Particularly with the facts stated below, does a rehab center/nursing facility have the legal right to (try to) obtain payment from the family members of a patient who had passed away, when the situation is such that the family members have no legal financial responsibility for that patient?s affairs or debts?
1) Remaining rehab Medicare co-payment costs incurred (prior to patient?s transfer to the hospital where she expired) were billed to Medicare and paid out by Medicare at an 80% coverage rate.
2) At no time did any family member have a Power of Attorney in affect to handle patient's affairs.
3) Also, no family members signed any type of Rehab/Nursing Facility "Admission Agreement Form" nor did any family members signed any other forms/documents of any type, and as such, no family member is legally financially responsible for patient's debts incurred nor for handling the debts on that person?s behalf (since there is no POA).
4) The patient, not family members, while alive was financially responsible (out of only the patient's own assets) for remaining 20% Medicare co-payment costs.
6) The patent had listed one of her children on a health care proxy while at the rehab center, which, while the patient knew that her child was aware of her wishes, the child was not present for, never saw or signed the form, nor was presented with a copy of by the rehab center until after the parent was at the hospital and was in the early stages of passing away. It is on this health care proxy form that the child?s address was previously provided by the patient for only that reason, and which is where the rehab chose to obtained and utilize the child?s address from for purposes other than the intended purpose of needing an address on a health care proxy.
5) The patient?s children were not joint on any accounts of their elderly parent. They were only listed as beneficiaries for the checking & savings account, and also as beneficiaries on her small (only a few thousand dollar) life insurance policy.
6) The total funeral costs exceeded the total of the life insurance policy amount combined with the total amount of remaining assets which were left in the patient?s bank account prior to her passing.
7) The patient arrived at a rehab center in February from a local hospital and the rehab had received what is called a "Face page" containing the patient?s relevant medical condition/status. The rehab was advised and apprized at that time by family members to obtain any other pertinent financial and medical info, particularly regarding the patient?s Medicare coverage from the other rehab facility that she was at prior to going to the hospital. The new rehab center was made fully aware of the patient's financial information a few days after arrival, at which time any and all available information requested had been obtained & provided (by the patient and family members) to the rehab center since they needed that info as they were handling the filling out & submission of the Medicaid application. This included the rehab having received the patient's bank account statements through the end of the preceeding month. The rehab also knew that the patient only had two sources of monthly income - her one and only pension amount and social security, both of which were direct deposited into her checking account, and for which the rehab was made aware of those actual amounts as well as account balance. As such, the rehab had the information about the patient's financial status and were cognizant of what little monies she had available.
8) The patient passed away passed on Tuesday, 3/20/12.
9) The death certificate was provided to the patient?s family members from the funeral home on Thursday, 3/22/12.
10) The death certificate was provided to patient?s bank the same day (3/22) by the patient?s children (i.e. beneficiaries).
11) The bank stated to beneficiaries on 3/22 that there was a required "waiting period" of up to 5 -7 days. The patient?s beneficiaries were led to believe that was necessary for the purpose of ensuring that there were no liens or outstanding debts for which the bank would have been legally bound to hold back and/or not release monies from the patient?s account to the beneficiaries.
12) Funeral home expenses were incurred from the date of the patient?s passing (3/20) thru the date of burial, which was Friday, 3/23.
13) The bank called the beneficiaries on Monday, 3/26/12 and let each of them know that the monies in the patient?s account had cleared and were available to be released to beneficiaries.
14) Despite the rehab having been verbally apprised as well as having been presented with written information in the form of copies of documents, and thereby aware of all of this, and despite them having already been told that the patient?s children did not have POA for the patient?s affairs, the rehab still, for whatever reason, chose to send a statement for the patient's account to one of her children where they lived.
15) The rehab generated this statement dated 3/22/12, after the patient?s date of death, and was not received until after 3/27/12, after monies had cleared with and released from the bank.
16) Medicaid kicks in after the first 100 days of Medicare coverage ends. Info required for the Medicaid application was provided to the rehab in February (several days after patient?s arrival) in order for the rehab?s social worker and/or business office to fill out & submit the Medicaid application on the patient?s behalf (so that the rehab center themselves could take steps to ensure eventually getting paid from Medicaid retroactively from Day 101 & onward in the event that the patient were to have gone back to the rehab center). The amounts reflected on the rehab?s statement are for Medicare co-payments for all days at that rehab which were under the first 100 days of Medicare. For Medicare purposes, the patient spent Day# 63 thru Day# 100 at that rehab before going to the hospital where she subsequently expired.
17) There is an asset level of I believe to be $13,800, under which Medicaid allows for one to retain for personal living expenses and for funeral & burial costs that are incurred when one passes away. I have been led to believe that Medicaid generally does not typically ?go after? monies below that level. However, I?m not sure if that is also the case when it comes to Medicare considerations with respect to allowable remaining assets for living & funeral/burial expenses vs. debts incurred while alive as it pertains to Medicare co-payment amounts incurred.
- If Medicare co-payment costs were incurred by an elderly patient at a rehab center (of which Medicare paid 80%) prior to that person passing away, and the Medicare co-payment costs were not billed until after the date of death, and the patient?s monies had cleared with the patient?s bank for release to beneficiaries (after having presented a death certificate to the bank) for the purposes of and in order to pay for funeral expenses of the patient, since the beneficiaries did not have POA, and were not legally handling the patient?s financial affairs, and were also not legally financially responsible for patient's debts, then is there any means by which a rehab center can still somehow legally obtain payment from what had been the patient's monies (which had been in the patient?s account prior to his passing), despite the bank having allowed the required number of days for monies to clear before releasing those monies to the beneficiaries?
- And if so, does the rehab have a legal right to now, after release of those monies to beneficiaries, obtain seeking payment (partial or otherwise) from each of the patient?s beneficiaries (by even possibly trying to seek placing a lien on a beneficiary's house) despite the fact that there were also known legitimate funeral expenses that were also required to be paid from the patient's assets, and despite the fact that the beneficiaries were not legally/financially responsible for the patient's debts?
- In light of all of the above regarding funeral expenses paid from patient's assets as well as consideration of family members not being legally financially responsible for patient's debts, does a rehab (still) have a legitimate legal leg to stand on with this matter in so far as to subsequently trying to seek payment for family members, particularly since the rehab has already gotten paid by Medicare for 80% of the patient's costs incurred?
Last edited by yodavaderman; Today at 11:24 AM. Reason: Identification of state
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