If you live in the U.S., you have most likely experienced the frustrations associated with filing taxes, obtaining a driver’s license or a social security card; and perhaps that is the extent of your interaction with government processes. Imagine magnifying those frustrations, add a constant stream of requests for documents, lengthy forms to be completed, and conflicting due dates, which jeopardize your ability to receive assistance. Then imagine doing all this when you are very ill, can’t think clearly and can hardly leave your house. It sounds like something you would want to avoid. I don’t personally know anyone who is homeless, but I can understand the thought of giving up and finding oneself trying to survive on the streets when facing this challenging situation. It also explains why, I have chosen to repeatedly get job after job rather than seek assistance, even when I am in a desperate place. Luckily, I have been blessed to have friends, family and my church to catch me before I reach rock bottom. To be fair, I feel that the process of receiving food stamps is very efficient and can be escalated if a person is in desperate circumstances. In previous posts I have spoken about the challenges I have specifically faced in this past year and a half, including taking short term disability (STD) and losing my job due to illness. What I now want to share is the “non-medical” side of this past 18 months. I was blessed to have a job where I could apply for STD and LTD (long term disability), any costs were paid for by my employer. The STD was rather quickly approved, I received 60% of my pay for 13 weeks. As my health problems looked to last longer than 13 weeks, I then applied for LTD, this was again through my employer’s private insurance company. I was told that I should also apply for Social Security Disability (SSD) at the same time. I did all of this. I was granted the STD, but denied LTD. The process of assessing my need for LTD was to request all medical notes and any tests from the doctors who were treating me. This involved phone calls, faxes, email, mail, and trying to make sure the proper information was being given to the correct person and confirm receipt to meet the deadlines. Throughout this process, I continued to direct the insurance company to my psychologist as he had a very good idea, including a great amount of detail, about how poorly I was doing. Although, the company took copies of all his notes-- I was meeting with him at least every two weeks for 50 minutes. This gave me a chance to share much more information than I could in the 15 minute appointments with my psychiatrist. Long story short, I was denied, in good part because the insurance company wanted a definitive statement that I was not able to work, and when my psychiatrist would not give it, they brought in an outside doctor who spent all of five minutes discussing my case with my psychologist. I was denied LTD, which I appealed and which I was denied a second time. It was frustrating and it would have been a great help to have been receiving LTD (50% of my salary) all these months. However, I understood as a private insurance company, they really had the freedom to choose whatever parameters they wanted and deny me if I did not fall within them. Therefore, I knew it was a 50/50 chance. As I had been required, I had filed for SSD, I retained a disability attorney, which was highly recommended if I wanted any chance of being approved. She also had me apply for SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance). At the time I retained her, she explained the way the process of applying worked. She stated that 90% plus of all disability applications are denied the first time a person applies, hence my subtitle, “Guilty Until Proven Innocent”. I was given massive amounts of paperwork to complete and again my doctors’ notes were requested, they had forms to complete, etc. Clearly, an attorney was needed to manage the what, how and when for the application process. I put more trust in her than I would have otherwise. My cognition and memory were still diminished and so the challenge of just doing my part was already a stretch. I won’t go through the step by step process, but here are the things that I would recommend if you go through this process.
My current status on the disability front; I have been denied twice due to two incompetent psychiatrists and I am now waiting to see a judge, which takes 12 to 15 months. In the meantime, trying to receive financial or medical assistance is difficult since it looks like I don’t have a disability and I am just trying to work the system. A final note, there was a stark contrast in the way I was being treated by my psychiatrist prior to my application for disability. In fact, I had been seeing him for two years, without a problem, prior to this. Once I applied for disability I was viewed and treated in a completely different manner . This is maddening; to add insult to injury, I have an illness for which I am discriminated against and then when I try get help, the very medical professionals who are supposed to be treating me, discriminate against me. As promised, I will write about some of the legislation that is being pushed to make some improvements in our medical treatment, but as usual I have given you plenty to read for now. Keep hope, honestly, it gets better; even with all these trials, I have so many blessings that keep me buoyed up.
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