By Stephen Nohlgren, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Chris Baker, 42, of Pinellas Park goes through several weeks of correspondence with government agencies. He’s even reported himself for fraud. “I’m trying to do the right thing.”
PINELLAS PARK — It's not that Christopher Baker isn't thankful for Medicare and Medicaid. He is disabled and they covered huge medical bills for years.
But he wants to fend for himself now and, so far, state and federal governments can't get their acts together enough to let him go.
Baker, 42, has tried for six frustrating weeks to discontinue Medicare, without success. He has made more than 200 phone calls, sent messages online and even reported himself for fraud to get somebody's attention.
But nothing has worked.
It all started in July, when he married an old high school flame and qualified for health coverage under her plan at work.
Brain damage from a virus left Baker, a former management consultant, with excruciating headaches 14 years ago. They flare up, particularly if he spends time outdoors in the sun. He collects Social Security disability payments, Medicare and — until July — a Florida Medicaid benefit that pays Medicare's Part B doctor bill premiums and Part D drug benefit premiums.
In July, the Pinellas Park resident notified Florida's Department of Children and Families, which processes Medicaid eligibility for Florida, of his marriage. His changed circumstances disqualified him for Medicaid benefits.
Then he contacted the Social Security Administration to discontinue Medicare. Social Security processes Medicare eligibility and deducts the monthly premiums from people's Social Security checks.
But officials at Social Security refused to drop him from Medicare rolls. Florida Medicaid was still paying Baker's premiums, they said, and as long as that continued, he couldn't decline coverage. So he went back to the Department of Children and Families. "I was on the phone for over 10 hours,'' Baker said. "It takes seven minutes to punch in the codes and get the prompts and then it says, 'Sorry, all our operators are busy. Call back later.' ''
He couldn't get through on a website Florida maintains for Medicaid clients, he said, because it would no longer accept his case number.
Finally, he reported himself online for Medicaid fraud. If the state was still paying Medicare premiums, he didn't deserve them, he figured. And he didn't want to be slapped with a big bill down the road when the federal government figured that out. But even that effort to get attention generated no response.
Since July, Baker figures, he has made eight phone calls to the Social Security Administration, four to Medicare and maybe 200 to DCF offices. He made it through the DCF phone tree and talked to a real person four times, he said.
This week, he received another letter from the Social Security Administration dated Sept. 8: He will continue to be enrolled in Medicare because Florida is paying his Part B and Part D premiums.
"I'm between a rock and hard place,'' he said. "I'm trying to do the right thing. I'm trying to follow the rules morally and legally. But nobody seems to be able to do anything about it''
Contacted Monday by the St. Petersburg Times, Social Security spokesman Frank Viera said the agency will look into Baker's problem, contact state authorities, and try to resolve things in a few days.
DCF spokesman Terry Field said Baker's Medicaid case has been closed as requested. "We cannot do anything to speed up the Social Security Administration's processing'' of the case, Field said. A client specialist would also call Baker to see if the state could be of help.
DCF's call center receives about 2 million telephone calls a month about all issues, he said.