Today I received 2 bills from an outside provider that saw my mom while in memory care. One for eye exam, the-other dental. They were incurred in February.
My mom passed in May, I have settled the estate. No probate. She was destitute and on the brink of Medicaid. All that was left was some cash. Certainly not a-lot as I was just entering spend down after paying rent for the two months from Medicaid. Rent for the two months would have wiped her out.
Do I pay those bills? The statements were sent in my name. I did not know about the charges. As far as I knew, when I settled the estate everything was taken care of. I did not sign anything for responsibility.
When my mom passed, creditors sent out their bills (and some condolences) without even having to be contacted.
Easiest path imo - since it seems there will not be probate court filings of any type - is to make a copy of each bill; write deceased across the copy and attach a death certificate and mail them certified with a return registered receipt (green post card) from USPS. Maybe $8.00 to do. That green card gets signed off and mail back to you. It’s legal proof with signature and date that you notified the vendor. Should they decide to dun your credit report on this, you file a challenge to the credit bureau and use that certificate mail & RRC to establish not your debt and they were notified.
Realize there may be more bills coming. I too have the same experience as others that bills can take months if not into over a year to get to your address as POA or family contact. Mine were PT bills. FWIW there often is clawback from what insurance pays vendors initially that happens weeks or months later to them; so they don’t realize a bigger bill or copay should have happened and then they bill this months later.
The usual drama is that as LTC Medicaid retro’s their eligibility to date of application and it takes 3-6+ months for application to be done, they are technically still on their old preNH pre LTC Medicaid health insurance all those months. And old insurance has paid vendors. But once LTC Medicaid eligible & retros, old insurance once they find out will clawback all payments to date of Medicaid eligibility as there is another insurer (Medicaid) that can pay. Vendors will have to do a fresh bill to Medicaid to get paid & get bills off asap as Medicaid is very time sensitive on billing, otherwise Medicaid will not pay. If vendor does not participate in Medicaid, there is no insurer to bill so they send it to the person, POA, Executor or whomevers name and address they can find months later.
I keep reading this and I still don't understand. In February when Mom was seen by these doctors was she on Medicaid for her care in LTC or even just for health insurance? If so, then Medicaid pays. There are no balances. I would call the billing offices and tell them these balances are not owed by Mom that Medicaid pays.
If Mom was private pay, then she may owe them. I would call and make sure if Medicare and Moms supplimentals were billed. If not suggest they bill the supplimentals. Tell them to then bill you if there are balances but they need to word the billing "To The Estate of Jane Doe" c/o Mary Jones. You are not legally responsible for Moms debts. If you did not have any money left after settlement, than tell them that. To discontinue sending bills because they will not be paid. If you did have money and they are small amts I may pay.
Out of curiousity, though, I may call the NH if Mom was not on Medicaid at the time of the billing. I would ask why these two doctors were allowed to examine her without getting permission from you, especially if she was on hospice at the time. Maybe its procedure but I would think if private pay you would have to sign off that you gave permission. If its found you gave no permission, then I would say the home is responsible for the bills and tell the doctor's
billing departments that.
If on Hospice in February, I would call Hospice and see if they have a record of these two doctors examining Mom. There was a scam done a few years back where a doctor would enter a room of a patient in a Hospital and say "Hi, how are you doing" the patient says "fine" and doctor bills the patient for a visit. Happened to a friend of mine but he was unconscious. When he got the bill and the doctor was unfamiliar, he called the Hospital and found they had no record of the doctor seeing him and he was never called in to consult.
To answer you question, do I pay the bills? If found legit and there was money to pay them, then I would pay them. In my State a Hospital has up to 4 yrs to bill someone. I was billed for something 2 yrs after the fact. I keep my Medicare statements until I am all settled up with providers and I still had the one showing I did owe the balance so I paid. But Medicare will not pay a claim after 2 yrs. So I will be calling my local Hospital soon to find out why they have not corrected a coding error for a Mammogram I had there last June. I got Medicare paperwork for that saying my provider was not covered. When I was admitted, I was OKd for payment. Have heard nothing about a Colonoscopy I had in Nov 2021. So I am assuming Medicare was never billed. There have been lots of problems with this offsite billing co. Sending out first time bills 2 yrs old and older.
she was private pay.
First, you are not required to use your own money to pay your dead mother's bills.
But...there is always a but...
If you are the Executor/Personal Representative/only heir to her estate, you are responsible for seeing the estate is properly executed. The estate is more than just money. It involves:
1) a will probate or for no will, possibly affidavit/intestate process -- receiving the requirements list on how to close an estate
2) final tax return(s) (both Federal and State in the US) to not only report income but to provide Social Security death notification,
3) dealing with all outstanding bill obligations whether ever paid or remain unpaid,
4) accounting for personal possessions sales or distribution,
5) cremation or burial
6) accounting for income and/or assets (as small as they may be),
7) notification of death to the proper authorities,
8) contractual obligations (such as ALF)
9) closing remaining open accounts in the deceased's name
10) in this century, dealing with a past online presence
...and so on and so forth...
