This has been a really rough week for me. Normally I would talk about my film adventures during the week but I just can't do it today. I wanted to talk you all about something that happen to me the other day and how it affects me as a person with a disability and in a wheelchair. I was in class getting ready to start and I get a call from Rehab Tech. Rehab Tech is a company that I've been apart of for over 10 years. This company along with The Rehab Institute of Chicago (R.I.C.) has supplied me with my manual wheelchair and power wheelchair and they have been very good to me.
Well I was in the process of getting a new wheelchair though both places when I received a call from them. I was expecting to hear that my new chair is read but something wasn't right. I was told that everything was all set but that some other company had charged my Medicare for a wheelchair. I was confused because I never asked another healthcare company to sign off on a wheelchair expect for Rehab Teach and R.I.C. so I was baffled. I thought about it for minute and then I remembered that in September of 2011 my mom started getting phone calls from a Doctor from this healthcare group in Morton Grove, IL saying that had a wheelchair for me and was ready to deliver it to me. Now first off, I don't know this doctor and I've never met him before but the thing that bothered me the most is that how can you have a wheelchair for me when you've never met, you don't know my disability, and haven't done any measurements on me. I'm a tall person person and in order to get my new chair they have to measure me in order to get the right specifications for the wheelchair and this doctor has done none of that and yet you have a wheelchair for me, get outta here!
This guy continued to call my house until my mom told him that if he called again she would report him and the company for fraud and the calls stopped but this doctor still went through the process anyway and charged their wheelchair to Medicare. I was pissed off at this point because I wasn't gonna get my new wheelchair from two companies that I have had a great relationship with all because of some shady doctor and healthcare company screwing me over. I told my mom about the issue and we went through the process of calling Medicare and filing for Medicare fraud and during the conversation over the phone when the customer service agent asked us if I was on the Medicare website and said no. Come to find out, this shady company was trying to hack into Medicare trying to block the agent for filing the fraud claim...Unbelievable!!
Well after all of that the claim was filed and now were waiting to get everything cleared and soon I'll be able to get my new chair hopefully soon but I was really upset at the fact that this other company was trying to screw me over and this happen a lot to other people who depend on their Medicare to help them out. There are a lot of healthcare companies who to this type of sleazy, shady business practice and get away with it and that's what makes me mad. I never thought I would be in this situation but I was and it sucks.
Next week I'll get back to talking about my filming adventures but I really wanted to talk about this because it just really upset me and I wanted to share with you how I felt about it.
Justin
