So yesterday I flew into a rant over the latest screw-ups from the Great Desert University. Here’s an update:
LS at Fidelity left word on my voicemail while I was out running around. She wanted me to call her back to communicate some unspecified information. Of course, by 2:00 our time her East-Coast office was closed. Reached B— H—, who couldn’t figure out from the notes she left what she intended to ask. Again (again, again, again!!!!!) I rehearsed my story. He discovered that the EFT arrangement to deliver the small monthly drawdown required to qualify me for the $19,000 sick-leave payout the state owes me had never been made, because Fidelity had never received the routing information.
This was part of the eight-page form I was required to run past GDU’s HR people. The first thing the idiot who took the form off my hands did, even before she walked away from me, is rip the canceled check I’d stapled to the first page off. I said, “Please don’t remove that from the form. Fidelity asked for it and needs it so they can set up an electronic forms transfer.” Said she, “I have to Xerox it.”
You can’t just fold back the check on the first page, copy it, set it aside, and then run the other 7 pages through the photocopier’s feeder? Obviously, the stupid woman failed to reattach the canceled check.
BH asked it if was OK to process a paper check. Then in the next breath he said he had no idea whether Fidelity would send said check this month.
Next, CS at ASU’s astonishing HR department called and said the reason COBRA thinks I’m still employed by the State of Arizona is that there were “system delays in the payroll process.” She claimed to have “scheduled time” on Thursday to confer with the Department of Administration folks and said she would get back to me then.
The upshots:
1. I will not get the $500 drawdown I had worked into this month’s budget, so I will be $500 short between now and the middle of February, when the first Social Security check is supposed to arrive.
2. And I now have no health insurance coverage!
I’m going to give these morons until Thursday to sort this mess out, and then I’m going to file a formal complaint. This has gone on too long.
A formal complaint? To whom? We’re all mad here.
You have a minimum of 60 days from your termination date in which to apply for COBRA. You can get more information at this web site:
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.html
**from FaM, 5/6/2013: The rules appear to have changed since this post went online. The link provided by Pat is now defunct; here is a new link from the Department of Labor: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq-consumer-cobra.html
@ frugalscholar: If this isn’t cleared up by the end of the day tomorrow, I’m sending a complaint to the interim director of ADOA and also to ASU president Michael Crow. I also will find out if any of this stuff violates any federal regulations and if so, report it to the agency affected by that.
I also am going to call my ex-husband, who presently works for one of the higher-toned law firms in town. He may know who else to complain to.
@ Pat: Yes, I know about the 60-day thing. But it means that if anything happens to me, my son will have to do battle with these idiots to get me into COBRA. He is not allowed to make personal phone calls on the job, and none of these agencies are open outside of normal business hours. So he’ll end up having to hire a lawyer to deal with them.
But the issue is, as far as the COBRA people know, I’m not eligible for COBRA. In ASU’s books and probably in Cigna’s, I no longer am an employee of ASU and therefore cannot use the regular employee insurance; in COBRA’S books I’ve never been terminated and therefore I’m not eligible for COBRA.
Furthermore, for me to be able to afford COBRA, I have to get the ARRAS discount. That applies only to people who are terminated on or before December 31! So if ASU didn’t terminate me, then COBRA will cost something like $600, which I simply can’t pay.
I spoke with ADOA again today, and they said that I definitely had not been terminated in the system. The woman I spoke with sounded skeptical about the “payroll system delay” story. My guess is that HR screwed up and now they’re paddling water frantically trying to figure out how to fix their screw-up. Chances are they can’t retroactively enter a termination in that system (that would be typical of the sort of software ASU uses), and so now they’re up the creek. If they enter me as terminated today, I end up screwed on the COBRA. Well…I end up without COBRA, simply because I can’t pay for it. That would be $3,000 between now and May, which I need to live on this year.
The state is broke, flat broke, yet Michael Crow continues to spend taxpayer money on lawsuits that he caused. Example. Fired Prof. Kathryn Milun who won her discrimination case with the EEOC and ASUs own arbitration committee is still in litigation because Crow is stubborn and mean spirited. When will he let go?