How do you pay for old debts if mom is in nursing home with Medicaid? How soon do they take her social security check?

I know you are up to your eyes in paperwork for mom but have you taken account of your living conditions and expenses? Go talk to senior services to see if they can assist you with a rent controlled apartment for seniors, or help you find more affordable housing. They can help you find programs and services you qualify for. It may take some of the financial strain off of you.

Emanes, if mom applied for LTC NH Medicaid, then to use a line from Cool Hand Luke “what we (you) got here is a failure to communicate”.... the billing person at the NH was telling you that your mom had a too too much $ in assets for the max (usually 2k) allowed for Medicaid & as such whatever in ASSETS over 2k needed to be spent down, BUT her monthly income needed to be paid to the NH as the Medicaid required copay or SOC (share of cost). Almost always while they are in the Medicaid Pending stage, the resident does the copay from day 1 of when Medicaid application filed. Somehow, this NH either didn’t make your mom do this, or, the bills/statements sent to mom or you as DPOA were not understood by you both that they needed to be paid. Realize that if she didn’t do the required copay, then she’s out of compliance for Medicaid eligibility & can be either suspended or determined ineligible. You don’t want to have that happen, really find out please just what your mom needs to pay the NH to be at zero for her copays due. The situation that RocketJKat described is pretty spot on for my experience as to what staff at the NH tells you as for what Medicaid income rules are. The copay required is indicated in the Medicaid application as well.

Yes, LTC medicaid pays her daily room&board
BUT
Medicaid requires her to do a copay of her monthly income - like SS- to the NH each month. Whatever her income is, whether it’s $900 or $1900. My understanding is ONLY if there is a community spouse or dependent (like with tax filing as dependent, usually would be a long term handicapped child) family member can the required copay be waived. Adult family member that lives in moms home or is moms DPOA can’t get her income waived & paid to them

The “bills for thousands of $” from NH are whatever her monthly income was for those months plus any late charges or other delinquency fees. So if say mom gets SS of $1200 a mo, then Copay is $1200 less her states PNA (personal needs allowance, which averages $60), so like $1140 each mo she needed to pay NH as Medicaid copay or SOC; & pay it each & every month she is in the NH.

That NH actually wrote it off is beyond amazing. I’m surprised they did & haven’t instead filed to become your moms representative payee (so the NH gets moms Ss or whatever monthly income sent to them as direct deposit) &/or turned the past due over to debt collections (to go after you as DpOA).
If it was “written off” as a bad debt, to do this for taxes, the NH will need to issue a IRS 1099-C Cancellation of Debt for 2019 taxes. Debt over $600 needs a 1099 filed if you plan of taking it off on taxes. 1099-C forms are filed with IRS & are taxable income that your mom will owe IRS. IRS can attach a portion of her SS $ to pay her tax bill. Stuff like this morphs out of control. Please please Really try to find out exactly where your mom stands in her bill owed to the NH and being in total compliance for Medicaid rules & fix / pay whatever to get her there, only after that truly fixed think about moving her to a new place.

Holly, see my answer to emanes below. As POA you need to talk to the Medicaid caseworker directly, not the NH. I had Moms on speed dial. Is she still Medicaid Pending? While my Mom was still Medicaid pending, her SS checks were still being deposited to her checking account. This grew substantially over the months while they worked on her case. The NH bills & some medical bills kept coming, but the caseworker told me NOT to pay anything and forward all the bills to her that I wanted Medicaid to pay. When she finally was approved they told me exactly how much arrears to pay the NH (out of her checking account) and how much she would owe monthly going forward. She was allowed to keep only $60 a month out of her SS and pension. So do not spend any of her money, as you’re probably going to need to pay the NH in arrears after her case is finally approved, at which point you’ll get paperwork telling you what to do and pay. But if you develop a relationship with the caseworker, none of this will be a surprise.

If the Old Debts are like credit card or such, they just don’t get paid, as Medicaid won’t pay them. Write on the bill that the person is in a NH and has no money. Unless you want to pay them off yourself for some reason.

The person in the business office at the NH told me to spend down my mom's money and not pay any bills, so I spent most of what mom had on a burial/funeral plan as instructed. That person then left the NH and bills started coming to me from the NH for thousands of dollars. The executive director called to ask why I wasn't paying them and I told her that I'd been told not to. She was not happy about it, but has since written off over half of it as bad debt. I am concerned however that it's going to come up again as I'm trying to get my mom moved to a different facility.

The NH got all of my mom’s SS when she was on Medicaid. I’d forget the old debts, your mom certainly has no ability to pay them at this point, and unless you signed on them you have no obligation to pay

I am mom's POA and I am on her bank account with her(that her social security is deposited into)

I don't think you need to bother with bankruptcy. If she's on Medicaid, the NH gets the bulk of the check minus the minor amount each state allows patient to keep. In MN, my MIL is on Medicaid in a NH and has dementia. Her ss is auto deposited into her account every month, and the NH automatically withdraws their payment from her account every month. Only $90 left. No creditors are going to touch it. Govt gets first dibs. She even walked away from her home, which was underwater on the 2nd mortgage. The bank never even bothered her when we told them she had dementia and no money. Just make sure your name isn't on any of the obligations and don't sign anything.

The nursing home should start taking the social security check immediately if they have been made her rep payee. As far as debt, she won’t be able to pay her debts anymore.

What kind of debt and are they in mom's name only? If medical debt by speaking with their billing department explain she is now un a nursing home and on Medicaid. They will write (forgive) the debt off knowing they will not get anything from her. If credit card debt, cancel her card and inform company she has no assets, in nursing home and receiving Medicaid. They are aware that they have no recourse or way to collect from her. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES ever agree to make a payment to them for her or send one into the company written off of your account, this may make you liable for their debt. Same for any loans. Some may attempt to strong arm you into paying debt nicely but firmly tell them you are not financially responsible for your parent's debt and they have no assets. They are not able to garnish social security no matter what they threaten you with. If I'm not mistaken the only entities that can garnish ssi payments are for back income taxes, student loans, back owed child support and alimony. No private debtors are able to do so. Check with your local legal aid to see if one of their lawyers will write a to whom it may concern letter if companies begin to contact you for payment. Another option is to file bankruptcy for her. That way it should put an end to all of it. Not like she's going to be purchasing a new car or home anytime in the near future.