Office helps woman get Medicare coverage reinstated
Editor’s note: The Dayton ombudsman’s office provides weekly columns to the Dayton Daily News to bring awareness to issues it sees.
A woman contacted the Ombudsman Office because her physician’s office informed her that her Medicaid coverage had stopped. When she contacted the Montgomery County Department of Jobs and Family Services, she was told that her case had been transferred to a neighboring county because her home address was in the other county. She was directed to contact the other county’s department of Job and Family Services to restore coverage. When she followed the instructions and contacted the department in the other county, she was informed she did not live in that county either. Confused and dismayed, she contacted the Ombudsman for assistance in restoring medical coverage.
Ombudsman Office staff investigated the matter, and the investigation revealed a series of problems. The first was that the property where the woman lives is in Montgomery County but has a postal address in a neighboring county. Some of the houses on the woman’s street are in Montgomery County and some are in the neighboring county. The woman’s case had actually been transferred to the neighboring county’s office of Job and Family Services last July, but the woman did not know that. The other county mailed a request for bank statements and proof of income to complete a recertification. The woman did not respond to the request because she did not understand why the other county was requesting the information. The transfer of the case, with the subsequent lack of response to income verifications, led to the woman’s case being closed.
The Ombudsman recommended that the Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services request the case be returned to them because the woman’s residence is in Montgomery County. The case was returned and the woman submitted the required income verifications. Her medical coverage is now restored.
The Ombudsman Column, a production of the Joint Office of Citizens’ Complaints, summarizes selected problems that citizens have had with government services, schools and nursing homes in the Dayton area. Contact the Ombudsman by writing to us at 11 W. Monument Ave., Suite 606, Dayton 45402, call 937-223-4613, or by electronic mail at ombudsman@daytonombudsman.org.