My father died January 4 2020
Hackett hill nursing home is trying to take his money that was left in his resident trust acct I filed with the court his burial expenses but they are looking for another form in which I don't know what that form is ? Can anyone help me?
if so, this is my experience(s)with this....
- do you know that there actually is a balance? NH can have monthly fees that are NOT covered by Medicaid & these are automatically debited each month. Like for cable, in room phone, weekly beauty shoppe or barber visit. So really no $ buildup over time. Or elder took $ for field trips, or the NH “store” or used to buy something not covered by Medicaid. So no real $ left.
- there likely was a form filled out at the NH when he went in as to who was allowed to go to the biz office at NH & draw from the PNA. The DPOA or the elder did this. From then on if you were on the list you signed out on a log with date & $ amount and for what. For my mom, it was 3 names. Whomever is the first on that form should get a check in their name for the balance when the elders account at the NH has settled. For my mom, she was totally current on her billing, Medicaid eligibility and any extra costs (she was paid up with beauty shoppe). Check sent in my name & not “in estate of”, within abt 90 days. They did it in my name cause lots of folks do NOT open probate. & if you don’t open probate, there’s no place to deposit a “estate of” payee check, so it can’t get cashed. If you do open probate, we did, you can deposit it into the account your using for the estate. Your not even at 60 days post death, it may need another 60 days.
- if he wasn’t current on his bill or had not yet cleared Medicaid eligibility, that’s going to be lots more sticky to deal with. NH will likely hold funds till Medicaid cleared & they are paid the daily room&board by Medicaid back to day 1 of admission. They will use the pretext that once billing zeros the $ will be sent.
On another subject, you do realize that as he did NOT live the entire month of January, should he get a check this month (February) from SS or other pension or retirement, that $ will need to be clawed-back or returned / repaid. My mom died almost end of month & got paid on the 3rd the following month from her 2 incomes sources. The $ was left in her bank account (became estate account). SSA pretty quick, within 30 days for clawback. But the civil service annuity took abt 3 months. If he gets a clawback & no $, they will try again & again AND bank will attach NSF fees & can freeze accounts.
If u did not do probate, then u need to get a certificate from them saying ur handling Dads assets. It will cost though.
If the NH says they are not allowed to release it, call SS. This money does not go back to Medicaid or SS.