I just found out my 79 year old mom is in serious credit card debt. Any advice?

First of all get the names and phone numbers of every single doctor she sees, then get on the phone and call each office and ask them if they will continue to see her as a Medi/Medi patient. That is Medicare is primary and Medicaid is secondary. She will not be a straight Medicaid patient, she will still have her Medicare, so doctors call them Medi/Medi patients.

I am speaking from personal experience, I became disabled and had to go on Medicare several years ago. I had very expensive seizure medications and was forced to enroll in Medicaid solely so I could get my medications, but they do cover the remaining 20% not covered by Medicare. Depending on your mothers financial ability they will determine if your mother has a share of cost or if she qualifies for "extra help." I qualified for the extra help and my prescriptions were free for a while and now I pay about $1.50 each.

I totally understand your mother's concern in losing her doctors if she goes on STRAIGHT MEDICAID but this is NOT what I am saying, she will keep Medicare and take Medicaid as her secondary carrier, this did not turn out to be a problem for me as all my doctors who I had been using with Medicare agreed to accept the Medicaid as secondary carriers. When your Mom applies, someone HAS GOT TO GO WITH HER TO HELP HER SPEAK TO MEDICAID. FOR SOME REASON THEY TRY TO THROW YOU IN AS STRAIGHT MEDICAID AND SHE NEEDS SOMEONE TO HELP HER GET THROUGH TO THEM, THAT SHE WANTS TO KEEP HER MEDICARE AND TAKE MEDICAID SOLELY AS A 2NDARY.

As everyone else stated, you HAVE GOT TO STOP HER FROM CONTINUING TO RUN UP DEBT ON THAT CARD. By getting her signed up with Medicare/Medicaid she will most likely have no doughnut hole to worry about or have much of any copay on her prescriptions or office visits. When I went on Medi-Cal here in California they asked me if I had any expenses that I had run up due to medical or prescriptions and they were willing to reimburse at least a portion of them.

Once you correct the problem on the front end and get her on proper insurance then you can decide how to best get rid of her debt. It sounds like bankruptcy may be the way to go if she qualifies. You can keep your home, car, 1 credit card and some other stuff so she will not be destitute but it will be close to it.

Also for her to qualify for Medicaid you need to look up the guidelines in your state as far as income goes and there can be no assets or savings in excess of $2,000.

You need to get a trust or Power of Attorney set up on her right away so you or someone else in the family can help her and act on her behalf if she is unable. Do not wait, just because she signs it now it does not mean she is signing over all power to you immediately, it is just "in place" for the time when it does become necessary.

I have lived this same scenario so I know what I have gone through and how much this can help her.

Good Luck!!

Medicaid is pretty extensive, it covers more things than Medicare. My dad was often told so, he only had Medicare..
Is she doing alternative medicine? Assuming she has medicare, doe she have a good supplement? What is it she wants she thinks Medicaid will not provide? BTW, some drug companies have discount options, reach out to them.
Would a supplement keep her from the out of pocket additional spend?

You can look at filing bankruptcy. All ways of settling debt look to cut off the credit cards first. The United Way used to have an affiliated service called Consumer Credit Counseling Service, they were legit and worked with you and debtors to set up payment plans for reduced payments.

I only know 2 ways to settle debt, pay or file bankruptcy. My first concern would be to figure out how to stop incurring further debt.


Good luck.

Bankruptcy sounds like the logical answer.If you are talking about the same consumer credit counciling service we consulted when we had serious debt we decided we didn't want to touch them with a ten foot pole. The service we saw was run out of a lawyers office and they totaled all your card balances and determined your monthly payment based on income. you sent the payment to the lawyer and THEY decided which company would get paid. you had absolutely no say in the matter.
I would get together with Mom and determine her income and expenses and work out a budget. Call the companies individually to work out a payment plan.
I am sure mom wants to continue with the Drs of her choice and the medications they recommend But if you don't have the money to pay you have to find alternatives. If she qualifies financially for Medicaid or one of the new Obamacare options. be quick you only have a few days to sign up so do it today. The drs may have to change but they will be suitable to treat any condition she may have and will pay for everything including any drugs.
If she must pay the drug company use one of the prepaid cards so she does not incur more debt. She is quite possibly being bamboozled by some of the people she consults. Go with her to her PCP and explain the whole medical situation honestly and follow his advice. may elders get into serious debt with credit cards and it sounds as though you need POA for both health and finances rather than continuing to help her out considering moving her in with one of you. There may be other problems that she has been hiding. no one likes giving up their independence but if she has not been managing unfortunately that is what has to happen as a condition of further help

I'm guessing (how would I know? If only…) but I think most millionaires sail a little less close to the wind than that, and use accountants. Interesting read, though!

