Filling out forms
Jul. 6th, 2007 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsc...is apparently something I'm not terribly good at.
Presumably as a result of the Massachusetts' new health insurance law, my HMO sent me materials for enrolling in any of a wide variety of plans that they're offering -- one of which is essentially the same as what I have now, but for about $100/month less. So of course I decided to sign up for that. But the material they sent originally was really a request for the rate schedule, and apparently I could choose either a schedule with or without prescription drug coverage, and I inadvertently chose the one without. So I called them up and the person I spoke to emailed me the correct schedule. So I filled out what I thought was the correct form and sent it in -- only to discover that I was also supposed to send them a second form and a check for the first month's premium. (This last was particularly annoying, because we had set up to have the premiums deducted autmatically from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jwg's bank account, and apparently we have to refile the paperwork to put that back into effect.) So I sent that in also, just making the deadline, which was last Friday.
Then I made a serious mistake; I didn't check the Cambridge answering machine for a few days. When we got there yesterday (see my previous post for the story of that day), there were two messages from somebody at the HMO (not the person I'd spoken to and exchanged email with earlier, of course): the first saying that they'd received the second form and the check but not the first form, and the second saying that they'd found the original form, but that it was the wrong one. (They have separate forms for signing up for "HMO" or "PPO" plans, which apart from the title are identical in appearance.) I'm guessing that these messages were left last Friday, but since NStar had shut off our power at some point during the previous week, the answering machine had lost its clock. (It keeps the greeting and any stored messages, but loses the clock. Go figure.) Anyway, she said that if I had email or access to FAX I should call her immediately, so we could get me enrolled by July 1.
Of course my email address is on the damn form, so she could have contacted me by email, but that seems not to have occurred to her. I decided that, although it was probably too late to get enrolled for this month, I should call her anyway to find out what my status was -- but her voicemail indicated that she was gone for the weekend.
I figured I'd call her again Monday, but when we went back today (see comment to other post) I discovered that they had mailed the "incorrect" forms and the check back, with a letter saying that I should get the correct forms to them by July 25 in order to be enrolled for August. Not so bad. But annoying, nonetheless.
Meanwhile, in yesterday's mail was something from the IRS saying that they couldn't fully process my tax return (sent to them on time in April) because some information was missing, and I would I please return the enclosed form properly filled out -- which turned out to be the section of the 1040 containing the filer's signature; apparently I had neglected to sign the copy I had sent in. Why it took them two months to notice this (meanwhile having long since processed my check), I think I'd rather not know.
I should hire somebody to fill out forms for me.
Presumably as a result of the Massachusetts' new health insurance law, my HMO sent me materials for enrolling in any of a wide variety of plans that they're offering -- one of which is essentially the same as what I have now, but for about $100/month less. So of course I decided to sign up for that. But the material they sent originally was really a request for the rate schedule, and apparently I could choose either a schedule with or without prescription drug coverage, and I inadvertently chose the one without. So I called them up and the person I spoke to emailed me the correct schedule. So I filled out what I thought was the correct form and sent it in -- only to discover that I was also supposed to send them a second form and a check for the first month's premium. (This last was particularly annoying, because we had set up to have the premiums deducted autmatically from
jwg's bank account, and apparently we have to refile the paperwork to put that back into effect.) So I sent that in also, just making the deadline, which was last Friday.Then I made a serious mistake; I didn't check the Cambridge answering machine for a few days. When we got there yesterday (see my previous post for the story of that day), there were two messages from somebody at the HMO (not the person I'd spoken to and exchanged email with earlier, of course): the first saying that they'd received the second form and the check but not the first form, and the second saying that they'd found the original form, but that it was the wrong one. (They have separate forms for signing up for "HMO" or "PPO" plans, which apart from the title are identical in appearance.) I'm guessing that these messages were left last Friday, but since NStar had shut off our power at some point during the previous week, the answering machine had lost its clock. (It keeps the greeting and any stored messages, but loses the clock. Go figure.) Anyway, she said that if I had email or access to FAX I should call her immediately, so we could get me enrolled by July 1.
Of course my email address is on the damn form, so she could have contacted me by email, but that seems not to have occurred to her. I decided that, although it was probably too late to get enrolled for this month, I should call her anyway to find out what my status was -- but her voicemail indicated that she was gone for the weekend.
I figured I'd call her again Monday, but when we went back today (see comment to other post) I discovered that they had mailed the "incorrect" forms and the check back, with a letter saying that I should get the correct forms to them by July 25 in order to be enrolled for August. Not so bad. But annoying, nonetheless.
Meanwhile, in yesterday's mail was something from the IRS saying that they couldn't fully process my tax return (sent to them on time in April) because some information was missing, and I would I please return the enclosed form properly filled out -- which turned out to be the section of the 1040 containing the filer's signature; apparently I had neglected to sign the copy I had sent in. Why it took them two months to notice this (meanwhile having long since processed my check), I think I'd rather not know.
I should hire somebody to fill out forms for me.
