How much of my mother's assets can a nursing home seize after she passed away owing them money? New York State

The debt is owed by your mother’s estate. Did she have a will, and if so who is the Executor? The bill should be presented to your mother’s estate anyway – it’s not your debt, and certainly don’t let them pretend that it is.

They will certainly be entitled to the $10,000 in cash. The chances are that the car is not now worth anything like she paid for it. Look up the book value on one of those sites. Present the car for valuation, without taking trouble to clean it up. See if you can get a low book value, then offer to buy if from the NH. If they have to seize it and sell it, the hassle and the costs of commission for them may mean that they are open to any reasonable offer.

19,000 is only 2 months of private pay care. Like asked, did you complete the Medicaid application? That 10k would have had to be spent down so it should have gone to her care. So, yes, I would give the NH the money and tell them that is all she has. YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR HER CARE.

Now the car, that is part of her estate. As such it can be sold to offset the cost of her care. You can buy it at Market Value. Not sure if that is the retail value or private sale amount. The NH won't "seize" anything. They aren't in the business to do this since it costs them money. They may sue.

Does Mom own a house? If so, not sure what you would do here. Get a loan against the house to pay the bill?

You may need to run this passed a lawyer. How far did you get with the Medicaid application, maybe if dated before her death, they may pay the 9k you can't pay. You need to ask Medicaid about this.

I agree with Mstrbill. I am surprised as well that you were allowed to accumulate a bill this high without payment. You need to know the law in your state on all this. You may be able to negotiate, if you are executor, right now as far as getting this bill down; hospital bills can be negotiated. I don't know about NH. If this was SNF they are much more money.
As to those thinking for their own future, cars can have title (at least in California) put in name of two, if husband and wife or other immediate family, so while I no longer drive my domestic partner's car is registered in his OR my name. Mom could have put it in both your names, and in my State can be done in Triple AAA office if you are a member.

When I was spending down money to qualify LO for Medicaid, I had to pay the nursing home regularly - from LO's funds. They would not have let me accumulate a $19K bill at any point *until* I could show that there was no more money to pay them and that Medicaid would need to come into play. If my LO still had $10K in cash, the NH would not have let the bill grow to $19K - I would have had to use that money to pay them on a regular basis. With that in mind, my thought is that the nursing home probably does have a claim to that $10K because perhaps it should have already been paid to them as was the case with me. Maybe my experience is not typical, but NH wanted to see my face and have full transparency on the finances if LO was eventually going to stay and be a Medicaid. The car is something I'm not sure about. In our case, we sold it for fair market value and used those funds to pay the nursing home. Might there have been another alternative with the car? Not sure, but I do wonder if we had wanted to keep the car maybe we would have had to legally buy it from her? Not an issue in our case since no one wanted/needed it. Not sure if NH can put a lien on a vehicle and/or make you sell it. It will also depend on whether she borrowed to buy the car since any car loan will change things from an ownership standpoint.

Did you complete the Medicaid application?

Hi Mick, first, I'm sorry for your loss. As far as your mom's car and assets, I think you need someone who is well versed in your State's laws to advise. Did your mom have a will? Do you have access to her money in the bank? If you are not on the account, it may have to go to probate and the NH may stake a claim for it. The car I would imagine you can continue to drive without a problem as long as the registration is current and the insurance is paid, but if you want to be fully legal you'd have to transfer the title to your name. I don't know the laws and procedure in New York, but I think you can find the answer on the DMV website. I would maybe not bother transferring the title and just let the probate procedure take its course (It may take a while). Make sure you don't pay anything out of your own funds to the NH.