Whats rustling your jimmies?

Kajiimagi said:

Haus I remember handling this with my mother back when she retired and it was mind boggling. How they expect people that are retirement age to understand all that shit is beyond me.

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The other problem is that it's SO EASY to defraud. When I got on the phone with the Medicare people, I told them my mom's name, and my name and that I was her power of attorney handling all her affairs. How did they validate this information? Asked for her DOB and her Medicare card number and address. Then said I wasn't authorized on her account, I asked them what I had to do to get authorized and they said "Is she there? Can I talk to her?" I put my mom on the phone. They asked her her name, address, and DOB, then asked them my name and if she was OK with me making decisions on her behalf. That was it.

When done and talking to the woman about what happened (hoping I could at a minimum leave a fraud claim against UHC) she admitted it's a constant problem because there's no real security to it. I mentioned how I could have been anybody, and gotten her data off one of the myriad of data breaches out there, then just had any other person get on the phone and say they were my mom and recite the info , and then I could make the changes. She said "Yep.. but it's all we can do"

I look forward to needing to do this again in a couple years.....

Huh, so it's easier to commit Medicare fraud than to cancel a gym membership. That tracks. Tried cancelling yesterday, told I can only do it by emailing their customer service. If I can activate a membership at your gym, I goddamn better be able to cancel it there. They haven't responded yet of course. I was only using it for the pool for me and the kiddos, but the price and fees kept climbing so they can fuck off.

RobXIII said:

Huh, so it's easier to commit Medicare fraud than to cancel a gym membership. That tracks. Tried cancelling yesterday, told I can only do it by emailing their customer service. If I can activate a membership at your gym, I goddamn better be able to cancel it there. They haven't responded yet of course. I was only using it for the pool for me and the kiddos, but the price and fees kept climbing so they can fuck off.

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When I was in my 20s and newly joined the military (before basic). I had a gym membership. When I told them I was joining the military and needed to cancel they tried EVERYTHING to prevent me from cancelling. One employee,the first lady I talked to just flat out refused. The second guy told me I could "suspend" my membership up to 2 months and it would resume again after, the 3rd guy, the manager tried to sell some other membership that "suited my needs better". Even after showing them my orders they still refused.

It took my orders, printing out the Service members Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and have a fucking police officer present to confirm that it is, in fact, illegal for them to not let me go from the contract.

Pisses me off you made me remember that. Lol

Burren said:

I’ve always assumed that was the point. They don’t want people to understand.

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That's apparently one of the big reasons this fraud is so prevalent. If my sister and I weren't watching her mail and tracking what was going on she never would have even noticed that someone flipped her insurance until all of a sudden she was getting massive bills from half her doctors because she no longer had insurance they accept. Not to mention the elderly, especially if like my mom they're slipping into the Alzheimer's pit, will answer the phone and just try to be agreeable if they aren't sure what's going on. And that's a fast ticket to being taken advantage of.

I've now set her phone on essentially permanent Do Not Disturb set to where it will only ring if it's a number in her contact list.