Everyday It’s a Gettin Closer

Only a few weeks left. A few things were resolved but a major bureaucratic hassle emerged over medicines.

Housing
We signed a lease for a two bedroom apartment in Pest, centrally located near the metro and bus lines. We found it on a list distributed by the Hungarian Fulbright Commission. It is furnished and comes with dishes, silverware, pots and pans, washing machine, dishwasher, cable TV, and broadband internet. The owner is an American professor who teaches in the US during the school year but spends summers in Budapest. I can pay the rent in US dollars which means we can use the housing allowance in Hungarian forints for local purchases. That way we don’t have to convert as much from dollars to forints and pay the 3% fees.

He wanted the apartment back a week before our return flight. We agreed to vacate early and will spend our last week in Europe in Venice (well not on the island but 15 minutes by water taxi.)

But now we have to get a proof of ownership (Tulajdoni lap) document from the owners and fill out a accommodation reporting forms for third country nationals (one for each of us). The Hungarian authorities want signed originals on standard European sized paper. Annamaria at the Hungarian Fulbright Office is working with all of us so we can bring the signed documents with us when we arrive in early January.

Money Matters
I requested a leave of absence without pay. It took a letter to the Provost from me counter signed by my chair and dean. I got a bit antsy after a few weeks, but it was approved. Since the Fulbright is a prestigious award, Michigan State is willing to continue to pay its share of our health premiums. When I called MSU Human Resources they had it in their system. They are going to bill me each month, but I think the easiest thing for us to do is to prepay it all before we leave.

Most of our monthly bills at home—mortgage, communications, and utilities—are deducted monthly directly from a checking account. So all we have to do is make sure we have enough to cover the next six months. Our credit card can also be paid directly from a checking account. The Fulbright stipend will go into the account in mid January (to be on the 2010 rather than 2009 taxes). We can monitor and shift money electronically if necessary.

Prescription Medicines
We have had a lot of bureaucratic red tape getting a six months supply of our medicines. We discovered we needed to request a vacation override. These are given out in three month 90 day allotments, and fortunately Michigan State’s policy allows for two a year. We hoped we could request two at the same time.

When I checked the Caremark website and also the MSU human resources website, I found absolutely nothing on how to go about this. This was exasperating since a vacation override would be requested by retirees going to Florida or Arizona for the winter. A call to Caremark revealed Caremark deals with a lot of employers with varying coverages, so nothing is standardized. (Just ask anyone dealing with Medicare Part D!). They also wondered why we need six months. Couldn’t we simply have them mail us the drugs like they do for most other people? I then learned that the standard operating procedure is to automatically deny any and all submitted vacation overrides. Caremark then promises to review these within 72 hours.

We then contacted our physicians and requested they file prescriptions for a 180 day supply. Sure enough I got a call from Olin Health Center on campus informing me that my prescription had been denied. Tom the pharmacist explained that since my prescription was generic, I could pay $33.00, which was less than the co-pay if I were to fill two separate three month refills. So I did that.

Tari’s was another story. She went to Olin and Tom agreed to call in her scripts. When he was through he said it seemed too easy and something was probably wrong. Caremark took slightly more than the promised 72 hours to approve only three of her scripts. Turns out the Caremark computerized form only provided for three scripts. Tom found out that the person he spoke with when he called it in said that the additional scripts would be “attached.” Either that didn’t happen, or the review committee didn’t notice the attachment. So Tom called them again and urged them to turn it around ASAP. After another 72 hours Caremark approved the remaining scripts, but for a 90 day supply. Tari need a 180 day supply. So Tom called them again, explained that they had already approved the first three for 180 days and got them to approve the rest for 180 days as well.