I received two letters that surprised me when I got home yesterday. Most of you who have been reading my blogs know about my trying to get the shingles vaccine. Though my doctor
wrote me a prescription for the vaccine and the fact that my HMO covers
it I have been unable to get it filled at Walgreen's, CVS, Publix and Winn Dixie. I was told that I would have to mail the prescription to a company
called ICOREHEALTHCARE and they in turn would send the vaccine to my
doctor who would call me to come over and get the injection. One of the
letters was from ICOREHEALTHCARE and it started off, "I hereby inform
you that ICOREHEALTHCARE is not a provider for vaccines, due to your
insurance plan." And this was after I had called them and they said
send the prescription and my HMO said they could fill it.

All his is to get a vaccine to prevent shingles and save the insurance company a lot of money in the future--and we wonder why health care in the USA is such a mess!!

The
second letter had a credit card enclosed with my name on it and a
letter saying I was approved, to just call and activate the card. I was
about to do that when I saw that it said my credit limit was a dollar! 
A DOLLAR?!?!?! I turned the letter over and in small print it said
something about my paying $35 a month towards my debt!! I immediately
called the customer service number--not the activate number--and had a
tussle with the lady on the other end who wanted a lot of information
and I argued with her on every point but in order to find out what was
going on I had to give her the answers and, consequently, I did.

What
I found out that was an old credit card company that I had owned $2,000
to in 2004, and  was advised by a legal aid lawyer not to pay it, had
engaged them to send me the credit card. IF I had not seen the
$1 credit limit I would have activated the card and, basically, signed
a contract that I would pay the credit card company $35 a month.

Be careful opening your mail, folks!