Your Check is NOT in the Mail...

“Stop, Children, what’s that sound…everybody look what’s goin’ down…”
~ Buffalo Springfield


I was in Globe, Arizona when Carolyn called and told me that we did not receive our check from Cochise Health Systems for services rendered during the month of November, 2002.

“They get slower everyday,” I told her through a crackly cell phone. “I know you wanted to do payroll today. Why don’t you go ahead and print the checks just to get it out of the way? When do we have to make a deposit?”

“Well,” she said, “payday isn’t until Tuesday, so if we get the deposit in by Monday morning sometime, we’ll be okay.”

“If it doesn’t come in a later mail today or first thing in the morning, I’ll run down to Bisbee and pick it up,” I promised her.

Cochise Health Systems had delayed checks before; this was not new, and, although neither of us was alarmed, I felt a coldness in the pit of my stomach.

The next morning, I drove down to Bisbee and walked up Quality Hill to the County Finance office. The clerk looked “not glad to see me.”

Before I had a chance to ask her if she had a nice Thanksgiving, she blurted, “Mary, you need to have Carolyn call Sue in Finance.”

Because of the many copper-laden mountains, it was impossible to get a Sprint phone signal in Bisbee, and driving toward Sierra Vista from Bisbee, the signal would not come in because of the closeness of the Mexican border.

When I walked into our office, Carolyn was on the phone with Maureen Giacomimi, Head Case Manager from Cochise Health Systems. “Well, I guess we can do it, Maureen,” she said. “I just don’t understand why. Over a logon error?”

Carolyn looked puzzled as she hung up the phone and turned to me. “Maureen said that I logged onto the e-billing system wrong, and that I got into the main frame.”

“How did you log on?” I asked.

“The same way I always do,” Carolyn replied, leaning back in her chair. “hellocochise.carolyn.” She sighed. “They want us to submit hard copies. Our electronic billing has been suspended.”

The cold feeling in my stomach tightened.

“Mary,” Carolyn looked at me and stated flatly. “Cochise Health doesn’t have any money.”

“Carolyn,” I replied, “this is really weird. Even if you had logged on incorrectly, which I’m sure you didn’t – why would they suspend our electronic billing over a logon error?”

In retrospect, is clear to us that because they had no funds to pay us, our e-billing was suspended so that they could more easily scrutinize and reject hard-copy billing.

In the weeks, then months that followed, we were mentally slam-dunked at every turn by skilled administrators and lawyers – all of them liars - not admitting that Cochise Health Systems had no money.

We sought relief from AHCCCS, not realizing that the entire system had crashed from the NCFE bankruptcy. We appealed to every agency and every person whom we thought might assist us, to no avail.

We submitted stack upon stack of clean billing statements on top of stack upon stack of clean billing statements, only to have them rejected for payment with reasons that went beyond ridiculous. All of a sudden, we could no longer have the client’s Power of Attorney sign the time sheets (the very same POA that signed the client up for AHCCS and Cochise Health Systems!).

After a few weeks, I was sick to death of it. I did not know why, but I knew that Cochise Health Systems had us dancing like monkeys on a string trying to get paid for services rendered, and I knew that they had no intention of paying us.

One of our clients was a young man who had tried to hang himself in jail and didn’t quite accomplish it. He had been in a semi-vegetative state for years, and his father was his Cochise Health Systems – paid caregiver, working through Angel Team. When Cochise Health Systems rejected payment for this young man and told us it was because his father (caregiver and POA) had signed his time sheet, I nearly lost my mind. One of the case managers (who, herself, had no clue what was going on, and whom I believe was sincerely trying to help) suggested that since they wanted the client’s signature, I should “duct tape a pen in his hand and guide it in his signature.”

“No!” I screamed. “I absolutely will not do that! It is abusive!” Now, four years later, we still have not been paid for services for that young man.

Our lives were suddenly consumed with trying to get paid for our caregiver services. Our payroll consisted of one hundred ninety caregivers, two office managers, two receptionists, and Carolyn and me.

Then there were the bills. Worker’s Comp, two office lease payment (one in Sierra Vista and one in Safford), utilities for the offices and pagers and cell phones, not to mention our personal living expenses and bills – we were desperate to be paid; yet CHS keep denying our payments. Finally, ACHCCS did intervene – only to tell us that Cochise Health Systems’ actions were “appropriate!”

We had no way of knowing at the time that AHCCCS and the entire state of Arizona were involved in this charade. We did not know that the county and state had lost one million, eight hundred and thirty-one thousand dollars to NCFE in unsanctioned (by the people of Arizona) investments of Medicaid accounts receivable. What we did know was that we were being lied to at every turn…but why? We could not figure out why. There was nothing in the papers, nothing in the news, no word from anyplace of the terrible wrong that was being perpetrated not only upon us, but upon the poor, elderly and disabled people who received ALTECs services. We were fighting windmills.

The ensuing weeks, then months, took a heavy toll. Carolyn and I had stopped taking our personal pays immediately, but we kept paying and working our caregivers for as long as possible with our rapidly dwindling reserves. We borrowed money from every source available just to keep going one more day. The cell phones went first, then the whole Safford office. Finally, the main office phone was turned off for nonpayment. Carolyn called a relative and borrowed enough money for the main phone – so that “Cochise Health could call as soon as the check was ready,” we thought, still in denial, still wanting to believe that everything would be okay.

The phone did not ring, and no check came. Unbelievably, most of our caregivers kept working! Even though they had not been paid and no payday was in sight for them; even though they had to borrow gas money from their friends and families; even though they, like we, were visiting the local food banks for sustenance, they kept working! They kept serving our clients and calling in their daily report like everything was normal. Our company was behind us, one hundred percent!

If this manuscript is honored by being read by any of our Angel Team Angels, please know how very much your loyalty, love and commitment meant – and still means – to Carolyn and me. I keep your precious letters of encouragement, the beautiful cards, and the sweet, scribbled notes on the back of timesheets in a box worthy of treasures. That’s what you were and still are – treasures in my life – a cherished staff of friends whom I loved and who loved me. God Bless you all!

Our financial reserves were gone, along with any personal savings that we had. Jewelry was sold; coin collections, glassware (oh, the depression glass!), and electronic equipment were all sold to sporadically pay our employees.

There was nothing left. David and I huddled up and waited. The satellite TV was long gone, so we spent a lot of time at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and playing our guitars.

The beautiful two-story house in Sierra Vista that Carolyn had been having built as a family home for raising her children, stood silent and still, all construction stopped.

It still stands there, on the corner in Canyon de Flores, a cold, empty monument to a stolen, broken dream and all that was lost.