Did someone sign her in and accept financial responsibility? If not, if your aunt passed away with insufficient money to pay her bills, there's no liability to anyone else. The nursing home loses. If there was a balance outstanding, and cash left in your aunt's estate, then her estate must settle up before proceeds can be distributed to others.
If someone signed on as a guarantor of your aunt's nursing home expenses (a foolish thing to do, by the way), then that person is liable for any unpaid bills.
Does Medicaid retroactively approve? I think they do, actually. You may want to "keep going" with Medicaid if there was an outstanding balance. The nursing home itself should be able to help you with this.
She owns a home and land. The property goes to me. I had to sign her in or they would have not let her into the home. Signed as to pay her bills with her finances, well she doesn't have this amount. I know you can get charity help paying hospital bills but why not nursing homes? I suppose again because she owns property. The Medicaid process could not continue because she was gone.
Her assets need to be liquidated to settle her estate. If Medicaid doesn't retroactive, (here in Illinois is a supportive living or NH it's 90 days) how else is there to pay.
Rockin, (luv that name) I don't know how her home could be left out of her estate when settling her bills...? And, if she still OWNED the home and land, then she may not have been eligible for Medicaid anyway...? It'd be interesting to know if the nursing home liened the home and property.
Poster, you need professional advice. An attorney.
Sorry Mag. Didn't mean it to sound that way. I guess in a nutshell, I've always been a firm believer that when a person has assets, (money, investments, real estate, whatever) then this should be used for their care. I've seen too many times when adult kids would say, in so many words"But mom wanted me to have that" That's a tender notion, but the fact remains, health care is a business and bills need to be paid. Why would someone look elsewhere for bill paying if aunt had property?
If the Medicaid application was complete, then there will be a decision. If she had land or other assets, however, she may not have been accepted. It depends on the value of the land and if the parcel was her primary home. It also depends on if she died before spend-down could be done if it was needed.
If the property was left to you in the will, then it will need to go through probate. Creditors will have first claim on anything in the estate and what is left will go to the beneficiaries following the terms of the will.
Nins5 - JessieBelle is spot-on in her answer to you.
You need to get a probate attorney and pronto! There need to be an Estate of set up asap with the probate attorney as contact so that any creditors know that the debt is going to probate. If you personally signed her in - like your name by itself - rather than signing each time "Jane Jones Smith as DPOA for Mary Jones", then you have signed to be personally responsible. You need to deflect that path by letting any creditor know that they will need to go probate route to get paid.
If someone signed on as a guarantor of your aunt's nursing home expenses (a foolish thing to do, by the way), then that person is liable for any unpaid bills.
Does Medicaid retroactively approve? I think they do, actually. You may want to "keep going" with Medicaid if there was an outstanding balance. The nursing home itself should be able to help you with this.
Poster, you need professional advice. An attorney.
If the property was left to you in the will, then it will need to go through probate. Creditors will have first claim on anything in the estate and what is left will go to the beneficiaries following the terms of the will.
You need to get a probate attorney and pronto! There need to be an Estate of set up asap with the probate attorney as contact so that any creditors know that the debt is going to probate. If you personally signed her in - like your name by itself - rather than signing each time "Jane Jones Smith as DPOA for Mary Jones", then you have signed to be personally responsible. You need to deflect that path by letting any creditor know that they will need to go probate route to get paid.
I guess your aunt had no other family to sign for her.