A Big Nursing Home Admission Mistake
It was a bad day when Marcia had to put her Mom into the nursing home. She had to sign so much paperwork that she thought she was buying a house. And of course she didn’t read it all. That would have taken forever. And Marcia and her Mom were already emotionally exhausted.
But that ended up being a huge mistake. That’s because buried in all that paperwork was a legal document called a guarantee. (The nursing home explained it as a designation of who would be Mom’s responsible party.) By signing it, Marcia was agreeing to be financially responsible for her mother’s nursing home bill. Not an inexpensive proposition.
Sound fair to you? In the past, it was perfectly legal. The law said that the nursing home could request a relative to sign a guarantee. But now the law has changed. The new law says that the nursing home can’t require a guarantee of payment from a relative as a condition of admission and can’t even ASK a relative for a guarantee of payment.
Will nursing homes still try to trick or force people like Marcia into signing guarantees? I sure hope not. Don’t you make the mistake of signing one.
Can the Nursing Home Kick Mom to the Curb?
After Marcia’s mother had been in the nursing home for about 3 months, she got a disturbing phone call.
The nursing home told Marcia that they were discharging her Mom and that Marcia needed to have her mother out of there in the next 2 days. Marcia didn’t know what to do. So after a couple of hours of panic, she went to the nursing home and got her Mom.
But here’s what Marcia didn’t know: there are laws that protect nursing home residents and their families. A nursing home just can’t tell a resident to get out and throw their stuff out into the street after them.
The laws say that in most situations, a resident must be given 30 days notice before being discharged. And if the resident (or the resident’s family) doesn’t want to be evicted, then they can file an appeal with the State of Louisiana.
Fighting for your rights can be hard. Fighting for your parents’ rights can be hard and heartbreaking. But you don’t need to do it alone. If you need help, get help.