My mother in law has been put into a full care facility, because her doctor said she could no longer live alone after a short hospital stay. Medicare cut off payment to the facility after 30 days. My sister in law was presented with bill for the months of Nov/Dec '09 in the amount of $9000.00 plus $1720.00 for medication. Without knowing that Medicaid would not pay, no information about the cost from the facility was given until the bill was presented. Medicaid is not paying for Nov/December 2009, because there was $5000.00 in her bank account. Apparently Medicaid will start paying from January on. The $5000.00 is needed to cover expenses incurred before she went into the hospital and then nursing facility. My sister in law is distraught, afraid she will be sued for this money that she did not know would be billed to her mother.
My sister in law (my husband's sister and mother) is frantic. My mother in law can walk with a walker and can feed and bath herself. She is 88 and has arthritis in her knees and fingers, but is very lucid. She apparently shows signs of early Alzheimers, but otherwise is doing pretty well.
Everyone was totally uninformed before this all happened. The doctor chose the facility and made arrangements for her to go there. We just took the doctors word that this needed doing.
How do we cover expenses when the money is not there and the $5000.00 must be paid to cover previous living expenses? None of the adult children have the money to cover the $10,000.00 being billed??
What possible options are there?
Thank you so much for your kind consideration of this matter.