TO THE EDITOR:

We are writing this letter to file a complaint as to how our case was handled through Chisago Co. when we applied for medical assistance.

We started out by sending a medical assistance application to the county in November of 2005 and we were denied for being over income.

In Jan. of 2006, Douglas was diagnosed with gastric cancer. At this time, clerk 1 had our case and Fairview Lakes had faxed her medical records and bills on Jan. 20, to begin the SMRT process. On April 14, the financial representative from Fairview Lakes talked to clerk 1 again and found out she had not done this SMRT process. Fairview Lakes again mailed her a copy of previous medical records and bills. At this time, she also informed Fairview that our case had been given to clerk 2, but we had not been notified of this. Fairview left a message for clerk 2 on April 21, and then proceeded to leave her at least four messages and neither of us ever received a return phone call.

On June 21, Fairview called the county to explain its frustration of not having heard back from clerk 2. At this time, Fairview was told that clerk 2 was no longer handling the case and it had been given to clerk 3. Again, we had not been notified by the county of this switch. When Fairview talked to clerk 3, she explained that the SMRT process was still pending and may be denied for a second time. Fairview then began to work very closely with clerk 3 on our case.

On June 23, Douglas was again denied SMRT. Fairview then asked for clerk 3ís help in trying to figure it out. Douglas had a portion of his foot removed on June 19, so Fairview asked clerk 3 if we could appeal with the SMRT office on this basis. Douglas transferred to a nursing home for wound care and the nursing home would not take him because he did not have insurance. He did have Minnesota Care, but he was on the limited benefit (for a terminal cancer patient?). Just two cancer treatments took care of that amount.

On June 27, Fairview decided to get Outreach Services of Minnesota involved. They were informed that as far as Outreach Services was aware, patients who are considered disabled by the state automatically qualify for medical assistance. Fairview then called clerk 3 at Chisago Co. Clerk 3 agreed and said if the county had known Douglas was on SSDI, we would not have had to go through the SMRT process. Clerk 1 from was aware that Douglas had applied for SSDI; however that information was obviously not passed on to the next two financial workers. But even in light of this fact, we still had to get all of our bank statements since January and pay stubs for the year before it could be determined if we were eligible for assistance.

Douglas has terminal cancer and diabetes and has many stressors and problems related to those two things. Patricia has had to care for Douglas on a regular basis, running him back and forth to the doctor on usually a daily basis. On top of that, we have had to worry constantly about insurance and how he is going to pay these bills when he cannot work.

So, after all this, we still do not qualify for medical assistance because Patricia was left a mutual fund from her deceased mother, which she would lose 45 percent of the funds if cashed in now and then it wouldnít even cover a tenth of the medical bills. The first financial worker on our case was aware of the mutual fund so why would we have to go through this when the county already knew we would be denied? It doesnít make sense. Not to mention, we were told if it was a 401k through a recent employer, it would count as an asset. What is the difference from one retirement plan to the next? Itís ridiculous that we are expected to have nothing left to retire on.

My question to you is what went wrong in this process? We have fallen through every crack there is. Why have workers been changed three times without anyone notifying us of the changes? Why has the ball been dropped each time that change has taken place? Why do you have a financial worker who is also a supervisor that does not even return peopleís calls?

We are completely disgusted with the whole system and would like someone to tell us how we are supposed to survive. Shame on the county, shame on the state, shame on the lawmakers, shame on everyone who makes our system this way.

Douglas B. Horton
Patricia L. Horton
North Branch