a telecommunications company for which we were just moved across country for in early 2013, as they were eliminating his position company-wide.  His last day of work was April, 1, 2014.  We had group health coverage until May 1, 2014, after which we were switched to COBRA.

I hurt myself very severely not long after my husband's job loss due to complications from my health conditions.  I engaged in treatment over the course of 5 months, including doctors' appointments, physical therapy, and epidural injections.  We were very surprised to be informed, towards the middle of August, that the COBRA we had from my husband's job loss was only paying my bills at 15%, even though we had hit the out-of-pocket maximum back in February, because they were saying I had Medicare or was Medicare eligible. 

I began to appeal this with our insurance company.  I also went to a local Social Security off on September 9th, 2014.  I asked them to please help me reinstate my Medicare Part B after I explained all that had happened.  I was told they could do nothing for me.  I then asked the man helping me if there was any special provision that could reinstate my Medicare Part B because of my husband's recent job loss.  I was told there was not and all I could do would be to wait for open enrollment in January, 2015 for coverage in July, 2015.  I found that surprising, as with any employer-based insurance policy, one can always be added or released from an insurance policy due to a life event such as job loss of a spouse.  When I said this, I was told again that there was nothing to be done. Believing I had no other options, I began the appeal process again through my husband's former employer and our insurance company, which I was informed that I had lost in the middle of November, 2014.  I called Social Security at this point, and was told that there IS a special provision for cases such as mine, and that they did not know why I was told otherwise at the local office, but that I only had 8 months from the time of discharge from my husband's job.  By this point, it was the 21st of November.

After I was informed that I had lost the appeal, I then contacted a congressman for my state and my state's State Insurance Commission.  I heard quickly back from the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, saying they were unable to help me, as the insurance plan was self-funded and the office had no jurisdiction over that type of plan, or Medicare. 

Around this time, I became ill with the flu, (for which we had all been immunized).  Because of my lowered immunity from my medical conditions, I soon after became ill with multiple complications and what would ultimately would become pneumonia, for which I was hospitalized, in the middle of December.  I was very ill and unable to proceed much with the state of my situation.

Five days after being released from the hospital, I went to another Social Security office , After listening to my situation and looking through all of my documentation, a woman agreed to file an appeal with Social Security on my behalf, asking for my Medicare Part B to be reestablished back to February, 2014.  I just heard back from my congressman's office that this final appeal did not look good.

This concerns all of us American citizens, because it seems that Social Security and its employees don't either know its own policies or just don't abide by them.  We are very concerned because we have learned through this whole process that there seems to be very little oversight over both Social Security or self-funded insurance plans.  They seem to make arbitrary decisions on the individual level with very little recourse.  Please help me make Social Security see individuals as people and have them do the compassionate and correct thing by reinstating my Medicare Part B, if not from January, 2014, to at least May 1, 2014, when, per their own policy, I was eligible. 

Thanks!