Paying medical bills after mother has passed?

You say ‘supposedly’. Do you doubt that it even happened? You could ask Rehab for confirmation, for the reason why something would be charged separately for part of Rehab, and why someone so close to the end would need to consult a podiatrist.

Another thing. If Probate is closed, you are not responsible for that bill. In my State Probate cannot be closed for 8 months. This gives creditors time to get their bills in.

Was Mom on Medicaid? If so, there should be no balance. Medicare pays their share and Medicaid picks up the balance. Call the office and tell them medicaid needs to pay.

If Mom was private pay and there is an estate, then the estate pays the bill. Not you personally. If your in probate, and like me there is a house to sell and its the only asset, you could pay it and count it as out of pocket and get reimbursed at time of sale. I had some bills for the house I had to pay because there was no money. I was reimbursed in the accting before the proceeds of the house were split up.

My Mom paid privately for 2 months. She was seen by a doctor in those two months. I got paperwork from Medicare and her supplimental that the doctor was owed a small balance. I was never billed so I called the office. Because she was in LTC, the doctor wrote off the balance. If there is no estate, call the office and tell them Mom has passed and there is no estate. Since family is not responsible for bills of a parent, they will probably write the balance off.

You say that the insurance paid most of this.
If your mother left an estate, yes, the estate is responsible to pay her bills. That is to say if she had enough left to demand probate and an estate, then her bills should be paid before any distribution to heirs.

If, however, your mom died without any estate left, and there was no probate filed, no will and etc, and there is no executor, then these bills are returned to sender with the notation "Deceased; No estate". It is unlikely after a year's time, that there will be further mailings. These are mostly just churned out by computers. They have a set in time frame. These bills die when that time frame is done.

(((((((((((((((HUGS)))))))))))))))

Your mom's estate would pay it if probate was opened. the podiatrist would have a set time to submit it, if the time was missed, they would be out of luck.

The delay in the billing is it being submitted to Insurance and the time insurance would take to process it.

If it is a relatively small amount, and you feel you want to do a good thing, you could pay it, making sure to get written or even e-mail confirmation the bill is paid in full and the account is closed.