I went to my local Long's Drugstore to pick up some RX refills. I was asked if my healthcare coverage had changed. Paid Prescription said I was not covered by their plan. We have had the same plan for years and years. We never had any problems until last January when I got lost in the computer and it took 6 weeks to get it fixed. In the meantime, I paid out over $600 to get the meds I despratly need. I was finaly reimbursed for part but not all of my cost.

I am sure that this is caused by some glitch in their Y2K remediation. This is happening to all GTE retired employees who are covered by Medicare who have dependants who are not covered by Medicare and aare not in a HMO. GTE is a big company with lot's of employees. I wonder how many dependants like me and my 2 daughters are without RX coverage.

-- Homeschooling Grandma (mlaymon@glenn-co.k12.ca.us), July 13, 1999

Answers

Grandma:

You said: "This is happening to all GTE retired employees who are covered by Medicare who have dependants who are not covered by Medicare and aare not in a HMO. GTE is a big company with lot's of employees. I wonder how many dependants like me and my 2 daughters are without RX coverage."

This is very confusing to me. Are you suggesting that your husband was once an employee of GTE and is now insured by medicare alone? Are you suggesting that your husband was once an employee of GTE, is now insured by medicare and has continued with the insurance coverage provided by GTE for you and your daughters? I don't have company insurance experience, as I've been self-employed for so long, yet I know that both the IRS and my health insurance company consider my children no longer dependents once they reach the age of 19 (if not in school full-time,) or age 24 (if in school full-time.) Have you contacted GTE to determine if their terms of eligibility have changed? Was there a time frame upon retirement wherein dependents would no longer be covered by GTE's insurance?

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), July 13, 1999.

Is that you, Tron?

-- goat boy (no_say@portmeirion.com), July 13, 1999.

Anita-LEAVE HER ALONE!!!!

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), July 13, 1999.

Don't ya all know that every time something goes wrong, it's a Y2K problem?

-- Mr. Winky (fakeAddress@here.com), July 13, 1999.

Hi, Johnny:

I thought about you when one of my cantaloupes just fell off the vine and I found it sitting on the ground. It sure is good!

I have no problem with grandma. I like her, in fact. I'm simply trying to get to the bottom of her problem.

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), July 13, 1999.

Anita is asking legitimate questions - they are the kind of things absolutely needed to evaluate a typical programming failure:

(this condition) + (that condition) if (the other condition) only if (the final condition) ..... yields the conclusion -> policy canceled by computer.

VEry easy to program in this kind of error during incidental or separate maintenance. And it is almost impossible to "find" this of "exclusion" error during regular testing. There are too many billion potential "if then" conditions to find all of the potential failure methods.

BUT - in normal processing of regularly maintained systems, these kind of errors are slowly "weeded" out. So the current conditions of almost all software programs no longer have these "hidden" failure modes - in this case, the failure mode cancelled her ploicy. In other systems, it may send 10,000,000.00 to a retirement account, or peint the user's zip code in the "amount due" column. Who knows?

The fact remains - that the sudden, massive and hurried program revisions that are typical of a "rushed" y2k reprogramming job create an atmosphere that generates this kind of error. Worse, the typically hurried, incomplete, and terrible job of testing that has been forced by the mad rush to finish all changes before the deadline mean that this kind of failure will become common over the next few months.

I could disagree with Anita's method of questioning - it is not "customer-friendly" and appears to be presented in such a way as to intimidate the grandmother in question - but the actaul questions, if we were the person responsible for fixing the program, are realistic and the ones that I would need to know before I could fix the program.

Notice that it may take a ahile to find, isolate, and resolve these kind of problems - she had no idea her policy was cancelled until she tried to get drugs.

So, how long will the y2k impact last? Perhaps months in some industries and for some customers.

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), July 13, 1999.

Gee, Robert.

I had absolutely NO intentions of intimidating grandma. If I did, however, I sincerely apologize.

I've encountered similar things with my own mom and the benefits that my dad had before he died. They only last so long. My mom expected them to last forever, but that wasn't the case.

Anyway, grandma, forgive me if I sounded harsh or insensitive.

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), July 13, 1999.

Anita, You did ask some good questions. My husband retired from GTE after 23 years. One of his retirement benefits was that he and his dependants would continue being covered for health insurance at a nominal cost. When he turned 65, his insurance became a medigap coverage, paying anything medicare did not. The coverage for me continued as before. We adopted our 2 grandaughters in the meantime. The problem is that in Jan. and July 1999, When GTE downloaded their beneficary list to Paid Prescriptions, people who were on medicare were covered but many dependants were ommited. In January it took 6 weeks to get it fixed. Now it took 10 days. They got it fixed last night and I was able to get my meds this morning.

The reason I feel that it is Y2K related is that we had no problems for over 5 years on this program. The problems only cropped up this year when businesses are trying to upgrade for Y2K.

-- Homeschooling Grandma (mlaymon@glenn-co.k12.ca.us), July 13, 1999.

Grandma:

Thanks for the clarification, as well as the E-mail. I'm pleased to learn that your problems have been resolved. Your statement regarding adoption of your grandchildren made things clearer. I've been paying TOP DOLLAR for private insurance for my oldest daughter (who chose to leave home at 17 and sow her wild oats, taking a job that provided NO insurance.) Now, at age 20, she's decided that she's moving back home to work part-time and attend college full-time. This changes her status both for insurance AND IRS purposes. I'll take any break I can get on either.

-- Anita (spoonera@msn.com), July 14, 1999.