Pace woman mistakenly declared dead faces cancer healthcare issue amid government shutdown

PACE, Fla. — A Pace woman was mistakenly declared dead by the federal government.

The family says the Social Security Administration is calling it a clerical error.

The family didn’t discover this until the woman was diagnosed with cancer and found her healthcare coverage was cut off.

WEAR News talked to Patsy Rosher on Friday inside her daughter Catina Lacsamana’s home.

Rosher did not want to go on camera, but said the Social Security Administration declared her dead in May.

“It all started in May when we lost my father and my mom moved in with me to take care of her,” Lacsamana said.

The family tried accessing Rosher’s survivor benefits after her husband’s passing.

“She would see it pending in her bank account, but before it would post, it would be sent back to the US government,” Lacsamana said. “Come to find out when my father was declared deceased, so was she. Therefore, she was not eligible to get any benefits.”

Lacsamana noticed an influx of medical bills addressed to her mother, but didn’t know why — until she went to see her mother’s doctor.

“We went to go to the doctors appointment and they told us she was no longer covered,” she said. “And come to find out her social security benefits have been terminated, as well as her Medicare and her supplemental insurance.”

Lacsamana says her mother was diagnosed with an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer in September and desperately needs to begin chemo therapy. But they will have to pay out of pocket until the government’s clerical error is resolved.

“This was a sense of urgency for us, knowing what she is facing medically,” Lacsamana said. “We headed down to the Social Security Administration office and we’re told that we wasted our trip, that there was nothing that they could do as far as her benefits were concerned — that basically due to the government shut down, their hands were tied.”

WEAR News took the story to Congressman Jimmy Patronis on Friday.

He said the issue may take time to address due to the government shutdown.

• WEAR News: Is it being handled right now?
• Patronis: “Probably not, because there’s a lot of work being handled by a skeleton crew. This is what we do. We pick up the phone, we call, we advocate and we break things loose. This is the first I’ve learned of it. But I’d love to go and engage on her behalf.”

Shortly after WEAR News’ conversation with Patronis, his office called Lacsamana.

While she’s thankful her mother’s situation is being addressed, she says the nation’s healthcare system needs work.

“The lack of empathy from people who are there to serve the people,” Lacsamana said. “And I feel like I’m a healthcare provider — I’m a nurse practitioner and I see patients like this every day with their healthcare not getting the coverage that they need. I feel like as a society and as the greatest country in the world, we’ve gotta do better.”

Congressman Patronis’ office said this type of incident is unfortunately common. He said his office will work to address this for Rosher.