AS defined by the state she resided in.
That is where you are responsible. If required items are not completed in the proper order or even done, then technically the estate isn't closed. A non-closed estate isn't a bad thing. It just means that many years later, items can pop up and one of those items happens to be unpaid doctor bills.
A very complex family estate, though not a wealthy one, took 10 years to finally close. On the other hand, another simpler more recent one will never fully close.
And that is where the principles (THE point) of whether or not just to pay the bills have to be decided by you and for you based on your current and future tolerances.
Social Security is always notified of the death by the mortuary or funeral home, so a final tax return is not needed for this.
Most of what you say is required IS NOT when there is no estate, just a poor old soul and their few possessions supported by SS monthly or Medicaid only need to do an affidavit saying the person had less then the state maximum minimum upon death and that is usually only required when a title needs transferred.
If your mother left some cash and that cash remains, then her assets should go to pay her bills. If she did not leave cash, or that cash is gone, then you should return all bills marked "Deceased; no estate". You may continue to receive them, but you can feel free to ignore them.
Medical providers are notorious for not getting bills out in a timely manner. I received a bill for her 15 months after she was in the hospital, and when I complained, they said they were within the time frame allowed to send bills. (I think it was two years.)
However, since these are in your name you might consider paying them if they aren't too high, so they don't send them to collections and ruin YOUR credit. Did she go to the doctor and use your name, or were they just mailed to your address?
On the other hand, I cancelled her phone in very late February and Century Link, the worst customer service company on earth imo, told me her 'March bill had already generated.' I told them fine, but I'm not paying it. I proceeded to notify the bank to stop the automatic payments to Century Link for $80 each, and they did. Century Link started emailing me and even calling me for payment; I told the last caller that I WAS NOT paying the bill, to please send it to the cemetery b/c my mother was deceased, I'd cancelled her account in February and you are trying to bill me for MARCH, so go pound sand. She told me I'd have to send her a copy of mom's death certificate and I told her nope, I'm not doing that either. Again, mail the bill to the cemetery.
I never heard from Century Link again, and it's been a few months now.
When dad died, there were quite a few bills sent to my home in his name. I marked on the envelope, Deceased, and sent the bills back to the issuer. I never heard back from any of them except one, who insisted on payment. I told them to 'send the bill to collections' and never heard another peep.
Do whatever you feel you want to do. Really, who cares if they 'come after you'; I've told a few bill collectors over the years to 'send the account to collections' for various reasons, and it's never happened. One was back in 2008 for an assistant to the surgeon who did neck surgery on me in the hospital. My insurance company didn't pay for that service which that provider should have checked into FIRST, before performing it. But they didn't, and then tried to bill me to the tune of $3,500.00 about 8 months later. I said no, I'm not paying it. We went back and forth for the longest time until I finally said, Take me to collections. When I agreed to the surgery, I agreed to pay all the bills associated with my insurance company approved providers only. I copied the surgeon on that correspondence, and never heard another word from them again.
I'd like to add something here: my credit score is over 800; I pay all my bills on time every month and in full. I have no outstanding debt aside from my mortgage. It's not that I can't afford to pay bills on behalf of my deceased parents or anything like that; it's the principle of the matter to me. Just wanted to say that......:)
Best of luck to you, whatever you decide to do. My deepest condolences on the loss of your dear mom.
Original Poster, call the providers and let them know the situation, often they will work out a deal for a reduced rate. That is, if you want to pay it at all. My dad wanted everything paid so I followed his wishes. I’m sorry you’re dealing with this, I know it’s no fun
If there was a will, it should be probated and directions received on what is paid and what is written off.
If she died intestate, and you used the affidavit process, you may want to pay the medical bills with any left over money. Not because you are legally required to do so, but because they can come back to cause problems later. In some instances, the affidavit signing includes verbage about this.
In our affidavit process we found personal medical debt has different standards.
As for non secured debt -- credit cards and such -- those usually can be ignored.
Who Pays Off Medical Bills After Death? (thebalance.com)
https://www.thebalance.com/debts-from-the-estate-of-a-deceased-person-3505230
This jibes with what we recently went through with an insolvent estate. The private doctor medical bills became the ones we needed legal advice on and followed the advice for the state LO died in.
Usually on a simple estate, it can take 6 months to complete. Not uncommon for some doctors to take months to send out a bill, as they try to collect via insurance, and if insurance doesn't pay it all, then a bill is sent to the person.
Surprised the bills were sent in your name since you did not sign anything to make you responsible. I would ignore the bills, but let's wait until others have answers to see what can be done.