Children found legally responsible for parent's nursing home bill
invite response
2010 Sep 18, 3:34am 38,053 views 54 comments
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zzyzzx
2015 Dec 23, 7:20pm
zzyzzx
2015 Dec 23, 7:20pm
She most likely gave Power of Attorney and Healthcare Directives to one the kids, which gave them the power and control to make that medical decision for her.
True, that did happen, but then doesn't that pretty much automatically make the kid liable?
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http://michiganelderlawinfo.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/children-responsible-for-elderly-parents%E2%80%99-nursing-home-bill/
So - in Connecticut, a woman was placed into a nursing home and her son signed the admission paperwork as her power of attorney. He didn't accept personal responsibility for the bill, but agreed that as her POA he would help her get onto Medicaid using her financial information. The Medicaid was denied because he failed to keep her assets below $2,000 (it appears that it was a few dollars over the $2k, but I could be wrong) and also didn't provide certain proof of information to Medicaid.
The nursing home sued him personally, stating that even though he hadn't signed as her responsible party there was an oral contract that he would do everything possible to have her Medicaid approved. And the nursing home won over $100,000 judgement. This is a precedent, and it's unclear as to how it will affect the thousands of people waiting for Medicaid to be approved while their family member lives in a nursing home.
http://www.scnursinghomelaw.com/2010/04/articles/medicare-1/family-not-responsible-for-nursing-home-bill/
This is different than the case above - the patient had given her home to her son just after a law took effect that made patients who transferred assets like this ineligible for Medicaid. So the Medicaid was denied, and the nursing home sued the family. The courts found that the patient's family wasn't obligated to return the home to her or even pay her - so the nursing home wasn't able to collect from the family. They did have to pay legal costs, however.
The bottom line here is simple: Don't sign the admission paperwork for a patient in a nursing home. If the patient is able to sign for themselves, have them do so. If not, it's not your responsbility to sign the paperwork. Most nursing homes meet with you to sign the admissions packet after the patient was admitted, so they can't force you to sign. If you have any questions, see an elder law attorney. It could save you over a hundred thousand dollars.