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I work in a LTC institution, we have an incapacitated resident who assigned DPOA- Healthcare to a friend (prior to incapacitation and admission to this facility). Upon admission the DPOA-Healthcare requested SSA assign the facility as representative payee. In many documents we have on file, the DPOA- Healthcare has made some decisions related to financial. There has become an issue in which the facility is questioning some requested expenditures being made by the DPOA-Healthcare for the resident, and the facility is not wanting to reimburse the DPOA-Healthcare because there is not a DPOA specific to financial on file. The DPOA-Healthcare is now threatening to take the facility to court over the matter. Should this representative/DPOA-Healthcare be allowed to make expenditures (on behalf of the resident) and expect reimbursement?

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Interesting.

Not remotely healthcare related, but certainly welfare related unless one takes a somewhat frugal view of welfare. And presumably the resident is free to spend the small allowance set aside for personal expenditure as s/he sees fit. How many months would it take for the personal allowance to cover the claims being made?

I would ask if someone who's quibbling over these costs really has the money to take the facility to court, except that of course sometimes it's this kind of quibbling over a lifetime that has made a person very rich indeed.

My amateur guess would be that the DPOA could make a troublesome case, if not necessarily a successful one. Surely the facility has access to counsel?

But the DPOA is an idiot. Why on earth wouldn't you obtain prior approval or requisition items you thought necessary, rather than go on a spending spree and blithely assume you'd be able to recoup your outlay?
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The expenditures are to benefit the incapacitated resident, but not healthcare related. Expenditures include a new TV (facility does not provide), payment on cellular phone plan so patient can view Netflix (facility does not provide these comforts for the resident). The funds for this purchase come from the $50 allowance (determined by Medicaid, which is the Social Security funds less cost share) accumulated in the resident's trust account.
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Read the DPOA document. It should spell out whether this person has the authority for expenditures and which expenditures. If these expenses are health care related for the resident, fine. If these expenses are benefitting only the POA, not fine and refuse them.
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