Has anyone had issues with a nursing home mishandling trust funds?
The nursing my mom is at has a trust in her name, and they pay out all her bills from it. Being her legal guardian, we shop for my mom. We buy clothes, bed clothes, shoes, whatever we think she might want or need since there is plenty of money in her trust fund. That's been fine until before Christmans last year. The front office stopped paying her last receipts we turned in. We'd call, they'd give us the run around that they haven't got to. After two months, I got a hold of the office manager, and she said they weren't paying it. Thanks for tellng me after two months. There is a 'new' policy that everything has to be brought to them for inspection . Now since the tags are off, her names in all her clothes, and she is wearing them, they cannot accept them as proof. This new policy isn't in writing, just something they come up with. I get the feeling she just made it up. I had to wonder why they didn't tell me there was a problem on day one I turned in the receipts in, instead of acting like they were to pay it, they were just busy. Why I can't prove anything, i got this feeling that they are running a game on me. My wife mentioned that they have the receipts too. They could "pay-out" the receipts to themselves, and my mom's account would balance out. Thinking she is right. If they weren't going to pay for the items without inventorying them, why didn't they send the receipts back with a letter, and the new policy explaining, instead running this delay tractic on us.
My wife even suggested that they could be doing this to impede us from buying her new clothes, as a passive-aggressive way to get back at mom for outburst she has. We won't spend money on and buy her all the nice clothes she likes, if they refuse to pay receipts.
I am at a loss. I can't believe they can just refuse to pay. Anyone has any ideas. We are considering moving her, because I don't think I can trust the now.
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If so, Medicaid rules do NOT require for the residents monthly income to go directly to the NH. The resident can still continue to have their bank account and get their SS & retirement income go into their bank account & then they or their DPOA can write a check for the exact copay or SOC to the NH. The copay amount will be in the eligibility letter from Medicaid. Their bank account will increase by whatever your state has its PNA each month. (Like for my mom in TX it was $ 60 a month.) If you do this, you must be mindful that the bank account cannot be more than 2K as 2K is the asset limit for medicaid. So if mom had say $ 1,500 of assets in the account when she initially applied for Medicaid, after a few months, she will be over the limit. So it will need to get spent to be under 2k always.
They do not have to have a resident trust account at the NH. It is really a convenience for resident, DPOA & the facility to have one. What they are used for is for weekly beauty /barber visits and if there is a canteen or store at the facility. My mom used her PNA for beauty shoppe each week and to buy candy & when the scout troops came to buy cookies or popcorn. I kept it at around $ 200 and NH sent a statement on it every 90 days.
If NH is telling you it's being debited to pay for mandatory cable, or phone, you as DPOA can decline that mom has those under Medicaid rules. This seems to be a commom ruse for NH. If NH is telling you that mom must have her monthly income sent to them, that is flat not true under Medicaid rules. If they are telling you mom must have a PNA trust that they hold, that is not true. If you live in moms city and are active in her life, there could be no need ever for use of a PNA trust at the NH as you can easily pay the hairdresser, do her clothes & toiletries shopping, etc. Hell, if mom is still ambulatory, you can take her out to shop either on your own or on a field trip done by activities director of the NH.
If you as DPOA pay the SOC, the NH may press on you to personally sign off on a contract to pay or contract on late fees.......you don't have to do this if they are on Medicaid. But if the check is late, they can place a late fee which you personally will have to pay as Medicaid won't.
For those whose elder is on medicaid, DPOA keeping control of funds can be really important IF you should ever want to move them from 1 NH to another NH as getting the whole direct deposit changed could be very difficult to do if your elder is very demented and cannot do whatever required for changing SSA or retirement .
If this is private pay, then however the admissions contract reads is what can be done. Review all pages of the contract for that situation.
1. As Igloo asked, specifically what kind of trust is this? What's the title of it (leave out names, just explain what it's titled)?
2. Who's named as Settlor - your mother? Is there any issue that she might not be cognizant to revoke the Trust?
3. Who are the Trustee(s) and successor Trustees?
4. What are their SPECIFIC roles?
If they've breached the specific terms of the trust, there may be a cause to terminate it for breach of fiduciary capacity. This is an issue for an attorney to help you with. If the nursing home's law firm drew up the trust, which I suspect, absolutely do not contact them or ask for help.
Find your own independent counsel who works for you.
You'll get results.
/affairs? Somethings is very fishy here. Get to a lawyer immediately before they try and cover up their records. Always save your receipts and label them what you bought. Moms "trust" will pay for the lawyer so get there ASAP.
I wish I knew which state you live in. The fact that you are the Legal Guardian means you should be getting a copy of all expenditures from her trust on a monthly basis. I again cannot tell you how much money is acceptable in her Trust. What I can tell you have the right in your legal status to request a full accounting from the nursing home. If this is happening to you what is happening to those residents unable to check their finances on their own.
And just so you know I have been a Legal Guardian. This responsibility was placed on you by court order and because of this you will need to account for all financial transactions. It is better to get this under control now. If you still are not sure call your attorney or call Justice In Aging (look up number by Google or email them).
I hope whomever is charged with holding the funds, it should have to account to the patient/family/trustee immediately or as soon as the next business day. Maybe such a policy is in place at snfs.