Basically suing for guardianship so they have control of their patients’ finances.
While this practice certainly has been abused, there is some merit to the concept. The “tricks” pulled by the residents’ children are appauling. There are significant cases of children “stealing” or otherwise confiscating the estates of their elderly parents. In many cases, this is done with the intent to qualify the parent for state and federal aid. I am aware of a number of cases in which the facility was able to get the SS check to be delivered to the facility and was then accosted by the resident’s child b/c the child was using the parent’s SS check for supplemental income (or even to live on).
my girlfriend is in nursing at a home. she works in an alzheimers unit. hearing her stories, i can see why it could be a good thing to do sometimes. some people just dont care about their relatives. its really sad. sometimes they dont provide them with enough clothing. several months after we were dating i found out that she secretly buys those residents clothes. if her superiors found out she would be fired but she wants them to have dignity. shes pretty fantastic.
Many family’s also see it as another tax on the financially prudent…
My Grandparents didn’t make a lot of money (dairy farmers) but he saved his money and has a sizeable estate. He pays $4000/mo for his nursing home while his neighbour only pays $800/mo.
The Virginia Masonic home required you to make them the primary beneficiary for this reason. Masons are required to fulfill obligation to anyone. Especially a brotherhood run organization. With that said they encourage you to transfer excess assets like your house, car, personal items to your family before hand.
I’m a nurse, worked in nsg homes for many years then went onto business development for a hospital. Its a tricky situation; some patient’s children are horrendous. Want any inheritance for themselves and lie steal and cheat to get it. The facility needs to get paid and shouldn’t be expected to donate care.
All that being said, the people who get old with Medicaid will get better care or should I say have no bills and have many options when they need it. Unless you are a multimillionaire you will suck your savings dry living at a nsg home or assisted living.
I tell everyone including my parents to meet with an elder/estate planning attorney early like in your 50s-60s. Get your property in a trust because most states have a 5 year lookback period.
In my opinion this is another argument for universal healthcare.
Ya its amazing the amount of money you can spend for care. My grandmother was nearly 10k a month at the end if I remember right. She owned her house, which paid for it. But she had that house for almost 50 years and owned it outright for 30 of that. Sucks to see it drained for ~3 years of care. And if she survived any longer it would have put serious pressure on everyone. I mean, its sad just to write it like that.
Forget inheritence. If you can help your elders with their care without bankrupting yourself, you are in good shape.