They will be able to get this into a form that is acceptable to IMSS. Rawkus, you have to be under a misimpression about that: there´s literally millions of Mexicans enrolled in IMSS. There´s perhaps one-hundred thousand just here, in Cancun. Try my suggestion, if you can, of visiting at 1:30 PM. If they give you a number, and ask you to wait, as I expect they will (they always have with me, and my longest wait was about 20 minutes before they started processing my application) it will prove that you had a misimpression about it. (Go on Tuesday, or Thursday, and I´ll go with you.)
Scorpio: Dont want to talk about it until its done, sorry. V: Dont know why they turned me and many others away with that excuse. My friend used to work there as a Doc, and I know she said that they only give 10 Doc visits, which would explain the 4am lines. Maybe Ive had the same "luck" as with INM? Maybe the person in charge that morning "felt like doing it"? Regardless: Thats what they told me and others that were in line, even if we were only there so sign up and not visit the Docs. Thanks for the offer, but Im not going back until I have my papers in order
Oh, Rawkus, why are you mixing trying to get appointments with docs, with trying to apply to enroll in IMSS in your posts? Those are two completely different processes and it confuses the readers (especially me!) for you to do that. _____________________ If we're talking about getting appointments to see a doc in the Family Medicine Units, FMUs, (you must already be enrolled in the system to do that), the process is much simpler: you go to the appt desk and ask for an appointment. Usually they will be able to schedule you to see the doc within the next day, or two. You must take your "Carnet" with you. Each doctor sees a few patients a day, so normally you wouldn't expect to go in, ask for an appointment, and be seen the same day. (If you have a true emergent need to see a doctor, the emergency room is where you go.) You go to the FMU to make the appointment either AM, or PM, depending on which shift you are assigned to: you can go at any time during your shift to make appointments. There are two shifts: I am assigned to the afternoon shift so I must go to request appointments, and see docs, in the afternoon, or evening hours until 8 PM. There is no line, and no waiting, to make appointments- unless people who, 1) don't understand the system or, 2) think they must see the doc that very day, create one. [For those readers who are not enrolled I should add that, in true emergencies, IMSS will see and treat anyone. They have a schedule of fee for service that they apply to those cases: treatments there, including surgeries, are much cheaper than they would be in private hospitals but few of the doctors, and even fewer of the staff, speak English.] My most recent experience with IMSS illustrates what I've said about making appointments, and seeing doctors. I'd had what I thought was probably a viral illness, with the main symptom being fatigue. I went to the appointment desk at 5 PM on Thursday and asked if I could see a doctor that day, or the next. They said had I come in a little earlier, say at 3 PM, they could have worked me in the next day; but, as it was, the first available appointment would be Saturday, at 5 PM (the reader will remember that I'm a second shift patient and, yes, they see patients six days a week.). At the appointed time on Saturday I saw the doctor, without any wait at all. The process followed there is rational, and is designed to manage the patient flow. For it to function smoothly, the patients must understand how it is set up and, yes, the staff don't do a very good job explaining it to those who haven't used the system before; at this point, the readers of this forum now know more about it than many of the patients who are seen there. __________________________
I have to agree with V here. You don't need to see any doctors to enroll in IMSS, and I think you were in the wrong line or there was a miscommunication. When I went to enroll there was a long line (7 am, I think), but they let tons of people in... everyone who was in line. (Luckily a good friend was in charge of giving out numbers that day, and I got bumped to the front heh heh... viva Mexico!)
