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Briefly; my aunt passed away in hospice 3 months ago, from late stage Alzheimer's. My parents and I had durable power of attorney. She has one living son, the other one died over 8 years ago. This estranged son had not spoken with her in over a decade. I was lucky enough to be the one that informed him of her being in hospice, and it was less that pleasant dealing with him on burial cost issues.


I am now receiving bills for her final stay in hospice. She was my aunt and I love her, and my mom was incredibly close to her. However, my parents have there own medical expenses to deal with, and my aunt was a financial burden to my parents her whole life.


There is no will that I know of, and there is no estate at all, since she was on medicaid. My questions please:


I am assuming my parents and I are not ultimately responsible for these bills?


Do I forward these bills to her son, since he is next of kin? Or should I just ignore them, or inform the hospice of next of kin?


I would love ZERO contact with my cousin on this, so what should I do here?


Thanks in advance.

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If she had Medicaid in addition to Medicare, then there should be no bills. My mother was on hospice at her nursing home, and I did receive a final pharmacy bill for the medications that Medicare didn't cover entirely. I did pay it out of her estate.
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My mother had hospice care while living in Memory Care Assisted Living and their bill to us was ZERO. Medicare covered everything 100%. This bill sounds like a mistake to me, so your idea to contact billing is a good one.

Best of luck and my condolences on your loss.
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Thank you all for your replies.

When she was transferred to this nursing home, I repeatedly verified that everything would be covered under medicare or medicaid, and the director said "yes". Maybe just a mistake. We decided to have hospice care administered at the nursing home rather than transport her again.

Thanks again! I'll just call billing and inform them that she was indigent at death and to cease contact to me.
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I don't know why you would send Hospice a death certificate. They should know she passed. If she was on Medicaid, they should pay for the cost of any Hospital care. Was this a Hospice house/facility? If so, only the care was covered by Medicare. The facility itself is self pay unless they take Medicaid. And I doubt they would have taken her if she was on Medicaid and they did not except Medicaid.

No one, not even her son, is responsible for her bills. You call the billing office and tell them there was no estate to Probate. It doesn't matter if there was a Will or not, she died penniless. They will need to write off the debt. Do not say anything about Mom or the son. Just that your POA ended with her death and as a niece you are not responsible for her debts. If they turn the debt over to collections, again tell them you, as former POA, are not responsible for Aunts debts. To please not call again or you will consider it a form of harrassment. If they do, you can report them to the FTC.

I think they are fishing. Maybe someone not doing their job. Not coding correctly and not reapplying. Hoping that family has no idea how Medicare/Medicaid works and trying to get back what they didn't cover. Which by the way is fraud or their part. The problem with Medicaid is you don't get a Summary of what's been paid. They usually pay what Medicare doesn't. My nephew has never gotten a bill from any of his providers.

Do not forward these bills to son. Neither is he responsible. Please, do not stress over this. Again...YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE. Just confirm they have the correct Medicare and Medicaid info and thats it. They can't sue because, POAs are not financially responsible for the person who assigned them. If this was so, there would be a lot less POAs. If they do sue, they need to sue the estate. No Executor, no estate. Actually...the bills should say "to the estate of" with the last known address Auntie used for her mail. Should not come to her person of contact. Which is all you are. Forget she was your Aunt, forget you were her niece. Your were her person of contact. That died with her.

So, maybe just inform them you where her POA which was revoked at death. That any outstanding charges they have need to be sent "to the estate of" and to her last known address. They will send it to that address and it will be returned to them if no forwarding address was done. (So hope thats not you) If sent to you, put "addressee deceased" and send it back unopened.

Can you tell I am rambling here. Writing as this stuff comes into my head.
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Neither you, your parents nor your cousin are responsible in any way for paying those bills out of your own money. I would respond to hospice in writing notifying them to rebill your Aunt's Medicare and Medicaid, and also notify hospice that there was no estate left, your aunt was indigent.
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Send a copy of the death certificate. Medicare pays for hospice care.
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Hospice is covered 100% under your aunts Medicare, and the family shouldn't be receiving any type of "final medical bills" from them.
Contact the hospice agency and have them refile under your aunts Medicare/Medicaid.

Now if she was staying in one of hospices facilities/homes for more than 7 days, then there will be a charge for the stay itself, as Medicare only covers about 7 days in one of those. But none of you would be responsible for any remaining balance.
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Send Hospice a copy of the death certificate.

POA ends at death.

You can send Hospice the information about next of kin but he is not responsible for this bill either.
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