Staff emptied my father's account, what can we do?

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MyElderlyFather Asked April 2019

Staff emptied my father's account, what can we do?

My father is a disabled elderly man on hospice care due to stage 4 colon cancer. His only source of income has been social security. He is wheelchair bound and has one arm. The fingers in his hand do not move due to "trigger finger." So he's not in great shape. He's currently in a nursing home 600 miles from me. Because he is unable to leave his facility to go to the bank, through the years his social security went untouched and grew to around $12,000. Earlier this year it was discovered that an employee (or employees) emptied his bank account, leaving him with $5.68. I spoke to the administrator, who said they THOUGHT they had his debit card in their safe, however, the card they had in their safe was an old one. The new card never made it to the safe. Police were called, the bank was called, and administrator and staff were called, but the ball was dropped.

Does anyone have any advice whatsoever what I can do to help rectify this situation? It seems as if the nursing home and bank should have some accountability for the theft of over $12,000.

Any direction offered will be so greatly appreciated. I will be there visiting him the first full week of May. At that time I intend to go to the bank with him and speak face-to-face with the administrator, as well as the police.

Thoughts?

Elder Abuse Elder Law Skilled Nursing Facility

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score 0 · Answer 1

First, how long has Dad been in the NH? I ask because, if Dad had 12k in the bank Medicaid would not pay for his care in a LTC facility. My feeling is the Medicaid he gets is healthcare only. A suppliment to his Medicare.

Are you sure that he didn't do a spend down and the 12k was used for his care in LTC. Once that was used, he then went on Medicaid for his care. At that point his SS goes towards his care with Medicaid paying the balance.

How Dad ended up in LTC would help.

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score 2 · Answer 2

Is your dad in the NH for rehab? That's really the only way that Medicare would be paying.

After a 3 day hospitalization, Medicare will pay for 20 days of rehab at 100%.

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score 1 · Answer 3

Medicare does not pay for nursing home care. He must be on Medicaid. And as Barb said the money taken from his account is share of cost.

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score 3 · Answer 4

Unfortunately, MyElderlyFather.....you do not seem to understand how this all works. And that's a shame, really. Keep reading the posts from @BarbBrooklyn. I do not know her, but I can see that she knows what she's talking about. So, I will not post in a redundant way.

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score 1 · Answer 5

Okay, that's what I suspected.

No one is emptying your dad's account. Your father's share of cost (soc) for his NH Bill's is his SS, minus a small personal needs allowance.

Who is dad's POA? Who met with the NH business office to set up payments,
etc.?

Most likely, the NH business office has become dad's representative payee for SS.

Who are you talking to at the NH? Seems like they should understand how Medicaid works. Dad is not allowed to have over $2K in assets if he is a single Medicaid NH resident in most states. Is there a spouse?

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