V: Im sorry, but it did happen. I would hardly go back a 3rd and 4th time, just for fun, now would I? Also, if you would have read my entire sentence, I stated "Dont know why they turned me and many others away with that excuse." Maybe the person in charge just "did it"? Maybe the person was new? I have no clue, but it did happen. I was there, haha. I know the Docs give 10 numbers in the morning for appointments, but have no clue why they turned me and others away when I was only about to "sign up". You'd have to ask that person in charge. I didnt even get to go inside the first visits... Now I have no business in the "front entrance"(opposite to Oxxo), which is nice. Once I get my papers from back home, I should be home free. Also, Im hardly planning on using IMSS to get treatment - just need it to get the job. I have a great Doc at the newly opened Simi at M28, next to the CETEC School. Fluent English, fast and cheap = win, win and win
(This just illustrates the difficulty of communicating, through the written word.) You were simply at the wrong building, dealing with the wrong person, if your wish was to enroll yourself in IMSS: you were, instead, at a place where people see doctors, and receive minor treatments (FMU 15), and I´m sorry that happened to you. I, and some others who post here, could have saved you all that grief. ______________________ For those who would like to know more about the enrollment process, as it applies to those who want to contract for IMSS coverage, please see p.3 of the following thread, where you can read a complete description of the process, and see a photo of the very modern and uncrowded area in which enrollments take place. The post is entitled, "Application Process". http://www.cancuncare.com/forum/living-cancun-riviera-maya/13624-medical-care-retirees-cancun.html
V: I doubt that I was at the wrong building, as I got signed up on my wifes "account". The entrance just opposite Oxxo, that is. I got a booklet with my pic and all, BUT: Apparently I have to have my own number to start working. After I got enrolled on my wifes account, the guy told me to go to the other end of the buliding, facing Plaza Las Avenidas(Pemex, Burger King etc.), and once there, the lady was nice enough to inform me about "acta patronal", which is when the company does it all for me. THAT info they could have shared the first visits(when I simply went to ask for info...) I cant answer you why they shut many of us out - you'd, again, have to ask the person that ran the show that morning. So Im "secure" now, but when/if I need to go to IMSS, my wifes details will show up. Just that that wasnt enough for the company. Now its all on the right track, with the help of my embassy
IMSS coverage is family coverage: when your wife was enrolled, she would have been asked for details regarding other members of the family, which would have resulted in your being enrolled in the system; getting the Carnet, the booklet in which records of your doctor visits, treatments, etc., are kept, is the second step in the process, which it sounds like youve now successfully done. (Here´s where my experience differs, and it´s hard for me to understand what kept happening to you- no appointment was necessary for this step, and FMU15 is open during business hours to accomplish this: we both got Carnets, without any appointment, and without any waiting.) As for getting your own number, if you look at the photo page of your Carnet, you´ll see you´ve got a unique number for IMSS. It was generated when your wife enrolled. (Check it, and then let me know if I was right about that: both I and my wife have our unique number printed on p. 1 of the Carnet. Even if this proves to be the case, I could imagine a scenario in which IMSS would require that the family account be reconstituted with you as head of family, starting the whole process over again, if you´re employed; but, maybe the process would be simpler than that required to open a totally new account, like ours was.) Don´t know if you´d want to bother with it, after all you´ve been through, but there is one other step- which is somewhat optional- that of getting the IMSS hard card ID, which is done only at Regional General Hospital No 17, right behind Gran Plaza. The only usefulness of it I can imagine is if you were traveling it is proof you´re in the system.
V: Nope, I was not enrolled when she got hers. No one asked her, and IF they would have, I would never have waited 4 years to do it, trust me I dont have her carnet here, but I will check when she comes home. She got hers in 2007(maybe even had hers before leaving Mexico some years ago..?), and I got enrolled on HER number just a couple of days ago. Regardless: The carnet I have now is NOT enough for the company, which their legal rep. informed me about, in detail. Once I have my "certificate", I will get my very own number and that will be the end of that story, haha. But right now, I am on my wifes "account", which is fine for treatment etc, but NOT enough to be employed. When it comes to the appointments: They were not appointments per say, but numbers, just like in INM. Except in IMSS they didnt give a piece of paper, just gave it vocally. And like I said before: I have NO CLUE why they gave that excuse those two days. I tend to believe what authority figures tell me, but this all changed after arriving to Mex(well, Thailand had the same stuff as well..) once I started dealing with INM. You wont believe how messed up INM was 4 years ago. Now its child's play compared to back then, and I can only guess what it was like even further back... I have no doubt that this will be sorted out, as my embassy pretty much promised to deal with it all. These are the times Im happy I paid high taxes, haha Ps. The card sounds interesting, and I might look into that. Sure as hell beast carrying around the booklet.
After what you've suffered in waits and uncertainty I'd hate to send you on a wild goose chase but when you get the hard card ID at Regional General Hospital No 17 they also give you the official document evidencing your enrollment in the system. It is called the Documento de Acreditacion de Derechohabientes IMSS. The process requires that you show up with your passport, and the original printed CURP, and your certified apostiled translated birth certificate- there we go again! _____________________ Eventhough you don't believe at this point you're actually enrolled- I have a different take on what's happening: to know for sure check the "No. Seg. Social" on the photo page in your Carnet with the same number in your wife's Carnet: if they are different the number in your Carnet is YOUR unique identifying number in the system. None of this will satisfy the administrative requirement of your company if each employed person must have their OWN account into which to pay the taxes owed by your company for its IMSS contribution, and that's what's really at the bottom of all this running around they're putting you to.
