Sorry to have been absent for a little while. This week will go down in the annals of my life as one of the craziest weeks ever! My wonderful assistant Celeste is on maternity leave, so I'm alone, which means I have more work to do than ever. And the worse the economy gets, the more people need help. Some are very desperate -- tragic, even. It's hard when I have nothing to offer them.
For example, I got an email yesterday from a lovely woman with lupus who went to a doctor, presented her insurance card, and proceeded to be treated by this doctor three times, to the tune of $1500. She didn't think twice about it until later, when she was informed that the doctor is not in her insurer's network. Nobody at the doctor's office told her that or she would have known she couldn't afford to see him.
Anyway, she wrote a letter -- no answer. She wrote an email -- no answer. She wrote another email -- no answer. Ultimately, she was taken to court, a judgment was entered, and now they are garnishing her husband's pay check (she's on disability) -- and now they can't pay their mortgage and could lose their house.
What can I do when there's already a judgment entered and a garnishment has been ordered? It's just awful.
It's getting to be more and more like that every day. So many people are getting laid off and losing their insurance. I credit Michael Guss for bringing to my attention Bureau of Labor Statistics that show that almost twice as many disabled people are unemployed as healthy people. Of course they're going to lay us off first -- we're expensive and we get sick and miss work. But try to prove intentional discrimination at a time when lay-offs are so rampant.
This is the first minute I've had all week to reflect -- and I just got an email that requires some attention before I can call it a night. I just wanted to make sure you all know I haven't gone anywhere.
In fact, we are going to be upgrading our website and incorporating the blog in there, so the blog will actually be ON the website, which I'm really excited about.
So don't forget about me; I haven't forgotten about you. I'll be back. Jennifer
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
They don't garnish for medical here, thank goodness. Just taxes and child support.
ReplyDeleteHope you are feeling ok.
RR
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOops, posted under the wrong account.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to call the doctors office. I'll just say I know of doctors who hired a lawyer, didn't think twice, never bothered to read the cases, and were upset to find garnishments being entered for $150. It could be a case of a runaway lawyer. And even if the garnishment is already entered, they might be willing to drop it if you can talk directly to the doctor.
You don't need to credit me for the BLS report. That was just forwarded to me by somebody I know. I was passing it along. Thanks for the props, as undeserved as they are.
Have a good weekend.