The nursing home will want to know how the care will be paid for. Talk with an elder law attorney in your state to determine the options for private payment and whether you are eligible for coverage from Medicare and Medicaid.
The elder law attorney can help you properly calculate and report any assets.
If you are asking on behalf of someone else, Federal Medicare and Medicaid law says that family members cannot be required to sign as a “Responsible Party” for payment of nursing home care costs. 42 USC §1396r(c)(5)(A)(ii). Some facilities have asked family members to “volunteer” to act as a responsible party. The federal law says: “a nursing facility must (ii) not require a third party guarantee of payment to the facility as a condition of admission (or expedited admission) to, or continued stay in, the facility.” To read the nursing home law: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1396r
Scroll down to §1396r(c)(5)(A)(ii)
There are also state laws and regulations the prohibit a facility from requiring a resident to provide a third party guarantee of payment to the facility. Example from my state, Massachusetts:
A credit check is entirely different than a background check. The question regards the nursing home doing a credit check on a patient before accepting them. The answer is yes. When you apply for a nursing home (or assisted living or any apartment living), an application is required. It's usually several pages. They want typical information like your bank account balances and Social Security #, etc as well as asking what assets you own, what debts you have, and generally there's a place in the application to consent to a credit history check.
Nursing homes want to be paid. If you don't have enough money to get you through at LEAST 6 months to a year before beginning the Medicaid process, many "nice" NH won't even consider the application. Then you end up in a less desirable NH. If the patient is currently in a hospital, discuss the patient's discharge with the discharge planner. That's their job to assist you. Do your due diligence!!! Don't just accept the first NH that accepts the patient. Research these facilities --- ask friends, neighbors or an elder law firm for recommendations. Don't just rely on Medicare.gov's ratings. My Mom was in a supposed 5-star facility and it sucked. She didn't last 3 months there before she died. I'm still depressed about it.
Z seems to think that medical professionals work for free. I wonder if he gets paid for what he does, or if he offers his services for no money.
I help children on the autusm spectrum. I work for a large public school organization. I get paid a salary. Public education is something that we take for granted in the US ; it's funded by tax dollars and everyone pays their share. It's thought to be part of the common weal, to educate all of our children.We don't assign healthcare the same value. We should.
If a nursing home or Assisted Living does run a credit background check, someone would need to give written approval to do so. The signer would need to be either the patient or that patient's POA.
My husband was accepted at a nursing home under Medicaid Pending. I don't know whether a credit check was done, but I had to file copies of several months' bank statements for each of us.
zytrhr, about the money??? They can't work for free or run a building for free.
A building doesn't freeze in time, there is constant maintenance, repairing and updating. The cost for a new air conditioner could run up to $1 Million. Then there is the cost of payroll and workman comp insurance. Food service costs are always going up.
Cost of utilities, if you think your home utilities cost a lot, imagine a building the size of a nursing home. Cleaning service cost. Linen service cost. Cost of medicines for each patient. Hospital beds are not cheap. Then there is the cost of oxygen for some patients. Parking lot maintenance, snow plowing costs. Landscaping costs.
Malpractice insurance costs are through the roof as so many people are sue happy. Imagine the property taxes. Licensing costs.
Thank goodness for profit, or companies would shut down.
As for a nursing home doctor who works at a hospital... how in the world do they find the time? They can't direct a patient to come to a certain rehab center/nursing home. The patient goes where there is an empty bed or they go home and have at home rehab.
Freqflyer is correct. The doctors that work in the hospitals (at least where I live) are contracted to work at the hospital ONLY. They are hospitalists. The don't have the time or inclination to work 2 jobs. My son is a doctor working in a hospital. He works 12-14 hour days. He could never do a second job in a nursing home, too. Nursing home doctors are just that -- they work in the nursing home. They may have a private practice but they definitely don't work at a hospital.
Communication is the key. When your loved one is in the hospital, make sure you speak to the doctor and RN assigned to the patient regularly. My parents were in the hospital quite frequently at the end of their years and we were never blindsided the "day before" as another poster stated to be discharged to a specific NH. We worked with the discharge planner over several days prior to discharge to find a mutually acceptable place. The crux is, though, that a NH has the last word if they want to accept the patient based on the application you fill out (which includes all the patient's financials). It's amazing that a bed opens up miraculously at a "nice" NH when you have the money. If your not well off, there's not a lot of choice. Sad.
The elder law attorney can help you properly calculate and report any assets.
If you are asking on behalf of someone else, Federal Medicare and Medicaid law says that family members cannot be required to sign as a “Responsible Party” for payment of nursing home care costs. 42 USC §1396r(c)(5)(A)(ii). Some facilities have asked family members to “volunteer” to act as a responsible party. The federal law says: “a nursing facility must (ii) not require a third party guarantee of payment to the facility as a condition of admission (or expedited admission) to, or continued stay in, the facility.”
To read the nursing home law:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1396r
Scroll down to §1396r(c)(5)(A)(ii)
There are also state laws and regulations the prohibit a facility from requiring a resident to provide a third party guarantee of payment to the facility. Example from my state, Massachusetts:
http://www.mass.gov/ago/docs/regulations/940-cmr-4-00.pdf
A credit check would only confirm what you will already need to disclose to the nursing home, and the Medicaid agency if you apply.
Nursing homes want to be paid. If you don't have enough money to get you through at LEAST 6 months to a year before beginning the Medicaid process, many "nice" NH won't even consider the application. Then you end up in a less desirable NH. If the patient is currently in a hospital, discuss the patient's discharge with the discharge planner. That's their job to assist you. Do your due diligence!!! Don't just accept the first NH that accepts the patient. Research these facilities --- ask friends, neighbors or an elder law firm for recommendations. Don't just rely on Medicare.gov's ratings. My Mom was in a supposed 5-star facility and it sucked. She didn't last 3 months there before she died. I'm still depressed about it.
I help children on the autusm spectrum. I work for a large public school organization. I get paid a salary. Public education is something that we take for granted in the US
; it's funded by tax dollars and everyone pays their share. It's thought to be part of the common weal, to educate all of our children.We don't assign healthcare the same value. We should.
A building doesn't freeze in time, there is constant maintenance, repairing and updating. The cost for a new air conditioner could run up to $1 Million. Then there is the cost of payroll and workman comp insurance. Food service costs are always going up.
Cost of utilities, if you think your home utilities cost a lot, imagine a building the size of a nursing home. Cleaning service cost. Linen service cost. Cost of medicines for each patient. Hospital beds are not cheap. Then there is the cost of oxygen for some patients. Parking lot maintenance, snow plowing costs. Landscaping costs.
Malpractice insurance costs are through the roof as so many people are sue happy.
Imagine the property taxes. Licensing costs.
Thank goodness for profit, or companies would shut down.
As for a nursing home doctor who works at a hospital... how in the world do they find the time? They can't direct a patient to come to a certain rehab center/nursing home. The patient goes where there is an empty bed or they go home and have at home rehab.
Communication is the key. When your loved one is in the hospital, make sure you speak to the doctor and RN assigned to the patient regularly. My parents were in the hospital quite frequently at the end of their years and we were never blindsided the "day before" as another poster stated to be discharged to a specific NH. We worked with the discharge planner over several days prior to discharge to find a mutually acceptable place. The crux is, though, that a NH has the last word if they want to accept the patient based on the application you fill out (which includes all the patient's financials). It's amazing that a bed opens up miraculously at a "nice" NH when you have the money. If your not well off, there's not a lot of choice. Sad.
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