My mom was just recently placed in a nursing home due to her dementia. I have power of attorney. The nursing home had me sign admissions paperwork telling me that I wasn’t responsible for the payment when I asked. After I signed all the admissions paperwork I’ve been handed other pages to sign when I came to visit that I wasn’t even sure what it was for. Then, a month later I received a bill for 9400.00 in my name. I called the business office of the nursing home and they told me that I am responsible for her payment if she does not get approved for long term insurance, since she is pending right now. They said there was a page that I signed saying I would be responsible for the payment. I asked them if they can switch the paperwork and make sure my mother is responsible for the payment, because from what I read the page just said the patient was responsible for it. They said someone from admissions would contact me, so I’m waiting on that. I just want to be prepared just in case my mom does not get approved for the long term care insurance.
I tell people over and over again not to assume POA if they do not understand what they are doing and how to do it. A POA is provided by the document the help of an expert. What you don't understand you must get clear with a visit to an elder law attorney, hopefully the one who wrote the POA.
A POA never signs their own name.
Signing your own name is signing as the "responsible party".
You can only sign as the POA. So say your mother is named Irma Smith and you are name Babe Smith. You are her poa. Then you SIGN EVERYTHING from checks to admissions as "Irma Smith by Babe Smith as POA".
Make no mistake, this Facility KNEW THAT COMPLETELY and they were FRAUDULENT in letting you sign that if you told them you are her POA.
Now you go to administration and tell them that and tell them you want new admission papers and the others destroyed or you will RUIN THEM IN COURT.
You need to see an Elder Law Attorney and learn how to do a Fiduciary legal job as POA keeping meticulous records of every penny in and out of accounts.
I beg people here not to take on POA without learning how to do it. "Ignorance is no excuse before the law" is the old adage. You have to know how to do this.
Please contact an attorney emergently. Meanwhile if they call and say you signed you tell them you are seeing an attorney and will sue the pants off them for trying to hold a POA responsible to pay for her Principal. Tell them they KNEW you were POA and they asked you to sign legal papers as a responsible party and that they knew they were doing wrong and you are calling an ATTORNEY TODAY.
You call the business office of the nursing home and tell them what happened with you is fraud and that the NH tricked you into signing documents you were told were something else. Then tell them that you've discussed it with your lawyer and are giving them a chance to stop the shakedown attempt on you or the state's attorney general will be contacted and they will be charged with fraud.
This what I did and not only did they have to refund the money they stole out of my parent's bank account, they also had to refund some that was paid out to them because insurance was covering it. That's fraud.
Don't let these people shake you down. They're trying to illegally collect more money and that's why they do it by nefarious means of slipping in documents you don't understand.