My mom has a balance on her credit card that she will not be able to make monthly payments on once Medicaid kicks in. What do we do about this?

My father currently Iives with me in PA. He is 89.5 years old and I'm starting to look into Assistance Living Facilities. He has no assists. He receives SS and a small pension. Since he is a Veteran, I'm also looking into the VA's Aid and Assistance program. I will need all three incomes to pay for his monthly home costs. He also has debt, one with his bank and another credit card, which he won't be able to pay when he does go into a home. What is the process I need to do to let the creditors know payments will be stopped when he enters the home? This is all new to me.

i am starting to look into an Assistance Living Home for my Dad who is 89.5 years old. He has been living with me for the past 9 months and prior to that, with my brother. He has no assists. He receives Social Security and also has a small pension. Because he is a Veteran, I will be looking into the Aid and Assistance program to help pay for his monthly cost of the Home. He has debt with his bank visa card and another credit card. He will need all his SS, Pension and VA assistance to help with his Home monthly cost. How do I address the problem with his debt, which he won't be able to pay back?

Is there an attorney in Texas man enough to setp up to the plate to fight for dementia patients. I'm tired of the opinions here. People need REAL answers not freaking speculation! This is opportunity...wake up. The rest of you should actually just please stay silent unless you KNOW the advice you're providing is fact. Otherwise, you're doing more harm than good.

As hard as this may be to hear, if she really doesn't have the money to keep up with the payments then she should know about the fair debt collection practices act. By law, her immediate household needs come first and that's such as credit card and any other unsecured debt are actually considered by law to be low priority. I'm on fixed income myself and I also happen to be on Medicaid and I can tell you that SSI alone was definitely not enough to keep up with the debt I racked up when I realized at some point or another that I was in trouble. You can't pay for something out of a tiny SSI check without some form of outside help. What happens is if you pay less than what the bill says is the fees and interest add up to the point you just can't pay it. I've been there and had to quit paying everything just to get a car when I was in school. From your description, it sounds to me like your mom really needs to learn how to prioritize, and I'll give you a simple hint:

If you're about to lose your housing due to lack of money because all of your money is going to low priority debts, that's a strong hint that your housing being high priority should come first. It sounds to me like someone may also need to take over your mom's financial affairs at least for a time, but maybe even for good. If this is the case, it should be someone trustworthy who won't take advantage of her or steal from her, definitely someone who keeps perfect records.

The secret?

Your moms house and can be saved by simply redirecting her money from wherever it's going to her highest priority expenses such as her housing. When I used to run around paying cash for everything before I went auto online bill pay, my rule was that my rent came first and foremost. When I set up online auto bill pay, my rent was set up first because I don't want to be homeless. I've never once come close to losing my housing because I keep my payments up by paying in full on time monthly. If you set up a separate account where her check is direct deposit, you can also set up all of her high priority expenses to come out. You can set up a savings account for that checking account, and a separate checking account for giving her an allowance. I set this kind of thing up for myself and it works as smooth as clockwork. My check goes into the main account with bills coming out automatically. Automatic transfer gives me a certain amount of money in the other checking and the rest of the money goes into savings. Having online banking is really a blessing because you don't even have to go out when the weather is bad, just sign up for online banking through your bank and keep a copy of your username and password as well as a bookmark to your bank's website. When you logon, there's a world of things you can do from the comfort of home or anywhere you happen to be, and best of all it's free. You can transfer money between accounts anytime or even pay bills. Your ATM card is also good at the checkout, run it as credit. The newer cards I've noticed have a microchip for an added level of security, so you'll have to remember your PIN number. Since I went digital, it's the best banking decision I ever made, and oh if only the laundromats had card readers on the machines! Some of them do, but you have to reload cash onto one of their cards, which I won't do because I want to use my own pre-paid card that's attached to my bank account. When you go digital, there is a world of possibilities because you can shop online from the comfort of anywhere and not have to worry about being short on cash, just keep tabs on what's in your account and do a balance inquiry before you shop

my mother inlaw isin a nursing home in oregon, she is on medicaid, hasno home and hs no assetts, She needs to have ll of her teeth pulled due to infection and a set of dentures made, the tooth extractions are covered under medicaid but the dentist insist that her children are responsible for the dentures. wouldn't medicaid cover some of the dentures and can her children be held responsible for the balance, eric12

Yowch. $400 a month minimum repayments? That sounds like rather a lot of outstanding debt overall. I'd get some advice from a debt counsellor if I were you. Do you have POA for your mother?

my mom is on Medicaid and will be moving into assisted living. She only has her SS and no asserts home car etc. She is 91 and has some credit cars which are being paid on time every month. My question is when she finally moves in assisted living how will she be able,to afford credit card payments as the assisted living gets her SS each month and she will only be left with $160. she owes over $400 a month in credi card debt. I don't know what can if any be done to help her.

