Why I Have Tonight Off. (aka, My Ex is the Gift that Keeps On Giving)

[Rapscallion]

Wow I can't beleive that you have to go through all of that just to be able to get your medications, at least you have a, HR depatment that can help you.

Quote for truth. Decent HR departments do exist after all.

Rapscallion

[tropicsgoddess]

I'm glad your HR department is doing what they can to help you out with the meds situation. Sending good vibes your way, HauntedHead.

[Akasa]

Here's crossing my fingers for you HH.

[Barefootgirl]

Oh boy, I come back after MONTHS away, see a name I recognise so open your thread and see all this. I am so sorry you're in this position, HHNC, but thank goodness for a HR department with some commonsense and decency. I have everything crossed for you that you get back onto the programme without any hassle.

[morgana]

HH, honey, here's a . I'll keep a candle lit for you.

[Antisocial_Worker]

Update: There was some mixup with our corporate HR and our local HR, which put too much money into the check for this pay period. Local HR is working to reverse the check and will call with more info later in the day. I'll probably have a voicemail waiting for me when I wake up this evening.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

[Antisocial_Worker]

I don't think HR was able to fix the problem. I got a full check deposited into my account this morning.

I added it up and it puts me $1.24 under the cut off amount.

There's still another check coming this year. I looked up how much it would cost to be buried in the city cemetery.

I can't talk about this anymore right now.

[Becks]

I wish I could do more for you than give you hugs, but hugs are all I have.

[Antisocial_Worker]

Yesterday was stressful.

I checked my bank account and saw that a full check had been deposited into my account. I added up the amount and the gross pay for the year listed on my last paycheck stub and came up with the figure that the total was $1.24 below my cutoff point. I called the H.R. department at my factory and got no answer. I drove over and saw a sign on the door wishing me a happy holiday, and telling me that the office people had decided to take an extra day off.

Then I went over to my boyfriend's place and he pointed out that the amount in my bank account was after taxes... and the amount the state looks at is the amount before taxes.

And so my boyfriend held me while I bawled.

Eventually I got the idea to call the corporate H.R. myself and did so. I managed to get ahold of someone in payroll who tried to reach someone in H.R. Like us down here, the people in our corporate offices had decided to take another day off. However, the guy in payroll eventually got hold of the woman he was trying to call, called me back, and told me she knew all about the situation. The full check amount is supposed to be reversed on December 30th. He cautioned me not to spend any of it in the meantime.

So... maybe it's all worked out. If so, I have a paper check issued to me from my factory for an amount that's half of the check credited to my account. That will go in, and the full amount will come out, for an end result of half in and half out. The half that gets taken out will be waived until January 13th, along with the other check I'm due for 2010. If so, I'll come in a few hundred under the amount.

If I understand it all correctly. I'm going in on Monday to clarify. But yeah... yesterday sucked hard. It was a very weepy, nauseous sort of day.

[Teysa]

*hugs* again. My prayers are with you that everything works out.

[Plaidman]

And yet some people claim HIV isn't a big deal anymore, just because there's medicine for it...

Hoping all goes well!

HIV is horrid.

It basically reverses how your body adapts to diseases and infections, and makes it more suspectable, and it spreads to healthy cells like a freaking factory. Well, easiest way to explain it. Much more to it.


It's wierd, I forget the name of the act, but companies get huge funding if they make medicine cheaper for rare diseases. But HIV isn't rare anymore. (They get the huge funding just for producing a rare medicine that they wouldn't sell normally, to make up for lost profit they'd spend making it).

In the end, it's still about money. I hate it so.


*hugs* Sorry bro. We love ya here, and at least they caught it in time!

[Bella_Vixen]

I wish I could do more for you than give you hugs, but hugs are all I have.

Same here.

[smileyeagle1021]

I hate to be the one to bring cold hard numbers into it, but HR working with HauntedHead is in the company's best interest.
All it costs them is a night of lost productivity (which they likely already have taken into account by allowing for people who are sick) and a few man hours (if that much) in HR.
If they don't work with him and their insurance has to take up the slack (which even if they aren't paying for the HIV medicine, will have to pay for all the related medical problems) which will raise the company's cost.
And when the worst case scenario does happen, hiring and training new employees is not cheap... if a few man hours saves them having to hire and train a new employee, that's money saved.
Not to downplay the honest effort being put in, but recognizing reality is always helpful, especially if ever anyone else is in this situation and the company isn't willing to help, and they can point out those arguments on how helping is in the company's best interest.

[Antisocial_Worker]

This shit never ends. It turned out to be a very bad idea to call corporate, and I know this because this morning one of the H.R. people from my plant called me to tell me so. She was absolutely livid, told me I'd stepped way over the line and then proceeded to tell me that by calling corporate I'd called a lot more attention than anyone wanted to my situation. Now, apparently, the federal government is somehow involved. Also, for some reason, the H.R. people at my plant now seem to think that their jobs have been threatened by my actions.

Ominously, the woman who called me told me she wasn't going to jail just to help someone, and then pointed out that she had a house and kids to think of, then mentioned the other H.R. lady and said that while she couldn't speak for her, she doubted that woman would be keen on losing her job either.

Call it a hunch, but I doubt that they're all that interested in helping me anymore. The call came in just before I went to bed this morning so all I did -- and in retrospect this was probably for the best -- was say "Yes, ma'am," and "No, ma'am," and little else until I could ask, after being told not to do anything, if there was anything at all I could do to help. It was an ambush, and I was too tired to say much of anything else. I'm still too tired because after the call, I couldn't sleep.

So... that being that, I've sent a text message to a friend who works in the pharmacy at my doctor's office to find out how much they might charge if I have to start paying full price for my medications, and my next move will be to call the Western North Carolina AIDS Project to see what they can tell me about any options open to people who've been dropped from the state program.

Wish me luck.

[smileyeagle1021]

One suggestion, if you have any major research hospitals near you, you might see if they will treat you for cheap in exchange with helping with their trials... I know at the Huntsman Institute in Salt Lake if you are willing to help with new drug trials for cancer they will give you chemo for a hell of a lot cheaper than if you don't... I don't know if anywhere near you does that with HIV/AIDS treatment, but it wouldn't hurt to look into it (just throwing out my two cents)