I certainly have my work cut out. I need to go visit her and go over everything. My first instinct is to be angry, perhaps even confrontational. But, after reading posts here I realize that accomplishes nothing. Just my getting over my initial shock. If mom moves in with us she will have to deal with stairs. And eventually will need to be moved again when she can no longer handle them. I would love to be able to keep her where she is at but that is becoming costly for all of us unless we can find her help with utilities, lower her medical costs etc.

I'm very thankful for all of your replies and for this website. There is much to be learnt here. At the moment, I feel like I'm running a marathon trying to make the best decisions for her.

My mom put about 14k on a home equity account paying medical bills that quite possibly she was not even supposed to pay - they had a weird setup with an employer's Special Programs with Medicare that some of the provider websites would not find on first try. Some were almost certainly bills that were sent to her when payment was still pending, and Mom, God bless her, had to just do everything right away...and was too proud to ask for help, of course. I had no good way to unravel what was already done, unfortunately, but was able to put a stop to it. You'll be looking at a big pile of papers and a bunch of long, tedious phone calls, but hopefully it will be worth it. My mom pretty near maxed out a Discover card buying crap she didn't need to top that off.

One way to pay down credit card debts faster - IF and ONLY IF you are very careful and very conscientious AND good enough at math - is to actually use one of those balance transfer offers for 0% or at least at a much lower rate than what you are paying, taking into account any balance transfer fee as well. And be REAL careful with the consumer credit counseling groups - check them out thoroughly, some fly-by-night operations have very similar sounding names, and one legit one was actually taken over by a pretty shady outfit from what I could tell. I ended up getting my Mom out of debt and my family is on track to be done with all of ours (dating from hubby's business failure and emergency move to a new neighborhood necessitating a DIY "bridge loan" from a few years back) Slow and steady, paying way more than minimums wherever you possibly can, staying in control, and avoiding high interest rates does it. Don't rush into bankruptcy if you don't have to, but if you have to, don't be too ashamed of it. Medical bankruptcy is still all too common in America these days!

if you and Mom want her to move in with you and you have the funds. consider installing a stair lift. There can be help paying if it is a medical necessity but I don't know how.. When they are no longer needed people often take them out and sell them.

Lighthouse, what about Medicare Part D, the prescription drug plan part of Medicare? Also, I believe you can contact Medicare to see if she qualifies for help with prescriptions.

When you go, take a good look at a year's worth of bank statements, I think you may find bills unpaid, bills paid twice and bills that should never have been paid at all. These are all little hints of memory loss. Also look at her car for dents and scrapes that she may not remember. These are a sign to take the keys away. Look for scorch marks on the stove, burnt pans, food rotting in the back of the fridge. Check all medications for expiration dates and make sure she has not re-bottled pills and mixed them up. Add up all the factors, ask neighbors how she has been doing, often they see and hear a lot. Have a deep discussion with the MD, is her bloodwork OK? She will likely resist any move, in which case you either seek guardianship, or wait till she falls and goes to the ER and needs repair. At that point get her into a nursing home directly from the hospital , with help from her MD.

Yep,sounds like Bankruptcy is the only thing to do.Your Mother may as well say bye bye to her doctor and accept it.Unless the doctor accepts Medicaid.
My advice to you is to,
Have your Mother take what money she has in her bank accounts and hide the money at home in a safe place for keeping.Any CD's need to be cashed in.Wait a yr then,file Bankruptcy.Wait another year then have her apply for Medicaid.Medicaid goes back 2 yrs.If she owns more then one car or truck she needs to give one away to you or family so the car or truck isn't in her name.
Appliing for Medicaid your only allowed to have one bank account with limited amount of money in it,one car,home and one credit card.Which the way it sounds your Mother don't need anymore credit cards lol.
Many elderly Millionairs are on Medicaid and food stamps.How do they do it and get away with it?Safty deposit boxes,Hiding funds in other family or friends.Transferring titles,deeds to other family members.Many use the excuse addicted to gambling ,saving lottery tickets that are little wins and once a month call the 1800 number addicted to gambling hotline to cover their butts if ever asked where did the money go.Many people take advantage of Medicaid and get away with it.Just burns my butt seeing people do this.
Anyway,your Mother made the debt her self.She needs to start worring about her money and debt over changing doctors.If she is a elderly?She needs a POA now.
It's not as easy to file Bankruptcy as it was yrs ago.But,it's the only way I can see.