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Living Woman Reported Dead Social Security & Medicare Cut Off When 83-year-old Martha Lawler refused the services of the hospice Odyssey Health Care, Medicare was informed that Lawler had "died." Social Security (SS) stopped her monthly payments of $994 and Medicare cut off reimbursements for oxygen. Odyssey blames a keypunch error. The Indiana Department of Health and the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) have informally cleared Odyssey of any wrongdoing. According to Jerry Schwartz (Associated Press), Mrs. Lawler and her daughter, Jane Joyal, decided they did not want the services of Odyssey Health Care. Lawler felt pressured by an Odyssey employee to get a hospital bed and oxygen machine through the companies' supplier. Lawler was happy with her own bed, and preferred oxygen tanks over a machine which could fail during a power outage. When the employee was asked to leave, Schwartz reports, Lawler and her daughter were told, "You know, Mrs. Lawler, you will be sorry...You do need our services." Later, Joyal learned from her mother's oxygen supplier that Medicare refused to pay their portion of the bill believing her mother dead, and Lawler's SS check did not arrive. In order to prove to SS that her mother was still alive, Joyal had to transport her mother with wheelchair and oxygen to the SS office. Even after the "live" appearance, Lawler's so-called death remained in SS computers. Month after month her payment did not arrive. Month after month she was told the error had been finally fixed. The next month it would happen again. SS even deducted $1,988 from Lawler's bank account; at this point, she wrote to Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) requesting his help. A spokesman for SS says the agency is "very sorry this happened." The same spokesman notes upon receiving reports of deaths, SS does not wait for death certificates. Instead, it cuts off benefits and relies on the alleged dead coming forward to set the record straight. It was 365 days after Lawler was falsely reported dead and nearly two months after she actually died, before SS paid what she was owed. n Source: "Medicare Reported Living Woman Dead," Jerry Schwartz, The Associated Press, May 15, 1999. Editor's note: The fact that Social Security requires a death certificate in order for surviving spouses and other surviving beneficiaries to collect benefits, yet still does not require one to cut off benefits to beneficiaries "believed" dead is a deplorable double legal standard. If you have experienced a similar problem with your Social Security or Medicare benefits, a problem in which you cannot seem to reach resolution, your Member of the House or one of your Senators may be able to help. Performance of "constituent services" is an important part of the work done by their offices. This article first appeared in Volume 4, Issue 9 of "The Social Security and Medicare Advisor" newsletter (September/1999). To receive future editions of "The Advisor" in its special, free e-mail version, please click here. | ||||||||
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