What can we do for my brother (if anything)?

Even a two star nursing home requires you to hand over all your income. You sign a paper agreeing to that. Now if your POA misdirects the funds, they end up in jail. You call APS and let them handle it.

Unless your brother is in rehab at this NH, it's not being paid for by Medicare, which doesn't cover long term care. I agree, you should call APS if you suspect that they are misdirecting his funds.

Call the District attorney elder abuse number, they take this type of thing seriously, you may not be correct, however a care home might want or have a contract for most if not all of his income

It is just not believable to me that one person can receive $1300/month from work, and an additional $600 from SSI, unless they are cheating.

Can this be explained?

How about it's 1300 in pension and 600 per month in Social Security. That would make sense.

You could take him into your home, and give him the care he needs. I am sure he would be very grateful. Who has POA? Is your brother competent to make his own decisions? If so this is his decision, and the best you can do is visit often, take him out for meals and walks, include him on holidays. If he has dementia, he needs a nursing home. You could look for a better one that would take medicaid and his pensions.

If your brother needs long term care, then he is on Medicaid, not Medicare as stated, huge difference between the two. If he is in a nursing home then yes, that is how it works. Every single penny of your brothers income (less $72.80 per mo. in spending money aka personal needs account your brother can keep) goes towards his care. How much does it cost to take care of someone's medical needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is a lot more than $1900 a month. Call the home and ask if your brother is on MEDICAID. If the answer is yes, and you believe the home is a rat hole, you can always have him transferred to a better NH after some NH shopping and research and if you find one with an empty Medicaid bed. This is the nature of the beast. Kathy1 has good advice as well, above.

right, how can they be taking his money?

I may have misunderstood, are you saying your sisters are taking his money or the home is taking his money?

Ok, sorry. It i is possible that your sisters receive his pension and Social Security and then sign those checks over to the nursing home. Usually that is the case in the beginning when someone is admitted to a nursing home on Medicaid., Someone has to sign over the checks to the home prior to direct deposit being set up for both social security and pension. I think that's what's going on because if it is long term Medicaid, then yes that would make sense. The only money your sisters could possibly spend, if the above stmt is true is $72.80 per month.

but she says she has proof

Your sister is supposed to sign the NH residents SS and pension checks, both totals to be given to the NH monthly. The Nh then allocates the $72.80 to the resident monthly. This is how it is SUPPOSED to work. If your sister is not giving the check amount to the home, then the NH is owed a lot of money. In the Buz office file at the home, there is a form where either the resident or usually the DPOA signs to take responsibility for the funds that should be paid towards the resident room and board. If your brother signed it, but your sister isnt paying, then bro is liable, but if the sister signed this form, then she is liable and the NH should by now have sent your sisters collection notices at least. I hope you are noted as an emergency contact on file so the NH can speak to you about these matters. Confusing, I know, but questions that should be asked. Is there any way you could get the check with the NH, get DPOA, and YOU (even if 1000 miles away), can set up your brothers income to go to the NH as direct deposit. Most people choose this option as NH pymt, less work for the family once all the legwork is done. BTW, if your sister is indeed speding $$ that should go the NH, this is putting your brother in danger of being transferred to a NH that could be worse than the one he is in now. The NH I worked at was religious so did a lot of $$ write offs, but some homes dont mess around and wont hesitate to threaten xfer/eviction for non payment. Please just ask for your brothers sake. Who has control of $$? Can you get control of $$? If your sister is taking the money, that meets a legal charge of financial abuse, and in court, you could possibly be deemed guardian or POA if your brother cannot medically handle his own $$ affairs. Sorry if i misunderstood before. Good luck and we all know it is a lot of work. Speaking from experience, once the direct deposit is set up, the payment to NH should in theory run like clockwork. Not an overnight process, maybe 2-3 months. If at the end, you still dont like the care at this particular NH, another better quality home will be more likely to take him in if they can be assured that they will be paid. Hope this makes sense. Good luck again

OP has not returned to clarify. I think we need to move on.

Except can I somewhat take it up, with somewhat my situation, re liz's answer; that's the one thing I don't know about this situation, who actually signed to pay the nursing home, grandmother or if she has a DPOA, just know that one daughter had her checkbook, also last thing I was told was that the check that she took was actually before mom ever went into the nursing home, but she did have the checkbook that, as I understand, she was taking to mom in the nursing home for her to sign and make out checks to the other daughter, seemingly nobody knew the nh was having to start being paid, that everybody thought Medicare was still paying, but surely the nursing home itself know, especially since Medicaid is who started the investigation, which may have led to - somebody? - being sent collection notices, just not sure who - just know Medicaid in investigating mom for fraud, so maybe she's the one who actually signed to pay, but maybe didn't realize what she was signing? the way I've been getting it, one, of courses, she didn't have the checkbook, did she think by signing checks made out to daughters? one, I think I've understood she thought they were then taking them to the bank to be cashed, which, of course, they probably were, but did she think they were then using the funds to pay the nursing home; did she have any idea how much it was supposed to be? and why would it have had to have been done that way? not that I think it would - why wouldn't/couldn't she then have just signed/made out a check to the nursing home? granted, they were saying she was making checks out to daughter because she, herself, wasn't able to go to the bank, but she wouldn't have had to, I wouldn't have thought. In Medicaid's investigation found the money being given to the daughter, apparently informed nursing home? who found that daughter/s was/were coming and getting mom to sign and make out the checks and give them to her/them so had them arrested for financially exploiting her, even though, as I understand, she has told them she was doing it willingly; of course, she's always said that, even before she went into nursing home, when she would it, except, of course, when she was complaining about how they/she was always after her for money but you know how it, she doesn't really want her to actually get in trouble for it. I'm somewhat wondering who, if anybody, or at least anybody besides those two daughters, is emergency contact for mom; she does have another daughter, but she's the one who'd already been on the carpet for her dad's guardianship. That leaves 2 granddaughters, the daughters of her daughter who's deceased that she took care of but at this point I think that one of them, my dil, might be the best person to take care of things, just wonder how you'd go about it. There were threats of evicting mom, if she didn't go along with the nh's having daughters arrested, and she's in the best one now. They are very community minded so they might willing to write her cost for now, if this isn't resolved but do have the idea part of the whole arrest issue was with the idea that if they did that, that if, except for that, mom did qualify for Medicaid, they would go ahead and pay retroactive, because she doesn't actually have the money. She's at that because I think maybe it's her niece who works there who might actually have the answers re the money issue and might actually be willing to work with dil as far as her getting control. Daughters, I think both, go to court next week - the 23rd - the one who's actually gotten the money I think has told that the other only got the one, and it for mom, before she went into nh, which they should have found out anyway, and has gotten a public defender appointed for her, who, after her being told she was facing 5-10 or was it 10-20 yrs. in prison, have been told she's thinking she can get the charges dropped from felony to misdemeanor but still hearing over a year, which I didn't think applied to misdeameanors, so thought had to be under a year, which may be the case, with restitution, which, of course, they'd rather have, than be paying to support 2 people, which might work, if that threat hangs over, but we'll see, but sure wish they could have caught the tax refund this year; wish somebody else could go to court to possibly get guardianship, unless they've decided that maybe mom can take care of things, after all, that she truly didn't know. Then maybe everything can get all worked out; hope so, in a lot of ways, because she is in the best one.

yep definitely time to move on.

sorry, really thought somebody might be willing to respond