Not paying hospital bills for improper care. Any advice?

Say you’re at a restaurant. The food takes forever to arrive and it’s already cold. But you’re starving by then, so you eat the food. The server is rude and pays almost no attention to you. And you’re mad. But you can’t get up, refuse to pay for the food, and leave.

Same deal here. You have a right to be dissatisfied, but you don’t have the right to not pay because you’re unhappy.

Your only recourse would be legal action. Which will cost you way more than the hospital bill. And you’ll still owe that too. Because no way would you win a case.

When my father, God rest his soul, was in the hospital for 6 nights with a broken hip that needed repair, he was disoriented & frightened. My daughter slept there every single night, on the pull out chair/sofa in his room, to be his advocate & to insure that:

1. He was properly taken care of
2. He was fed and medicated properly
3. He wasn't scared & had a family member nearby if/when he woke up disoriented.

Pay the bill & stop carrying on that things weren't done to your specifications while grandma was in the hospital. You weren't there with her to make SURE things were done to your specifications, so what do you expect?

What 'comes next' is the collections agency calls and calls and calls and sends letters to the point where you either pay the bills, with interest, or your credit rating gets ruined.

There is a difference between UNABLE to pay medical bills and deciding you don't WANT to pay those bills. Apologies if I misunderstood but it sounds like you've been in contact with patient billing/patient advocate and your case was found to be without merit. Depending on t he state you are in what happens next can become very ugly. The late fees begin to be applied, the law suit against you or grandma can be filed, and liens applied to property. Social security payments aren't garnished for nonpayment but other forms of income can be. Keep in mind that this lawsuit would not be on behalf of the staff against you but from the business arm of the hospital. They have a well staffed legal department. At the least you will need a lawyer and that is expensive time indeed. Individual hospitals vary as to how aggressively they pursue medical debt. Heaven help you if you are in the state of Virginia. Contact the hospital and set up a payment plan.

If you feel the hospital didn't treat your grandmother within their set standard of care, then you have the option to sue. I don't think you will get anywhere, because in order for any suit to be successful, you will need to prove both negligence and harm done to your grandma.

But first, you'll have to pay the bill. If you don't want to give the money to the hospital, then contact a lawyer and ask about setting up an escrow account and put the money for the bill in there. Otherwise, it just looks like you're trying to duck out of paying the bill.

It's the same advice I've seen in tenant/landlord disputes; if the tenant decides to go on a rent strike, the advice is to put the rent money into an escrow account, to show the tenant has the means and the willingness to pay the rent except for whatever issues are the cause of the dispute.

Pay the bills as you are her POA. You can try to sue if you felt that she was harmed.
As far as med changes in hospital, POA has no clout unless you have guardnship or she gave permission....POA pays the bills. Period.
Hospital doctors have a right to change meds to treat her. You are not a doctor and you have no rights to treat. Conditions change while hospitalized and specialists ofer great help

PussJr, why was your grandmother in the hospital?

She was there during a national medical emergency; if you had the option not to have her admitted, I think one would consider that very carefully during an emergency situation when you were informed they were short staffed.

Once my mother was dxed with dementia, we realized that she was probably not safe in a hospital by herself. You need to be able to do some level of self-care and self-advocacy while in a hospital unless you are in ICU.

It was at that point that we requested no more hospitalizations for mom and did palliative care only.

no They just told me they put the food on her table and ask her are you hungry
and left it covered. when I told them she requires help eating, they replied they don't have time too many patients to work with.

Pay the bills. Your opinions have not been found to have any merit. Keep in mind, a hospital is not a nursing home. They care for patients differently, and having someone at your beck and call to feed on demand isn't a thing.

You aren't behaving responsibly as her POA. You may find someone else put in charge of her affairs and you left out of it entirely.

Call the hospital and pay them.

change your expectations..see freqflyer comments .. it’s just mot as simple as you think..

PussJr, I assume a doctor visited with your Grandmother while she was in the hospital. The nurses/aides came in 3 or more times a day to take required vitals. The cleaning crew came around at night to clean the room. That 3 meals were prepared daily as per doctor's request. The nurses came in with the required meds. Your Grandmother got help using the bathroom or if wearing Depend type pads she was changed. Shouldn't they get paid?

Who told you that your Grandmother wasn't being fed? Was it Grandmother telling you that? Or were you visiting during those meals times, and if so, you could have helped with the feeding.

I was Power of Attorney for my parents. At no time did I expect the hospital to contact me in order to change medicines.

What happens next is that they go to court and get a judgement against your grandmother, and perhaps you as her legally responsible POA. Her credit will be ruined.
While that may not matter to you, they may come after you as legally responsible person.
The same thing will happen here as would happen with any unpaid bill.
You need to see an attorney now.

Did the patient Advocate agree that those were reasons not to pay grandma's bill?

Changing medications would not require a hospital to notify the POA. The hospital bill is due and hospital may get a judgement against her. Was there a reason given for why she wasn't fed? Or did she need to be hand fed. If that is the case, did you notify them that she could not feed herself.