Bureaucrats

John went to a group home in Texarkana, Texas, about two years ago. He pays around $700 a month to live at the home, with Medicaid paying the remaining cost.

John’s mother, Mrs. R., remained in the same house where she has lived since 1959. She brought John home on weekends, took him to church every Sunday and to bowling every other Saturday.

In late March, my wife and I found out political lobbyists had stolen more than $23,000 from Mrs. R.’s checking account. Mrs. R. agreed to a change of address so we could filter her mail and keep the wolves from her Social Security and Teacher Retirement money.

We knew nothing about the brains of bureaucracy.

In August, a letter addressed to John arrived in the mail. Bureaucrats who run Medicaid in Texas decided John had moved to Arkansas.

Logic: Mrs. R. changed her address to Arkansas; therefore, John had moved from the group home, to a place near Little Rock.

The fact is, no one moved. Mrs. R. stayed with Priscilla and me for six weeks, but neither she nor John moved anywhere.

The bureaucrats did not see that fact; they assumed an address change meant a physical move. No one within the system of bureaucrats talked with anyone else. A couple of telephone calls from an office in Austin to an office in Texarkana would have shown John still lived in the group home.

Instead, bureaucrats in Austin removed John from Medicaid because, a letter stated, he “had not proved that they lived in Texas.” That’s right. John had not proved “they” lived in Texas.

Grammatical ineptitude aside, bureaucrats were not to be persuaded by phone calls from my wife, nor from Texarkana offices. Proof! Proof we must have!

Eventually, the incorrect ruling was … Not fixed, because bureaucrats never saw a mistake. Change in mailing address equals an interstate move. What happened was, Priscilla filled out explanation forms and, with help from people in the Texarkana offices, got the forms to whoever could and would make a decision.

The decision was not that John was reinstated into the Medicaid system, but that the forms and calls instituted a new application.

The situation was resolved, though, and with bureaucracy that’s often the best thing.