Rant #1,948: I've Had Enough

My level of patience with those who are not acting as they should has eroded, and as the title of this Rant suggest, I've had enough ... I really can't take it anymore.

I don't know what it is, but since my family returned from our vacation earlier this month, there has been no relaxation, just seemingly utter chaos, and I have had enough.

Including last week's job debacle, which I described to you on Monday, so many other things have happened that have tried to break my family's back and spirit, and while they haven't done that, I can say that we are better than this, way better than this.

I returned home yesterday from another grueling day at work, where I see plenty of people twiddling their thumbs while my nose is at the grindstone, and hoping for a relaxing evening, I got just the opposite.

First, we know that the government is in knots, but really, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income are completely a mess.

Earlier this month, my son, with his disability, was approved for Social Security after a long and arduous process.

Due to some procedural errors on SSI's side, he owes some money to the government, and that bill was paid in full earlier this month. I sent the check by certified mail, and I have all the documents attesting to the fact that the office received the check, as it was signed for.

Yet, we continue to receive threatening letters, saying we need pay our son's "debt," or else.

After about the sixth such letter--which, of course, alerts us to the fact that we forgot to pay the bill, and that if we, in fact, did pay it, we should ignore the letter (six of them?)--I have had enough.

I am calling the number given on the letter this morning and try to straighten this whole thing out.

And as you probably know, calling a government office is akin to getting a disease, so I am prepared for anything ... if I can even get through.

Then we have the case of my son's doctor, who is a competent physician but an incompetent one at the same time.

Not only has his office accused us of not paying our bills--for the second time--but he recently fouled up my son's prescription to the point that we had to pay three times what we normally pay to get his medicine.

First things first. We have a copay when we meet with this doctor once a month, and the first time we saw him, we paid it right up front.

The second and third times we met with him, we did not pay anything, as it was not asked for, and we were under the impression that insurance had taken care of it.

We were alerted by the doctor's office that that was not so. so the last time we visited the doctor, we paid out bill in full, in cash, and received a receipt for the money.

Fast forward to yesterday, when while at work, we received another message from the doctor's office that they had never been paid.

What did the doctor do with the cash we gave him, and why are his system and the office's system not intertwined to show that we paid our bill in full?

To add insult to injury, the last time we saw the doctor, he electronically sent out my son's prescription, but completely messed things up by typing in the wrong spelling of our last name.

Since our insurance company did not recognize the last name, we were charged the full price for my son's medicine--even though the social security number matched their records.

We tried to reverse this, but since the prescription was already put through, our insurance company would not budge, and the pharmacy where we picked up the prescription was little help, not recognizing the matching social security numbers, either.

So we were stuck with a bill three times what it should have been. My son needed his medication, so we paid the bill, but I alerted the doctor's office about this ... and they have yet to return my call.

I will call the doctor today--getting through to his office is also akin to contracting a disease--and see if this all can be worked out.

Yes, I have had enough.

Let me hope that today at work, things go as smoothly as they can go, and that all my calls go through and everything is copacetic by the end of the workday.

Somehow, I doubt that is going to happen, but you have to have hope, I guess.

Have a good weekend. Speak to you again on Monday.