Talking to Medicare for LO

CaliforniaGirl-1

Has anyone had good luck speaking to Medicare on behalf of a PWD or is there yet another form I need to fill in before they will speak to me?

I am my LO's PofA and Medical Proxy. I need to call Medicare on their behalf and get to the bottom of a bill my LO has received from the surgeon who did their broken hip surgery.

Has anyone created a Medicare.com account or is it like social security where they want you to be rep payee and have a special account?

I went back through the EOBs we have received from Medicare and we have not yet received one by postal mail for this hospitalization.

BassetHoundAnn

I have a partial answer. In order to update my mom's Medicare address, Medicare said I had to go through the process with Social Security to become her representative payee. That wasn't hard, but it did take a while, a few months.

Have you spoken to the surgeon's billing office? A few medical providers of my mom's have billed Medicare erroneously, or not billed, and I straightened it out through their billing offices.

Yeah, this stuff is a pain.

JeriLynn66

Medicare.gov

I created an online account for my Father in law and clicked on Representative Payee for information. I hold POA for him but had to have this as well.

He cannot do any of these things himself, but says “you take care of me and I want you on everything I got”. He “repeatedly “ tells EVERYONE “ this is my daughter in law and she takes care of me”. So when those intimidating warnings pop up about privacy etc on those websites I just click away. “Yes I certify yada yada yada blah blah blah” because I AM his brain, his reasoning ability.

M1

I woutld talk to the surgeon's office first, they may be able to answer your question. I had a number of bills after hospitalization last summer, but received refunds later from at least two of them.

But to answer your question, you should be able to log on medicare.gov as him, and the poa should be sufficient if you want to do it by phone.

Quilting brings calm

Mom had a fraudulent charge on a Medicare EOB a couple years ago. . I submitted the paperwork at the back of the EOB about it. They called me a few weeks later. I think they may have wanted Moms verbal permission to discuss it with me. I do know they called me back again to tell me the results.

CaliforniaGirl-1

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/199260#Comment_199260

Thanks. I am already rep payee. So I wondered if that carried over to Medicare. I had to go the process for the same reason as you. Time consuming but not difficult.

I just thought it might be better to have the facts from Medicare before I start with the billing department. I did see no claim was ever filed with her supplement.

CaliforniaGirl-1

Thank you everyone!!! Such great advice. I was avoiding talking to the billing department until I talked to medicare because I was getting all geared up for a disagreement. But after reading all your comments and advice, I called the surgeon's billing department right away nd they could not have been nicer or more apologetic.

They never billed the secondary insurance.

CaliforniaGirl-1

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/199262#Comment_199262

Where did you click on rep payee? Thanks

BassetHoundAnn

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/199314#Comment_199314

That's great! Love to hear a happy ending.