My 91 year old mother, who lives with me and my husband, was in the hospital with heart failure and liver problems. She was “out of her mind” for about 2 weeks. She’s now in a nursing home for rehab to get her strength back so she can walk. Before the hospital stay she didn’t use any walking aides. Her mind is about 95% of what it had been but the nursing home wants me to sign papers that make me responsible for all of her expenses. I don’t want to do that. Insurance is paying for the first 20 days. I can use my mother’s money until it runs out but I won’t be personally responsible for her expenses. My husband and I are both in our 70’s and will need our money to take care of ourselves. Am I being selfish?
Once her money "runs out," then you can apply for Medicaid.
That said, when my father died intestate, I signed what was at the time, my rights to a third of his estate over to my mother (this is no longer law in my state as far as I know).
In retrospective I realized that my father would PROBABLY have preferred that his legacy be spent on my children’s education, but at the time besotted with grief, I did what I thought would be best for my mother.
STILL, no regrets.
ALL THAT BEHIND ME, I would NEVER have signed making myself responsible for her care.
A sweet story: We were blessed to get her into really nice places. The nursing home was a two minute drive from me and I was allowed to go visit her anytime I wanted, 24 hours a day. (Years before covid) I got a call one time if I would come help getting her to calm down. This was at ten at night. No problem. I got there and quietly walked down the hall and there was my mom in law blessing out a poor orderly. He didn't know I was watching. He was so sweet to her. I asked my mother in law what she was doing and she sad, "I have no idea." We all had a good laugh and she went to bed.
Are you her POA? If not whoever is should sign as POA. If there is no POA, you or nursing home could pursue emergency guardianship to access mom's funds for payment.