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Yellowdog's avatar

Who do I inquire about my Social Security Disability payments being reduced?

Asked by Yellowdog (12216points) January 4th, 2016

I started receiving Social Security Disability back in May, and at first it was a relief. But $765 per month is not enough to live on. My other services were reduced to nothing helpful once I started receiving this paltry amount. I now go without meds, including blood sugar, blood pressure, heart, and others because I cannot afford them now,

Anyhow, I’ve recently found that my 765 per month is now only 740— I haven’t a clue why the reduction. I do get medicare parts A and B but am gouged with 150–200 dollar bills for regular medical expenses anyway, such as Labcorp and Semms Murphey for routine procedures.

I need every dollar of my disability money just to eat and minimally medicate myself. Who should I call? What can be done about this?.

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4 Answers

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

Call the Social Security Administration at 1–800-772–1213.

CarolC's avatar

Call the Medicaid office in your state. Some states will give you extra help if your income is below poverty level, you can’t have assets that are more than $2000.00, they include any money in the bank except SSD and your car. In Utah, they pay my Medicare premium and pay for prescriptions that Medicare doesn’t cover or pay the difference if the script costs more than Medicare will cover. My copays are from zero to $1.50 and I have some very expensive meds.

chyna's avatar

I second @CarolC‘s suggestion to call Medicaid. I worked for our local Medicaid office for a short time and they paid dental, medications, doctor visits, etc with little or no cost to you.
Also, some medications have coupons from the pharmaceutical company so please be sure to look your medicines up on the internet. I’ve seen coupons for expensive drugs such as Xeralto that pays an entire year for the drug.
Please do not go without your medicines. You will make your situation worse. So please go tomorrow to your local Medicaid office and get set up with your Medicaid card and get your meds filled. Good luck.

Edit to answer your question: As Hawaii_Jake says, call Social Security.

Buttonstc's avatar

Regarding your medications, there are two things you can do to reduce costs.

First, call around to different pharmacies. They will give price quotes over the phone. I and many others have found that Costco is by far the most reasonable for prices. Hopefully there is one near you.

By law you are NOT required to be a member in order to get your prescriptions filled there.

Secondly, for both Android and ios there are prescription savings Apps. I saved HUGE amounts of money when I began using them. They’re free and you just have to download them. Within the App there is a place to input the name, dosage and amount of the medication. That will bring up a list of all the pharmacies near you and what they will charge. Please check these out. You’ll be amazed at how much you can save.

Oh I almost forgot the most obvious. Ask a pharmacist for the names of generics which will accomplish the same thing for each of the drugs you currently take. Sometimes there really isn’t a good generic for a particular drug but for others there are PLENTY of generic alternatives. You need to have a frank discussion with your doctor. They have enough other things to keep track of so they are generally unaware of drug costs. Doing your homework pays off.

For example, a lot of blood pressure generics are cheap as dirt or nearly so. One of mine costs $4.00 per month and only $10.00 for a ninety day supply. Both Walmart, Kroger and others have a list of which drugs qualify for the $10 for 3 month cost. They should give you one upon request. Get to know this list well.

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