JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - A businesswoman in faraway Montana was swamped with anguished calls after a letter informing 339,000 Medicaid recipients of service cuts wrongly listed her phone number for a help line for the hearing impaired.
The letters mailed Monday have resulted in hundreds of calls to Sharon Rivera, who lives in Columbia Falls, Mont. - more than 1,200 miles from Missouri's capital.
The Missouri Department of Social Services acknowledged the error Thursday. The two-page letter had correct help line numbers for voice calling but used Rivera's number, one digit away from the correct one, for calls from telephones used by the hearing or speech impaired.
Many of the callers are older - some are weeping, others cursing - and don't understand when she tries to explain the mistake, Rivera said. Instead of hanging up on them, she has been listening.
"This has been a nightmare for me. ... My phone rings constantly," Rivera said. "And I honestly am feeling very, very sad for the people who call."
The Legislature this year eliminated Medicaid health care coverage for about 90,000 of Missouri's 1-million Medicaid recipients.
Officials in the Division of Medical Service are weighing how to notify the Medicaid recipients of the mistake. The state also plans to reimburse Rivera for the calls to her toll-free number.
"She's been very gracious," not only to the callers but to state officials, Division of Medical Service spokeswoman Deborah Scott said.
Rivera runs a home-based business, Hawkstone Productions, that books concerts and sells music for Jack Gladstone, an Indian singer, lecturer and storyteller.
