Being sued by my grandmother's nursing home over a stay back in 2020.

Tell them papers were for temporary admission only. It was rehab so they should have sent her Medicare and supplement insurance for payment. Days 1-20 by Medicare, I believe. Days 21-100 covered by supplement with a copay. Tell them they need to resubmit it to insurance. DO NOT PAY!!! You don’t owe them anything.

I completely feel for the OP. Had the same thing happen when my father went into AL. At the time he was capable of signing things but they insisted I also sign as a representative and of course all this was new to me so I didn’t add POA to my signature. These contracts are so full of legalize that even if you do read thru everything you may not understand all of it. And I also asked to make sure I would not be liable and of course they tell you no. I even asked if I HAD to sign and they insisted or would not take him. They know your back is against the wall and have no choice

I’m so sorry. I hope you can get it worked out. If you were POA, I think and easy mistake to make would be signing your name as normal. What it should be is “GrandmasName by SoccerMom as power or attorney.” Maybe they got you there? I’d be confused too. No way could most people read that stuff in 5 mins and grasp it.

Soccermom, good luck with the attorney. Hopefully, you still have a copy of the POA, that should be enough to prove you were acting as her fiduciary and put this nonsense to bed.

Wondering if the papers delivered by the Sheriff were actually "legally" delivered. Just because a "relative" took them does not mean that they would eventually get to you, the person being sued.

I have an appointment with a lawyer tomorrow at 2:00 and spending today getting copies of anything and everything that I may need. Thanks everyone for your advice and kind words. I will never trust another person like that and just sign something, I don't care if it's 100 pages long. I called my children (ages 23 & 21) and told them to make sure they never do either.

Now that you've added more details about this situation, I agree with Geaton: you definitely need a consultation with a lawyer to go over all the details. You left mom in this SNF after her Medicare stopped paying the bill for rehab, knowingly, waiting on Medicaid approval which was denied for an $11 overage, expecting the bill to be paid by them. At that point, there was a bill that needed to be paid by someone.

It's unfortunate you did not consult a lawyer when Medicaid was denied over $11!!

Of course we all feel sorry for you that this bill is now hanging over your head. But the truth is, only an experienced attorney who's familiar with these matters can properly help you navigate this mess. Small claims court is fine to attempt alone, a $30k bill is not. What you need I'd professional advice now.

Best of luck to you.

I think they are fishing. They can't sue Mom becaused she is deceased and if any probate thats closed. The only person they can go after is the person that signed the papers. In two years, did you receive any billings from the NH?

The Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia apparently sued a couple of nursing homes over this issue, and they had to make some changes to their contracts:
https://oag.dc.gov/blog/stopping-deceptive-billing-practices-nursing-homes

Why on earth would you sign a contract without reading it?

Pay for the lawyer, it will be worth it in the long run.

Yes, you have to make sure this is the NH and not a debt collector. Collectorscare ruthless and you need a lawyer for them.

If you signed those papers as POA, then you are not responsible. That means after your name you put POA. POA means your grandmom's representative and not responsible for her debts. They should be suing her estate. How long was she in Rehab? Medicare pays 100% the first 20 days and 50% days 80 to 100. I am figuring $300 a day and that would take a stay of 100 days at least. Something fishy here. I am sorry but you need a lawyer to request the records. The paperwork you signed. What the insurance or Medicare paid.

I am going to add a comment about the lawsuit.
There are debt collection companies that buy old debts and try to collect on them. On average debt collection agencies only pay about 4% of the original debt.
Most will never be collected
According to what I just read only about 1 in 7 consumers will actually be sued.
There is a time limit depending on where you are it could be between 3 and 6 years,
And if any of the original documentation has been lost they might not be able to sue you.

Most lawyers will do a 30 minute free consultation.
Many areas have a bar association that may have lawyers doing free work as well.

