More Florida efficiency

My wife has been setting up appointments and filling out forms to get John transferred from Texas Medicaid to the Florida version. At times, the process seemed easy, and bureaucrats received Priscilla’s heartfelt thanks for information and patience.

Three weeks ago, she got notice that a Medicaid representative would need a face-to-face with John, to ask questions and determine if John qualifies for assistance. John is almost 60 physical years old, but his emotional and functional age is around 5 or 6. An interview would establish, without a doubt, of John meeting Medicaid requirements.

The notice was a letter, complete with address and phone number. Priscilla called the office after receiving the letter. She set an appointment date for today, early afternoon.

Today she got John from his group home and drove to the address.

“The place was empty,” she said about 15 minutes ago, after returning home. “I got there, but there was no office furniture, and no people.”

She called the number from three weeks ago. A recorded voice said someone would return her call within 24 hours. That’s all that was said. No “We moved.” No “Our new address is …” Nope.

If you are like Priscilla and me, you wonder why a statewide agency would make appointments at a specific address, then empty the office and leave no new address.

I chalk it up to Florida Efficiency. We have lived here for almost 22 months and have had several meetings with Florida’s way of doing business, which is Not At All.

So, Priscilla took John back to his group home. Perhaps she will get the return call sometime tomorrow.