Hello Mr Scott,
My Dad was in a florida nursing home for 100 days plus. He refused PT and his status of skillable to custodial was not mentioned to me. I have DPOA and Health Proxy.The home mentioned to me (after the fact) that I would have to pay for his treatment.I signed to be responsible party because he has medicare and good insurance and the admin.lady told me the insurance would certainly pay. The insurance mirrors medicare rules of not paying for custodial care. Do I have a legal avenue to not pay if I wasn't informed in writing before or at the time the insurance would no longer pay. Also ,Iwas never in on any care plans or discharge plans for DAD. Thanks for any and all help. Mark

Mark -

After Medicare and your father's insurance stopped paying the nursing home, your father was responsible for paying for his care. If he doesn't/didn't have the resources to pay the bill, then it APPEARS you are responsible for paying, since you signed the form agreeing to be the responsible party.

However, this is a very tricky area. Did you just sign your name to the form, or did you sign your name as P.O.A. (power of attorney) for your father? If you signed as his P.O.A., then you aren't personally liable for the bill. Otherwise, you probably are.

While it certainly would have been courteous of them to notify you as soon as the Medicare and private insurance stopped paying, they aren't required to do so.

Getting Medicaid to help pay the bill may be an option, depending on several factors including how long ago this happened.

I recommend you call our office at (727) 539-0181, and schedule a free one-hour consultation. We can do the consultation by phone if you don't live in the area. It's very important that you talk to one of us about the specific details of your case. (Details are everything, as you know.) There's no cost or obligation.

Medicaid may be an option, as I said, but there are time limits involved.

May I ask where your Dad was discharged to?