QMB Medicare Savings Extra Help benefit cancelled

[icantdu]

What is the name of your state? IL

My QMB benefits has been cancelled. The state said I make too much.

Would appealing to the human services without a lawyer be best option?

They said you can appeal by a letter I got. I did try to book a call with the local legal aid but they may not represent me by their website statements.

I get Medicaid and Medicare. I've always had QMB. They seem to have wrong information. I've given them correct information months ago. I do have a mutual account that is a Obama era type text deferred account that the Social Security office doesn't even count. My land lord doesn't even count it as a asset.

QMB helps pay co pays, Premiums, and most other things.

I've always had the same asset and my SSI and SSDI is under $1000. I can't work due to my disability. I've given all my updated assets, etc info and they still have it wrong.

I've had QMB for years and was not able to work. It doesn't make sense this happened just this year

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? IL

My QMB benefits has been cancelled. The state said I make too much.

Would appealing to the human services without a lawyer be best option?

They said you can appeal by a letter I got. I did try to book a call with the local legal aid but they may not represent me by their website statements.

I get Medicaid and Medicare. I've always had QMB. They seem to have wrong information. I've given them correct information months ago. I do have a mutual account that is a Obama era type text deferred account that the Social Security office doesn't even count. My land lord doesn't even count it as a asset.

QMB helps pay co pays, Premiums, and most other things.

I've always had the same asset and my SSI and SSDI is under $1000. I can't work due to my disability. I've given all my updated assets, etc info and they still have it wrong.

I've had QMB for years and was not able to work. It doesn't make sense this happened just this year

An appeal will only help you if they actually made a mistake in counting some of your income or the account you mentioned. You need an expert in QMB benefits to help you determine that. You won't find that kind of help on an internet forum unless it is a forum specifically oriented to QMB issues.

 

[commentator]

Post pandemic there have been many updates. Famously in my state they're looking at things differently, camping on incorrect information and disqualifying lots of people who have formerly been eligible. The only way to appeal is to go back through them, the actual agency. Unfortunately in most cases, an attorney isn't going to be an expert on any type of disability program, it's just not that lucrative a speciality for an attorney, and most people who need this help cannot afford an attorney. But do, every way that you can, using every appeal available to you, ask the agency to relook at this decision to deny benefits. You do not need an attorney to keep the appeal process open. However with most programs, there IS a very finite amount of time in which to file the appeal after you receive notice of the decision, and once you've familed to meet that appeal deadline, there's nothing that can be done. Quickly make an appeal, even without an attorney. Keep trying to get in touch with legal services. In most situations like this, legal services would be a reallly good source of help for you. I don't understand what you are reading which tells you they cannot help you. Let them tell you, keep calling. But file the appeal even if you don't get hold of them.

From the sound of this, they are determining that this mutual fund is countable income, when as you say, other agencies, and their agency in the past has not counted it. So appeal. No expert needed to do this. Use every appeal available, get as many other eyes to look at this issue as possible. They have in many state agencies hired a lot of new staff, and some of them are not adequately trained.

 

[icantdu]

Yes I've asked my local senator office to look into it.

 

[Bali Hai Again]

From the sound of this, they are determining that this mutual fund is countable income, when as you say, other agencies, and their agency in the past has not counted it. So appeal. No expert needed to do this. Use every appeal available, get as many other eyes to look at this issue as possible. They have in many state agencies hired a lot of new staff, and some of them are not adequately trained.

Agree! Pitiful! And they’ll tell you anything to cover their ignorance to get rid of you!

 

[commentator]

Repeat here, even if you have called the governor, or your state senator, or the FBI or the CIA, or whatever, PLEASE also make sure you have appealed the decision with the agency that denied the benefits. Because no matter who looks into it, you MUST file a timely appeal of any sort of decision. There will be a hard copy somewhere of the decision and of the appeals process, which you need to go through and in a timely manner. You do not need to say WHY you disagree with the decision, you do not need to present your evidence that this is a bad decision at this time, you just need to APPEAL the decision in a timely manner. Make sure you have done this! Then you can take it higher, appeal to others, ask the state legislator to look into it. Do not let them get rid of you. Persist in your efforts to contact them by phone or electronically until you have successfully gotten the decision to deny you these benefits appealed.

From my many years of experience in working with government programs, I will constantly repeat. These workers are not the enemy and their pay does not increase and they are not given extra credit if they cut people off, deny benefits, etc. However, there are a lot of them who are unfamiliar with the rules and are not particularly eager to work with you or help you. That's just human nature, some people love to say "no." But you need to be persistent, not adversarial, and follow the designated procedures, which so many people, being told no, simply dry up and go away and seek help somehwere else. Do not do this. Keep pushing it. I wish you much success.

 

[Taxing Matters]

From my many years of experience in working with government programs, I will constantly repeat. These workers are not the enemy and their pay does not increase and they are not given extra credit if they cut people off, deny benefits, etc.

I agree with commentator 100%. A lot of people who have never worked for a state or federal agency have negative views about them despite not having much, if any, real information about how the agency really works. When I was a revenue officer for the IRS (the IRS personnel who seize businesses, cars, homes, etc, to collect taxes due to the IRS) I would run across taxpayers who thought that my decision to take an action they thought too harsh was because I received some kind of bonus, bounty, or other monetary benefit for every seizure/levy that I did. It was not true then and it is not true for reveneu officers today. My pay and benefits were the same regardless of how many seizures I did or how much money I brought in for the IRS. The rules imposed on the IRS by Congress and the Treasury Department prohibits the IRS from using collection statistics in evaluating collection personnel. Instead, the focus of all the employee reviews is whether the revenue officer made appropriate decisions on their cases. If the right decison was to close the case as currently not collectible then doing that was a positive for me because it was the right decision even though that doesn't bring in a penny for the government.

People who work at federal agencies that give out various benefits (and I suspect the same is true in every state as well) are not rewarded for the number of times they say "no". Again, the focus for rating the employee is whether the right decisions were made. For a citiizen who gets an answer that they do not like, it's easy to blame the employees for being biased or motivated by some financial incentive to reject as many people as possible. But that's not the case for pretty much every federal or state civil service employee. They simply follow the rules set for them by top agency officials, Congress, and the White House. If you think the rules used are unfair, the people to go to for change are your federal or state elected officials. They make the law and they ultimately decide what rules agencies will adopt.

In the meantime, as commentator stressed, keep following the rules for appeal and do it timely. That's the process that can get the immediate decision reversed. Action by Congress or the state legislature takes time and usually only affects benefits paid after the change is made. Lobbying your state and federal elected officials is playing the long game — getting the rules changed so that in the future you'll be more likely to benefit. The appeal is the short game, that's what will determine, based on the present law and agency regulations, what you will get today.

 

[commentator]

I saw a bumper sticker yesterday which I thought was one of the dumbest thoughts I have ever heard. It was, "I love my country, it's the government I do not trust!" And I was thinking of how I heard an older woman who was very involved in our state government say that many people hate government, say the don't trust the government, but to her, the government meant very positive things, like roads built and schools run and a lot of things accomplished that could never be done by individuals or even small communities. Her point was that if for some reason you are dissatisfied with what the rules are or how they are affecting you, you should get involved with making them better. But in the meantime, we do need to work within them. The more control that is taken away from the larger government and controlled at a more local level, the more patronage and buying of influence and clannishness and favoritism and unfairness there is in providing any sort of benefit to individuals.

I have actually heard people in church/religious groups discussing whether they should provide help to a needy person or group, as to whether they were "worthy" poor people. Nuff said. End of my rant here:}!