My Mom passed away nearly two years ago. Hospital is calling about bills. Are her children liable?

Thank you all for your comments and input...I've decided to call and get more information...can't hurt. I'll post the outcome. Thanks again!

People who have more than one health insurance need to scrutinize all their "Explanation of Benefit Statements" before sending in payment of medical bills. For seniors, Medicare is first payer (very prompt), private insurance is secondary payer (not always so prompt).

Debralee: Yes, Mom had both Medicare and a private insurance. That is why I don't remember paying a lot of bills to this hospital, because insurance covered most of it. I assumed that a refund would go to the ins. companies.
I think hearing from the hospital is bringing back all the stress and nonsense we had to go through during her stay.

@Miasmom1: Thank you so much for the perspective. Hospitals are a mystery to me. I do realize that there are a lot of hard working people there, but the flip side is that my family and I went through a lot of uncaring doctors, over billing, double billing and insurance companies refusing to pay because they received bills from the hospitals from two docs for the same procedures...many of those "procedures" never happened. Once Mom was admitted, it took us contacting our lawyer to get her out. There was nothing wrong with her other than age.
That is why I wondered if this was legitimate. I've NEVER had a doctor's office let alone a hospital try to find me to send a refund.
Thank you again for your input and I may take you up on your offer. I haven't decided yet whether I will call.

Did your mother have dual insurance (medicare & private insurance)? Hospitals are notorious for sending out bills before the secondary insurance has sent in their portion of the payment. It happened to my mother after my stepfather's death. She paid the bill before realizing the secondary insurance had not submitted payment. She received a refund 8 months after his death.

this answer is pretty lengthy, I apologize - but I used to work for an insurance company and a hospital billing department. Maybe I can help you cut through some red tape. it will probably make you feel better if you know the reason for the refund. The first thing you need to know is whoever signed consent at the date of service the refund is for. go from there to help you figure out why the refund is due to you. you would need to determine whoever got the call. did your mom used to live with someone? whoever got the call, that person might be able to call the hospital and get some info. she should ask for a copy of the consent form, they will probably send it to the address they have on file. If they can give info to whoever calls, it would be good for her to find out the date of service for the bill, was insurance billed correctly (esp. if there is more than 2 insurances such as Medicare supplement?) it is also important to find out where the hospital bill is coming from. the reason I say this is that there is usually a department (patient accounts) that does hospital or facilty billing. then there are usually departments within the hospital that do their own billing: radiologists, pathologists, behavioral health, er docs and surgeons. so i.e. if your mom had a hospital stay and surgery which included an X-ray, insurance would be billed from the hospital (facility), a separate bill for reading the X-ray and a separate bill for whoever did the surgery. the reason they do this is not all docs can be contracted with an insurance company, i.e. er docs because there is no type to verify ins/do preach when a trauma comes in. same with surgeons if they have to do with emergency surgery. Please be forewarned, whoever calls may be asked for a copy of the death certificate.I do not think this is a ploy, this is probably legit. The hospital would not go to such trouble to find your info, whoever signed the consent form would just go to collections, even if it was your mom. (I apologize - I don't mean to be crass.) the hospital where I worked sent refunds and were met with a lot of skepticism (sp?). do not worry that so much time has passed - that doesn't surprise me at all and it is not necessarily the hospital's fault. An example of this is that maybe the hospital had to send a corrected bill to ins co for add'l services, which causes an add'l payment. so if you have already paid, you may very well be owed a legitimate refund. I will stop there - LOL - i will be happy to walk you through this if needed. Let me know and we can figure out how to communicate, either on this board or privately. Good luck. Also please remember to document your calls, with date/time, person's first name (last name if they give it out - I never did) and VERY IMPORTANT what department they are with. also remember hospitals do not just collect money, they do advocate for patients :)

The idea of sending to the trust via a lawyer is appealing, or a PO box that you could then close. You could also insist on itemizing everything, mentioning the double billing, etc. I'd also think that if they did not manage to send a bill after even ONE year they shouldn't be expecting to recoup.

vstefans: if you think it is legit...how would you go about finding out and still not reveal your personal information like address, phone #, etc? Maybe asking them to email me a statement.

I wonder if there weren't bills that the insurance company didn't pay and now the hospital is wanting someone to pay up. Mom had a stay at another hospital where doctors were coming in and out of her room and double billing on procedures, etc. Of course the ins. co. and Medicare refused to pay. I have no clue what the final outcome was.
Hospitals see the elderly as walking ATMs.

Hospital bills should have been paid from the estate, it's true. But if you already did that and are not liable, collection people should not be allowed to call and this could be reported to the appropriate agency in your state. That said, hospitals, pharamacies, and living facilities are actually obligated to make a good faith attempt to refund anything that was overcollected and it could be legit.

kathyt1: My thoughts exactly. First, what hospital would take the time to send out refunds? Second, I don't even remember paying the bills for her stay, so a refund would go to the ins. co.

igloo: Mom lived in a small town. I don't have contact with her advisor (accountant) who created her trust. I thought of opening up a post office box in a nearby town in order to preserve my privacy. But it all seems too fishy and not worth the hassle. I've read that hospitals are now going after relatives hoping to guilt them into paying even though they are not liable. They are even hiring collection agencies to hound them...as if you don't have enough to deal with.

I figure that I did the honorable thing by paying all Mom's bills even after she passed. It's been two years since she passed...I neither need the money or the hassle. The sib, however, may have other ideas... :(

If there was a trust, then there was an attorney who did the paperwork. Have the hospital or whomever, send whatever to the law firm as a C / O - In care of the estate of Jane Smith. I'd send a note over to the law firm telling them to just hold any mail and you will pick it up. This is done all the time.

The trust if done properly creates it's own legal entity. Kinda it's own person. If everything in the trust has been totally dispersed (& I bet it has) than the trust is defunded and goes defunct. There is nothing for the creditors to go after.

For what it's worth, my MIL died maybe 4 years ago. Over 2 years later, BIL got a very small check from the NH to MIL. Check did not say what for & under $ 100. Now she was in NH for maybe 6 mos & we figure it was whatever was left in her personal needs allowance trust fund at the NH. Problem was that there was no Jane Jones bank account anymore as all that closed up after she died & BIL wasn't about to deposit it in his personal account. So he just ignored it as too much trouble to deal with (none of the kids live in the state). When you get the check, this may be an issue for you. So it's good that it goes to the attorney's office as they can tell you how to deal with it or not deal with it. Good luck.

Did your Mother have outstanding bills from this hospital? If she had Medicare and a supplemental health policy, wouldn't they deserve the refund? Sounds fishy, Check with a elder care lawyer.

Sorry...I left out some info. They called my sibling who contacted me because I was her financial manager.
I was under the impression that the hospital can go after an estate, even if the funds have been disbursed....but I don't know about funds in a trust.
Fearful is a good word. It's been two years since she passed and now they have just discovered this "refund?" Give me a break! I told my sib to not speak with them further and not give out my personal info.
I do not trust hospitals - they are ruthless.

No, you are not liable. Did you ask the hospital about the amount of the refund? If they already have your name and phone number, then finding your address would be easy for them to do. Why are you so fearful?