Please read all the other comments there is some wise advice here

The nursing home my parent was in tried to pull the same thing with me. One question though. Was your meeting where you signed these papers recorded? They usually are. It is your legal right to have a copy of what was said in that meeting. That will clear you right there if you asked about whether or not those papers were forms to additionally bill you personally. Talk to the nursing home business office and demand this. Or ask the court to subpoena it.

If the meeting wasn't recorded and it's unlikely that it wasn't, submit the same answer to the court that I did. The nursing home tricked you and said the papers you were signing were standard admitting forms and forms to bill Medicare. There was no mention of those forms being for you to take legal financial responsibility for your grandmother's nusing home bill.


There must have been phone calls between you and the nursing home and paperwork stating how much your grandmother's monthly stay costs. So if any of grandma's stay in the nursing home was covered by Medicare (and it probably was up to 100 days a year) then she does not owe for that time.

Since you are the POA, submit a request to Medicare asking them to send itemized bills of what they have paid out in during your grandmother's stay in the facility. They will do this. Then you bring those papers to the court.

For example:

The nursing home tells you grandma's cost is $10,000 a month and she was there for three months. That would be $30,000.

If a statement from Medicare says that they paid out $60,000 for what was billed as say a three-week stay, this means the nursing home collected enough payment for six months from Medicare and are owed nothing. But Medicare is owed 30 grand. This is what I did.

Then you let Medicare deal with their fraud, and oh they will. If such is the case (and it was with us) the nursing home actually had to refund several thousand dollars that I had paid out because I was the POA.

If you can't afford a lawyer, you will have to do the research and legwork yourself. It's not impossible. Don't get worried about having to give the court a 'legal answer'. That doesn't mean you have to hire councel to represent you.

A 'legal answer' means you have to give a detailed timeline and explanation of exactly what happened from the first meeting you had with this nursing home, to the day your grandmother left it. You will have to produce this record that you will swear to under oath if you actually see the inside of a courtroom.

Have you been served with a summons to appear in court yet? I hope you have. If you have not then you will have to check the docket yourself online twice a week to look for your name. Collectors pull this all the time. You don't know you have to appear then lose by default. Don't let that happen.

You write a timeline of events and submit the Medicare papers and any other proof of money paid to them. The court sees cass like this every day. They know how nursing homes scam. You'll do fine.

For future reference if you ever have to deal with a nursing home again, NEVER meet with their people without a witness or without telling them you will be recording the meeting.

Soccermom, I just wanted to say I am sorry you are going through this.

I've heard advice given to me, to never sign anything at hospital or any places for mom.

I can totally see how this could happen.

Please keep us posted,
Best of luck to you

I remember when this was a relatively big news story a few years ago. IIRC, several of the big networks did stories on it. I distinctly remember one man actually crying after a judge dismissed the lawsuit against him. I'm going to link an article from NPR which may be helpful. According to the article, someone was able to get free or low-cost legal advice; maybe you can get the same.

Well, for some reason, the link won't work. This is the title of the article. Hopefully, if you google it, it will be at the top of the search results: "Nursing homes use lawsuits to demand friends and family pay off medical debts : Shots - Health News : NPR"

Something else to web search from KFF Health News (I've always found KFF Health News to be a wonderful resource for healthcare consumers): "Nursing Homes Are Suing the Friends and Family of Residents to Collect Debts - KFF Health News"

If you are being sued, you should have been given a copy of what you signed. If not, get it. Read what you signed and post the detail so we can read it. Chances are you can see how you dropped yourself in it. At worst, Geaton is probably correct. However it is possible that management has changed, and the new lot are simply trying it on - that makes waiting four years before try to sue a bit easier to understand.

If you didn't read the document before you signed it, it doesn't matter what that person told you: you're liable. I'm sorry... "ignorance" is not a legal defense in court (meaning, "not knowing" something). I would have a consult with a lawyer to see if you have any chance at all. But the facility has your signature on the contract... I don't know what you think you can do without a lawyer. The facility will surely have one. I suppose you can file for bankruptcy but then your credit will be totally screwed. Or you can try to negotiate a payment plan with the facility.