We've got mail. I know this is a silly one. Advice?

Answry-
All good news! Glad to hear she is doing well.

Glad to learn the package was just keys and the issue is resolved. But even better news is that your mother is happy and doing well.

It's nice to know that this didn't result in anything negative. Thanks for sharing the good news!

Just wanted to give an update. The large package ended up being the keys to home. Although we have changed the locks, they said by law they could not dispose of them. So we accepted the package and disposed of the old keys.

And mom is doing great. She is happy all the while introducing her roommate and letting us know all the people who are finally able to visit. But at the very end, she started shooting off her list of demands. We will meet her demands but when we get a chance since we know she is getting good care.

Thanks all.

Jeanne, our last conversation with hospice was there was a large bag of meds that they had ordered for mom before she went into the hospital and then to the nursing home. During those conversations we told them we never administered or bothered with her medications because they were various powerful pain meds. The only one we did pick up for her was a blood pressure medication from Walmart so not sure if the others are local. Once we told them to check with the hospital, the social worker there told us they had received them but the pharmacy there would not allow them to use them. The social worker at the hospital told us if they were not sent back mom would be billed. Not sure why hospice could not dispose or send them back. Maybe they are paid for already maybe not – we have no clue.

Mom has not passed but is now in the nursing home just making her first full week. The package says it is large so we're thinking these meds are chasing us down. Either way, I guess we will find out who the package is from tomorrow. If they are meds that are not paid for, we just don’t want to become suddenly responsible for them in some freaky way.

Look on the bright side , it may be your notification of winning the lottery! :) Think happy thoughts until Monday when you can find out!

GladI'mhere, I've read in the last few years that the PSA test has become controversial, I believe either because of false positives or unrealibility as to the actual testing and what it means. If I remember correctly, it was no longer considered that reliable a test.

But it's been awhile since I've read anything about it, although I recall that some doctors were changing opinions on the necessity for regular PSA testing.

If one of the companies from your past dealings (mom, dad, you...) thinks you have an unpaid bill, they usually send you a billing reminder. I say Usually because one time I received a bill I never got for my mammo reading. I Never received the bill. A year later, I received a letter from the collections agency. I checked my medical files, and sure enough, I have no notations of paying it, no receipts, no check number, etc... I paid it.

This is the important thing. If you Did pay for a billing, but the company has a lousy accounting system, and they send you a billing for it. Do Not Ignore It. You need to provide proof if payment. Because if they think you still owe, and never got the money from you, it will go to the collections agency. The collection agency will then come after you by phone calls. Happened to dad because he refused to pay for mom's one-way ambulance cost to the hospital (she had passed away and the ambulance took her to the morgue.) I tried to ask questions about Why they were calling but they refused to talk to me because I don't have POA over dad. I said that you can talk to him but wait until I get home so that I can listen on the other phone. She said that I cannot do that if I don't have POA. I said fine! My dad is senile, you can talk to him on the phone but he Will Not Understand You. Here is the home phone..... By the way, I am the one who pays for his bills..... Then I hung up. They called several times but refuse to discuss it with me on the phone.

I did go online and printed my canceled check on the ambulance payment, along with the original billing. I blacked out my checking account number in the bottom of my check, then mailed it to them. I never got a phone call from them since then.

If it's a certified package, you can check the sender and REFUSE it then and there. I've done that one time. Someone called him and he said yes to their automatic monthly herbal supplement subscription. Then they send him billings for it. At the Post Office, I saw the sender and told the Post man to Return to Sender. The Post Office will return it Without Any Cost from you.

Yes, GA I'm sure you are right especially since his PSA is all over the board. The lowest I have seen is 17. And as high as 34. He has been told he has prostate cancer and other than incontinence no symptoms. He does not plan on doing anything about it, he is 86, has had a long good life. And cancer progresses so slowly in these older folks so much of the time.

GladI'mhere, I suspect it was a liability concern. Some doctors are overly but probably understandably so given the often aggressiveness of some medical malpractice attorneys.

If you didn't schedule the appointment a few months ago, he wants to make sure he's not blamed if you don't schedule now or in the future. Just covering his bases.

It may also be a partnership issues - sometimes medical groups are in partnerships where standards are created when they're established and all the doctors have to adhere to them.

We received a certified piece of mail a few months ago. With all the legal stuff going on here we thought it was related to that. It was actually a letter from the urologist stating that we should have scheduled an appointment a couple of months prior. So odd! Why not just pick up the phone?

I must be missing something as I don't understand the issue with the meds. They can't be used for other patients, and hospitals certainly wouldn't take them - they source their own medications.

Is it that your mother died, hospice had ordered meds which hadn't been used and they're trying to send the meds to you to pay for them? I would think they would pay for the meds directly rather than send them to you for payment.

I'm just not understanding the concern here.

But I also think it's very unwise to avoid finding out who sent the letter - it might actually be something positive!

Here in Canada any pharmacy accepts medications returned and will dispose of them properly so that meds don't end up in the land fill or the water system. Can you not just return meds to a local pharmacy there? As for the package you can view it before you accept it (view it intact anyways)

I don't understand the problem with the medications. Is it the fact that they haven't been paid for? Otherwise, why not just accept them?

No GardenArtist. All things are current down to the utilities. If it is medications, we can try to send them back but our worry is if they are from different vendors and we don't want the billing to shift over to us by freak accident (our signing). I guess we can search newspapers for legal notices.

Nothing in your post indicates that it might be some kind of legal notice, but if it is and you don't pick it up, court rules in Michigan (and possibly other states) would provide that assumption can be made your whereabouts is unknown. Again, if there is legal action under consideration, notice would be placed in a legal newspaper and you really wouldn't have any idea what's going on unless you check the legal newspapers.

Best thing to do is face up to it and sign for the letter. You've identified possible situations; develop plans of action to handle each of them and you'll feel more prepared when you go to the post office.

Since you mentioned it, I will ask if you are still behind on your mortgage payments. If so, you definitely need to get that cert. letter to find out what action could be pending. For your sake, I hope that's not the case.

Just go to the post office ask to look at the letter/package, you don't have to sign it if you don't want... They will attempt to deliver 3 times. If you don't sign they will return to sender..