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What happened depends on the bills AND her finances AND how she is about to or was admitted to facility, which I’m assuming is a NH / SNC. If she’s in AL, my experience that is totally private pay unless she is in a handful of states with AL wavier program & no eons long waiting list

If she entered NH as a post hospitalization rehab admission, then she likely is having her stay covered under MediCAREs rehab benefit. MediCARE covers rehab usually at 100% for 20/21 days and if she’s still ”progressing” then at 80% up to 100 days with the 20% either private paid or covered hopefully by her secondary health insurance. If this is her situation, imho, you HAVE TO like manana find out what her “progress” status is ASAP. If she’s still in rehab phase, do whatever cheerleading needed to keep her good on her “progress” and on Medicare rehab benefit. Cause once off Medicare rehab, the facility will need a financial responsibility contract done by her, you, someone. If she is actually truly impoverished, she can file to be LTC Medicaid Pending admission if this place takes Medicaid & has an open bed.

Usually their over the 2k in non exempt assets, so not yet eligible for LTC Medicaid so need to do a spend down. I’m assuming that her monthly income with whatever savings she has is covering her monthly bill at the facility; so she’s in “spend down” mode. The issue will be at what point will she hit being “at need”. By “at need” it means that she has exhausted her savings and any other sources of $ and can apply for Medicaids LTC skilled nursing care program.

There is imho kinda no way around you or whomever is her DPOA to go thru her paperwork to determine her financial standing.

if she has a home & still a mortgage (horrors!), if mortgage isn’t paid on time, then after a period of time (usually 3 mos), she will get a default letter which puts home into foreclosure process. There isn’t 1 answer on how to deal with this as a lot of factors as to whether she is better off trying to sell it vs letting it foreclose.

If she owns her home, she can sell it & use $ to private pay for care. However Medicaid for most states do NOT require elder to sell their homestead; they can continue to own it BUT due to Medicaids required copay / share of cost, will have no $ to pay a penny on property in their name. So all costs shift to family to pay and then later deal with Estate Recovery (MERP) post death. Whether to keep or sale, to me is interdependent on if family has the wallet & sense of humor to afford home for an unknown period of time and likelihood of exemption and exclusions to MERP, but it can be done.

Homesteads & elders $ & Medicaid in my experience depends on your states administrative code as to what’s allowed. Like for TX Medicaid, if there is a mortgage, you can ask for a limited # of mos waiver to have some of their monthly income go to paying the mortgage on the property THAT has an active Realtor MLS type of listing (no FSBO nonsense). When property sold, $ then becomes a “spend down” & they fall off Medicaid as House sale $ takes them over Medicaid limits. House kinda has to sell in this period of time and the waiver incentivize this to happen. To me it’s a good idea as house sale provides $ for private pay while a foreclosure is total loss. TX Medicaid also allows for some property costs paid by family to be deducted from Medicaid tally, which too makes sense as it’s better for property taxes to be paid then to have it get into the whole county tax lien / tax sale quagmire. Each state adminsters its Medicaid program uniquely but under overall federal guidelines. So what’s what for NJ may not be the same for TX. It’s why often best to have atty experienced with your states Medicaid program to do application.

If other debt, like credit cards, car note, shes gonna just default on.
If she has a funeral or burial or life insurance premiums still, you need to try to pay those or they cancel.
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If she will be on Medicaid, her money can only go for her care. If private pay needing Medicaid in near future I don't think her money can be used for anything but her care. Bills will have to go unpaid since family is not responsible for them.
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