This morning when I got to work I called Shay Murphy, Medical Disability Adjudicator with the Florida Department of Health. 1 I called the (800) 821-8122 number on the bottom of the letter my sister was mailed on September 20th. 2
The letter, addressed to my mother — who died on August 12, 2012 — states:
We are currently developing evidence for your Social Security disability claim in order to determine your eligibility for benefits.
We have requested information from Halifax Health and Woodland Terrace (we must have these records even though she is deceased). These sources may refuse to send them since she is deceased and may require whoever has power of attorney to sign a new release. I am including 2 new releases o be signed by the power of attorney individual AND you should include a copy of the power of attorney paperwork. Thank you for helping. As of this date, we have not received this evidence. Therefore, we are unable to make a fair determination of your claim.
1 The website subdomain, appropriately, is “doh”.
2 The outgoing recording on her voice mail box confused me momentarily, because in it she states that she’ll be out of the office from September 24th through the 28th and not returning until October 1st.