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Why did it take six months for them to take my mom's Social Security and she gets Medicaid and Medicare. Now they want me to pay because I didn't know that they take the money out of her account I was paying her bills with. Now they're threatening to take me to court. Is this possible? Please help me.

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Buster, have you spoken to the folks in the business office of the nursing home?
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In some states NH can go after adult children for their parents care. It was seldom used, but now is growing. You should check to see if your state is one of the ones listed. Other than that, what does it say on the admission papers? NH write those up to protect themselves first and foremost.
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The business office since the one that's yelling at me and tell me they're taking me to court I live in New Jersey I'm stressing so bad
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NH Medicaid requires a copay or SOC ( share of cost) to be paid each month from their monthly income. Unless they have a community spouse or other exemption to the SOC requirement, they must have all SS, pension or any other income paid to the NH each month. They only get a small personal needs allowance each month. PNA varies by state from $35 -$115 a mo. But all other $ must be paid to NH as the copayment.

The SOC requirement would have been in the medicaid application and in the determination letter Medicaid sent your elder. If your the dpoa you have a fiduciary duty to make sure this happens. Saying you didn’t know means you are incapable of doing your fiduciary duty...... which is an opening for the state to totally take over everything “mom”.

NH can do whatever your state laws allow to get the SOC paid. They can sue you, turn account over to collections, evict elder, ask for ward of state order to be done...... just what path depends on your state. Things like this snowball. Really if the letter was sent certified & has a time limit (like due in full 30 days), or you’ve been served papers, this is pretty serious and you need to hire your own attorney ASAP.

NH can ask for APS can be brought in to investigate into whether you as dpoa took advantage of a vulnerable adult. You don’t want to go there.....
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Also I’d like to add, moms bills or debts are of no concern to Medicaid. Due to the SOC requirement, either family pay out of their own purse or wallet pay moms debts OR she defaults on them. All the $ she will ever have once on LTC Medicaid will be whatever the PNA is. For my mom in TX it was $60 a mo which basically just barely covers regular beauty shoppe visits & some toiletries replacement.

If mom has a funeral policy payment each month, family needs to pay.
If mom continues to own her home, family needs to pay all property costs.
Credit card debt gets defaulted unless family wants to payoff.

Once on Medicaid, financial choices are stark.
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Sorry, I don't really understand what you mean about paying her bills? Bills to pay for a house, credit cards, etc. I live in WSJersey. My Mom paid privately for two months then Medicaid took over. I was told once Mom was in the facility, even private pay, I was not to pay any bills unless it was for her care. TG Mom had no credit cards but she had a house. I was not allowed to pay any utilities, insurance, upkeep or taxes from her money. The home was made payee for her SS and pension and it went directly to the NH. She received an allowance of $50 a month for personals. This $50  is considered part of the spenddown of $2000. So u have to watch that she doesn't go over that. It may cause a problem. If Medicaid is paying for her NH she should only have $2000 or less and u cannot use this unless its to pay a previous dr visit or for her personnal needs like new clothes or shoes,etc. You really need to sit down with their finance person and see what they r talking about. A child is not responsible for parents debts. I was told this by a NJ lawyer. But, if you have been paying bills out of the money Mom has (I am assuming she maybe private pay if they are drawling from her account) and it has nothing to do with her care then you may have to pay it back.
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