1beautiful - there is a good article on all this in creditcards as it pertains to Nevada: "Lawsuits over credit card debts spike in California, Nevada, Florida", Courts in states hit by recession see a parade of debtors…..By Martin Merzer

It sounds like you want to do whatever to keep your home, so it is good that you pay your mortgage. Lots of people do the bankruptcy route, it does screw your credit ability for a while but only you can determine if this matters. So if you need to refi your mortgage to a lower rate that would be difficult to do. I have known of people who did bankruptcy but excluded their Macy's and a Mastercard from the filing as those were current and zero balance so NOT included in the filing. Who knew this technique could be done!! so even after bankruptcy they still had those cards to use. Yeah totally manipulating the system but clever.

I would suggest that you get all your debt letters together and go see someone at Consumer Credit Counseling. They are a non-profit. They can tell you specifically what Nevada law allows for a debt collector to do legally in your state. They have a formula to figure out how long it would take to pay off, negotiate with creditors OR tell you realistically that those things just won't work and bankruptcy is your best way. Sometimes it's good to hear all this from someone else who sees this all the time. Good luck.

Hi, i live in nevada and have a homestead on my house. My only income is my sss.creditors are after me. My question is can they go after my house and house is paid of but i owe 2nd mortgage about 20,000 dollars w hich i deligently pay every month. Thanks

debbie1, the answers above, from last year, should be very helpful to you, in general.

Why does the NH expect the money in your mother's account? Has she been living there, and owe them some money that Medicaid won't be paying? Is the money in her account greater than the assets she is allowed to retain?

I'm not the one to answer your question, but providing a little more detail may help someone more knowledgable give you a specific answer.

Are you her POA? Are you on your mother's checking account?

debbie - the NH is correct.
In order to be on Medicaid, the resident is required to pay ALL of their monthly income less whatever is their states personal needs allowance to the NH. In some states, if there is an empty home owned by the NH resident and it is actively listed on the market with a licensed Realtor, the state will allow a utilities and maintenance allowance for a set period of time.

If there is a home and family is living in it, then they have to pay for all on the house.

For example, my mom gets $ 1,900 a month from SS and retirement. Her NH gets $ 1,840.00 a month as she is in Texas and they have a $ 60 a month personal allowance. She went into the NH with $ 1,500 in her bank account which basically sits there every month and will be till she dies. The $ 60 a month goes into a trust at the NH for her to use for hairdresser, candy, shopping stuff. None of the $60 goes to anything other than her personal needs for being in a NH. She still has a home and I and another family member pay for all costs associated with the house and upon her death will file a claim against her estate for our costs and let the state Medicaid program know the exact amount and with documentation. This amount will be reduced from any monies that the state Medicaid program can get via MERP ($ recovery program after death) too. For us this works and is our best long term option as her house would be a difficult sale and the expenses on the house are manageable as it is mortgage free and modest. We can do this as the house is empty. If someone is living in it, this exclusion, I'm pretty sure doesn't apply.

You kinda have 2 options:
to send a letter to all her debtors stating she is in a NH on Medicaid and there will be no further payment on any of her accounts and you are NOT responsible for them. Whomever is her DPOA should do these letters.
Or let them just pile up and ignore them.
imho a lot of this depends on how much grief you can deal with as the debt collectors are ruthless. If your mom has no assets (house or car) then there is nothing they can get. She on Medicaid so she is at poverty level. If she has a house and you live in a state where the debtors can put a lien on the house, then it can be a issue as it puts the ownership of the house in jeopardy.

One thing to watch for if she has credit card debt. The CC can write the debt off. BUT they likely will issue your mom a 1099-C for the full amount of the cancellation of debt. This can count as income and you have to pay taxes on it too. It can also place her above the income limit for Medicaid. So if she gets a 1099-C don't ignore it but she will need to file taxes and do the form for showing impoverishment and this gets around having income and owing taxes.

The NH's are required to get all her income in order to have her there under the state Medicaid rules. If you don't do it, they can do a "30 day notice" on her and you will have to find another NH. And the new NH might require a hefty deposit because of the billing issues with the old NH.

my mom is in a long term nursing home. her medicaid will be inaffect next week. the nursing home is telling me that i have to write a check out of her ckecking account for the balance in there to them. what about her pending bills that need to be paid[electric,phone,cable,etc.] ? the nursing home told me that the other companiess will just have to take a loss. the electric company said they never heard of this. im confused and dont know what to do. debbie

Austin - I will have to disagree with you on sending mail to the NH. One problem with things going to the NH that if the person has dementia and is really not capable of doing anything about it the letter(s) or notices will just stay there without the proper action being taken, Most demand letters have a 30 day window to respond and if you miss it then the debt could change into something else even more serious.

