Hi
I live in Ohio and in 2004 I lost my job due to illness and applied for disability. I lived in my own apartment in one county at that time and at the end of my lease I had to move home with my parents. This caused me to move to another county and switch caseworkers. My info from the previous county had not had a chance to be processed completely and my records were taken by me to my new caseworker. At my first mtg with this person I repeatly told her that I really needed the Medicaid due to the fact my parents were paying for a private hospitalization plan so I would not go bankrubt with medical bills. Up until that mtg I had spent over 40 days in the hospital most of it in CCUs or ICUs.
I filled out all the paperwork for her to get records and waited. First problem I had was with Food Stamps. This came after 2 months of getting food stamps in this county. After 5 months she stated that I needed to attend this mtg so I sad sign me up Of course it was not until the next month and it was a work program even though I had brought in many papers from my Dr. stating I was not permitted to work. I lost 3 months of food stamp benefits. For the rest of that year(2004) and 2005 every time I met with this caseworker I again told her how I needed medicaid so my parents could stop the money hemrrhage she repeatly told me my case was pending in Columbus. It wasn't until early 2007 I learned from Columbus the truth... NON OF MY PAPERWORK WAS EVER SENT!! It took another 7 months to get medicaid and my parents are out over 20,000 dollars because of this. Can this caseworker be held responsible for the insurance payments my parents paid out? I know they have to sue but should we even consider it?

Normally you can't sue an incompetent case worker of the state. Do your parents have the kind of money it would take to pay an attorney to take the case and actually go through with the prosecution which could last for a long time with no guarantee of any return of their money? The state would probably argue that your parents chose to pay for the medical insurance.

Nope not after this delay! We kind of figured this would be the case. I wish I could get is person fired because if she did this to me she prob is doing it to others but no one other than me seems to care!

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Originally Posted by twinkiedooter

Normally you can't sue an incompetent case worker of the state. Do your parents have the kind of money it would take to pay an attorney to take the case and actually go through with the prosecution which could last for a long time with no guarantee of any return of their money? The state would probably argue that your parents chose to pay for the medical insurance.

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I'm a little confused about the food stamps - if you live with your parents, how do you qualify for food stamps? They would if they qualify but I don't see that you would.

As "Twinkie" said the hard fact of the matter is on one side you have your parents and their Attorney - on the other you have the entire County and their Attorneys who are paid to fight this or look out the window. On salary, no time constraints.

You could certainly put your unhappiness in writing and send it to a Supervisor and perhaps the County Executive but I don't know that it will matter much. From what I read on this board Social Workers pretty much get away with murder, often when children are involved.

(And my sister is a Social Worker!)