Last week Drew submitted his portion of his residency application through ERAS. There are various parts of this application. These parts include:
- Photo of applicant
- Profile
- CAF (which I think stands for "Candidate Application Form")
- Personal statement
- Four letters of recommendation
- USMLE transcript (test scores)
- MSPE ("Medical Student's Performance Evaluation" aka Dean's letter)
- School transcript
As the student Drew is responsible for the profile, the CAF, and personal statement. The USMLE transcript is uploaded by the USMLE and the remaining parts of the application must be uploaded by the applicant's school. So far Drew's school has only uploaded one of his four letters of recommendation... nothing else. Granted they cannot upload the letters they don't have (and they may not have all four yet) and none of the schools can upload the MSPE until October, but they still should be able to upload his transcript, his photo and his school transcript! Neurosurgery used to be part of early match (meaning match occurred in January rather March and therefore everything happened much earlier), and many of the schools are still on an early schedule. Four programs have already started offering interviews (we applied to three of those, but have only heard from one). And, I know I am being a little neurotic, considering it is only September 8th, but I know part of me is a little justified considering that I have spoken to people at other programs where their schools have submitted all the the parts to their application. Drew emailed the school last week to see if there is anything we could do to get them to upload the necessary parts and we still haven't heard back.
Okay, and that is only the half of it.
Today, I got home from work and went to check the mail. What do I find? A letter from a collection agency. Saying that we owe over $300 dollars for Drew's medical bills. I find this pretty interesting considering that we haven't even gotten a single bill, prior to this collection agency notice. Back in June when Drew was on his away rotation we did get a notice saying that he needed to fill out a claim form for insurance coverage and while he did not do it on time initially (because he was gone) he did call the school, filled out the form and got it cleared up. Or so we thought. When he had spoken to the person from student insurance they said that we would receive a bill for whatever wasn't covered by insurance. But, no bill ever came. Just a notice from collections today. And from what I understand, I don't think medical companies are allowed to even submit a bill to collections if insurance is still pending. So needless to say the collection agency is going to get a nice response "disputing the debt in writing" as the letter requests. And Drew's school and/or the hospital where the medical bill came from may also be getting an earful tomorrow!
Update as of September 9, 2009 - a friend of Drew's told us that student transcripts are not scheduled to be uploaded until mid-October so that the school can add elective grades but that if he wanted we could request to have it uploaded sooner. Drew emailed the appropriate person and his school transcript was uploaded by this afternoon!
In reference to the medical bill I drafted a letter to the collection agency (and cc'd the medical center and student insurance) letting them know that we never received a bill or a notice of coverage or denial of coverage.
3 comments:
same thing is happening to my fiance. His school only has one letter of rec. in and it's really frustrating because all the work on his end is done. Why can't people do their job? It's not like this process impacts the rest of his life or anything. ha
So frustrating!! The rec letter delay happened to my husband too. He just kept emailing the recommender directly - in the nicest possible way. He'd try to find new "excuses" to email the guy - a high grade in a class, a publication, etc. Just keep badgering them and they'll get it done.
Also - the collection issue is AWFUL. I struggled with my insurance company and my hospital for months over a disputed claim. (Which was disputed for a STUPID reason.) Even though I was in constant contact with both sides, the hospital contacted a collector. It was horrible. I ended up having to report the insurance company to state insurance commissioner.
Good luck on both counts - both so frustrating.
When it rains, it pours. I hate dealing with insurance companies, but it sounds like his med school isn't much better! I hope you can get them to upload the requested items so he can get his interviews! I understand your anxiety, though.
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