Also the NH or LTC is not the residents legal or authorized representative, that is the DPOA, guardian &/or family members role or responsibility.

I would really caution anyone from making the NH do anymore than deal with the health care and safety of the resident. Most NH have such pitiful reinbursement from Medicaid that same of them are being faced with having to limit the # of beds in order to be profitable. They may be licensed for 200 but instead only do 175 as that is the tipping point for staffing costs. So they can to a degree pick & choose who for residency. If a resident is a constant bother with phone calls from debt collection companies - which are relentless and can call 4 - 6 times a day - or a a ton of letters or legal documents, then you could find yourself having to move them.

If you personally have a ton of debt from your late husband, then perhaps you should look into bankruptcy. If paying his debt is leaving you virtually at the edge of poverty that could be a way to end it and start aftesh. Consumer credit counseling has offices in almost every major city - they could advise you better. Good luck.

She not you are responsible for the debt and since she is or will be on medicaide the CC companies will have to deal with the NH so do not worry if they go after you refer them to the NH actually this gladens my heart because I husband lift me in a mess he was a shopaholic and it will take years for me to pay them off while other widows do not have to pay off their husbands debt so the CC companies get enough money illegally so do not let them bully you have an elder lawyer write them a letter and just do not pay attention to the companies they will try every trick in the book-they take advantage of the elders-I have to pay the interest plus two fees in addition to the interest because he took offers to transfer to a lower rate and I am paying those fees each month and I did not sign the offers he did and since he died I have to pay -his debts were much higher than his life insurance-but remember you are not responsible for her debts.

Medicaid really doesn't care about her debts - they are all about what she has done with her assets in the look-back period before she applied. For you to be truly concerned about her cc debt it depends on what her assets are. CC debt is unsecured debt so in order for them to get any money there has to be an asset that they can try to get.

If she owns no home and her only asset is her SS monthly then there is nothing the creditors can do. SS is a federally protected income so can't be attached.

Not all banks know this, however. If the debt recovery company actually comes after her and goes through to file against her and gets a judgement against her then they could try to attached her bank account. But if there is only SS check in in, they can't do it. You may need to send a letter to her bank to remind them of this

If her check is going straight to the NH from SS then there is nothing they can do as it can't be attached as there is no bank account to go after.

If she still has a home and cc debt then it is different. In TX & FL, cc debt can never get a judgement against her that is placed on the home. In TX & FL your homestead is untouchable. So the debtor is out of luck in those states. In most other states they can but until you go to sell the house the lein doesn't have to be dealt with. If she is on Medicaid and has a house, the MERP program (Medicaid
estate recovery program) will be getting any of the $$ made on the sale of the house before unsecured creditors. Remember CC are unsecured.

Also depending on the state the debtor has to refile the lein to have it continue to be attached to the property. That costs $$ and takes time, most don't.

But remember no matter what they have to go through the whole debt recovery process, file a lawsuit, have her served, and go to court, then get a judgement, etc. in order to get a lein. In order to serve someone, they have to be competent to be served, which if she has dementia, she is not.

If i were you, I'd send a letter to both the cc company and the debt recovery company (if she's at the point of getting those type of letters) informing them
that XYZ is elderly, dementia in a nursing home whose only assets are SS which is federally protected and there will be no further payment on the cc as all of her assets are federally required to be completely and directly paid for her care. The letter should be written on her behalf at whatever the address was on her credit card statement. NOT the nursing home where she lives - you don't want mom or the staff at the NH getting these calls. Send the letter certified mail with return registered card. You may have to do this a couple of times. The debt recovery companies are constant and her debt will be sold after a period of time to yet another company that will send the same type of letters again. So send your letter out again to the next one too. It can take a couple of years for the cycle to stop but eventually it will. Each state has a specific statue of limitations on how long they can go after a debt. If mom's state SOL is 3 years and her last payment was April, 2011 then the debt is SOL is June, 2014. After that they cannot try to get a lien placed on her or her assets.

I have same problem as you. My mother is going in a nursing home today.

All of them (attorneys) said don't bother to file bankruptcy. Not much credit companies can do if your mother doesn't have assets they want if Medicaid takes over her SS checks.

The Medicaid people should probably know about this. Each state is different, but it seems late in the game to think of doing this without the knowledge of the Medicaid folks, since the paperwork is already filed. Personally, I would ask them. Maybe you should call an elder law attorney, first, however.
Good luck with it all. We'd like to know how it works out in your state.
Carol