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I became Representative Payee (SS) for Mom, Medicare thinks she lives at my address, and this is a problem with services paid by Medicare.  I manage all of my mom's financial and medical care from a distance. She lives 200 miles away in a memory care residence. I am representative payee for Social Security. My address is on her social security, but they know she lives at a different address. SS passes my address to Medicare. (Medicare only has this address and it only can come from Social Security.)

For DME (durable medical equipment), suppliers can only provide from her Medicare address (200 miles from where she lives). She has been denied for a wheelchair. She would be denied for any future DME prescribed in her area because she doesn't 'live' in the same area as her Medicare address. Nor will a provider in my area, supply DME to a location 200 miles away. 

I thought I did the right thing becoming rep payee, but I wonder.

I have talked with Medicare multiple times, the DME supplier multiple times, with no success. As a result, the local business (where my mom lives) had to write off the cost of her wheelchair, and the family ended up making other wheelchair arrangements outside of Medicare. 

I'm sure I'm not the only caregiver in this situation.  It's important that any financial/legal/medical information comes to me.  I am very concerned about future DME needs as I was told that no supplier where my mom lives would provide equipment to her with a non-local address. (Her Medicare address is mine due to SS/rep payee.) 

I'm about to call my two senators about this. What have others done?

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Thanks for the info. But, I have been in touch with the state of NJ and if she is not physically living at her house, she is not entitled to her frozen tax rebate. Haven't asked about the homestead rebate yet. Now she is in NH my lawyer has recommended that I pay no taxes. Mom has no money and I am not guaranteed being able to get my money back.
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JoAnne - if your mom still owns her home but is in a AL or NH, she & you as her DPOA may NOT want to change her address. You keep it at her old house.
Why? Well if so, then property is still under whatever homestead or senior programs allowed, so she gets a homestead exemption on properly taxes, or can technically still get homeowners coverage on property insurance. Perhaps decreased senior rates on city services. She probably will need to do some sort of "right of return" statement to keep it as an exempt asset if she's on Medicaid - for my mom this was a form provided by the state & included in the annual medicaid renewal paperwork. & also the tax assessors office had a form as well to keep it as homestead.
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Never thought of contacting Medicare and Social Security about Moms AL address since she still owns her home. Now she is in long-term the NH is her payee for SS and her pension. So I guess they know her new address. Can't see how they assume that Mom is the same address. There must be. number of payees that live elsewhere. Like lawyers.
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Where SS is involved it took 1 yr for them to get things right & return $8000. I suggest call senator's to get done fast. There are papers on internet to fill out & bet you won't be sorry.
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Denial for wheelchair by Medicare may be as simple as her doctor signing off on the need for the chair.
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What I did was to rent a postal box in the city where my late mom lived. Now USPO & UPS have rental boxes. But for us what worked (& was pretty ideal) was renting one at at independent shipping & mailing center. If there's a university or college nearby your mom, there will be a couple of these to choose from; and I've found they are used to being lots more creative in dealing with things. You will need an ID to open one (yours or moms) but it's in your & mom's name. & this now becomes moms new address for her for everything from SS, medicare, insurance, utilities, etc. that needs to have a address in her city /county/ state. As its an independent biz you can work up a relationship with them so they do things for you all that make dealing with moms mail easier. The place I used would call me if something that looked important came in too. Now I did have it set up that every 3 weeks I would get an FedEx pack of whatever mail mom got, so $wise it does add up but as its a continuous revenue source for the biz, they will happily do this!

Between the rented box & doing all the I could on-line, it made dealing with moms affairs & accounts relatively manageable (i live in another state) for all the years she was in lL and then a NH and then even through probate. Perhaps this could be the solution for you as well.
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I had a similar problem. I also take care of all paperwork for a friend that lives in another county. When I first started doing this I just submitted paperwork to the post office address to forward mail to my address. This can only been done for a limited amount of time. I then wrote a letter to everyone that sent bills, his health care plan, his union pension etc. Explaining that I did the paper work as he is unable to drive and has a 750' driveway that he cannot walk to his mailbox. I made a copy of his county property tax bill that has his home address on it and sent it stapled to the letter.
So far it has worked for me.
I wish you luck!

ROSEPETAL
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I haven't been though this but I'm wondering if you contact your local senator or congressman's office if they can help. I had a friend who had issues with SSI and our local congressman's office assigned an advocate to help her. It's worth a shot. Hope everything works out for you!
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