Nursing home bill after death. What's my responsibility?
Apologies if this has been discussed before. Prior to my mother's death, I was joint tenant on her house. After she passed away in a nursing facility in November 2022, I received an INCORRECT bill for her stay. (Her nursing home bill was paid both in part by Medicaid and in part through private pay). After reviewing all previous payments with the facility and sending copies of those payments (I would pay them from my credit card and reimburse myself from my Mum and my joint checking account,) they sent a "final" bill - this all took months to resolve due to lack of response on their end. This final bill is approx $14,000.00. After her passing, I had her name removed from the property deed (all before the billing fiasco). My mum had no other assets at the time of her passing other than her small checking account. She did not have a will and with her property being transferred to me through death, what am I responsible to pay? There currently are no assets in her name (she only had the house as joint tenant). Thanks so much for any advice, I'm just lost in thinking I'm going to have to find $14,000 to pay this bill.
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The bill is payable by your mother's estate (which includes her home, which can have a lien put on it). Whomever is now the executor of your Mom's estate pays the bill. If there is no executor and there is no estate and your mother left no monies to pay this bill it is returned to sender saying "deceased; no estate".
That I can see, your paying the bill and reimbursing, as long as you kept meticulous records, doesn't make you responsible for your mother's bills (despite being a very very poor choice of doing said payments) once she has passed.
If the Nursing home continues to claim you are responsible I would see an attorney for advice; their actions may ruin your credit if you inadvertently signed something in all this that designates you legally responsible for her bills.
DO KNOW that her ESTATE (including her home, which they can put a lien on) IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HER legitimate bills.
1.
Something is amiss if part of the bill was Medicaid and part private pay (outside the the $130 or so Medicaid allots for personal incidentals). You cannot be in a NH on Medicaid and also a private pay (e.g. $14000). What exactly is the $14000 for - that needs to be addressed first and foremost.
2.
As to any bill (doesn't sound like there should be one IF she was on Medicaid), it will depend. Did YOU sign a contract with them? What are the laws in your state? Some states have "filial" laws which can put a burden on children for their parents' liabilities.
However, per a Mass Mutual 2023 article: "“Other than the landmark case in Pennsylvania, we have heard of no cases in which the adult children ever actually paid for their parents’ nursing home bills,” said Alex Guerrero in an email interview, director of operations for the American Elder Care Research Organization, which manages the Payingforseniorcare website.
See -> https://blog.massmutual.com/planning/nursing-home-bills
3. As for the house now being in your name, I suspect that is now shielded, but check in with an attorney after you evaluate 1 & 2 above.
Best to you.
1. She had a monthly shared cost of $4089 after Medical was approved which was dependent on her income. After the shared cost was paid to the NH, it left her with approx $140 month for "incidentals." (not enough to cover utilites in her house). Prior to then her stay at rehab was fully covered by Tricare Insurance but was limited - her TriCare coverage ran out since she was no longer "improving" with her rehab. That was then we were informed we would need to private pay approx $8,000 month. (This has since gone up to $12,000 mo (!)). We worked with a rep at the NH and after Medical was approved, she had the shared cost which left her with approx $140 month for "incidentals." (not enough to cover utilites in her house).
2. *I* did not sign any admitting papers but my brother did. He says he signed nothing as guarantor. California is a filial state though :-/
3. My concern is now that the house was in both our names at the time of her passing and whether that means I am liable to pay?
So, if Mom paid her full SS payment, less the money allowed for her Personal Needs, and any pension she received, she paid what was due on her side. Medicaid pays what they feel is their share and that is what the NH has to except. If Medicaid made an error in calculations, then the NH needs to go after them.
IMO there should be no balance as long as you were giving them her full SS payment (less personal needs amt allowed) and any pension she received. What you need to tell them is there is no estate, so no money. You are not responsible for her debt unless u signed as her responsible party. But, there should be no balance as long as Mom paid her portion.
Have you talked to the Medicaid caseworker and run this by them. If Mom spent down all assets to the cap and is giving the NH her monthly income less the personal needs allowed, they get no more. If there is a balance due between Mom and Medicaid, then the difference may be an error with Medicaid. Maybe they did not calculate what they owed correctly.
I will use Medicare as an example. Drs and facilities that honor Medicare are under contract with Medicare. They can submit what ever they want for payment but Medicare only pays what they consider reasonable and then 80% of that. You are responsible for the 20% Medicare does not cover.(hopefully ur supplimental will pay the balance or you need to) So the Dr charges $1000 and Medicare only authorizes 800. The doctor being under contract with Medicare cannot charge you the $200 difference between the 1000 and the $800.
Same with Medicaid, those Drs and facilities are under contract to abide by what Medicaid pays them. How long was Mom in the NH. Could it be that when calculations were done that because you were handling payments the $140 was not considered so Mom was short that amount of money a month. That would be $1680 a year. Or Medicaid didn't figure in the $140. IMO, Mom paid her share so the office needs to find out where their error is. You have proved your part, they need to prove theirs.
How on earth is there an outstanding $14,000 bill?
The nursing home has already collected what your mom's share of it was. That is why she had Medicaid. They already got what they were owed from her assets.
They are definitely fishing. Two nursing homes pulled the same thing with me after my father passed. Neither one got a cent more because they were not owed.
Every nursing home assumes that if a resident's name appears on any kind of deed, insurance policy, or bank account that they can command that asset be cash liquidated and they are entitled to every cent it brings in. That doesn't mean they are owed anything more or that you have to pay them more.
If you don't owe them anything, ignore them. If their harrassment for money gets to be too much, you can get a restraining order through the court so they cannot contact you. If you can prove they are not owed, you will not have to deal with them.