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A brother in law on SSI recently passed. We were notified yesterday that he has a $3,100 open bill with a pharmacy and they are calling us since my wife was the payee. First off, I'm not sure how anyone can end up with an open account at a pharmacy. The care home gave the pharmacy our name and said that we were responsible for his finances.
An SSI recipient can only have <$2,000 to his name or he is tossed from SSI, he has been on SSI for almost 40 years. He has no belongings, no money, no estate what so ever. Just before he passed, we cleared out the <$2,000 in the account, he had an accident and was in grave condition. He were preparing to pay for the almost $6,000 burial.
He was living in a personal care home, as he has most of his adult life. He had only been a resident of this particular home for just over a year. In the past we had to pay a medical copay amounting to $8/month for his insurance, so we were shocked to find out about this $3,100 bill, about $260/month. We had asked in the past if we owed any copay, the care home told us no. I can't help think at this point that maybe they weren't submitting the medical bills for Medicaid as they should have been. I'm wondering if this is the full cost of the meds without insurance? I have asked the care home for an itemized list of all medications submitted to insurance over that period. I also asked about the over $1,000 rent that we paid up front since he only lived there 9 days that month. I fell like had I not asked, we'd not have been offered that money.
So at this point, there is no money, there is no estate, even if there was a bank account, by SSI rules it could never have more than $2,000 in it. So who is responsible for this bill or does it just go away? If the care home hasn't submitted these for reimbursement, is this a serious issue with Medicare/Medicaid? Since there was under $2,000 in an account removed just before his death, can they look back at that and say that's his estate even though it was spend on his own burial?
We are in the state of PA if it matters.
An SSI recipient can only have <$2,000 to his name or he is tossed from SSI, he has been on SSI for almost 40 years. He has no belongings, no money, no estate what so ever. Just before he passed, we cleared out the <$2,000 in the account, he had an accident and was in grave condition. He were preparing to pay for the almost $6,000 burial.
He was living in a personal care home, as he has most of his adult life. He had only been a resident of this particular home for just over a year. In the past we had to pay a medical copay amounting to $8/month for his insurance, so we were shocked to find out about this $3,100 bill, about $260/month. We had asked in the past if we owed any copay, the care home told us no. I can't help think at this point that maybe they weren't submitting the medical bills for Medicaid as they should have been. I'm wondering if this is the full cost of the meds without insurance? I have asked the care home for an itemized list of all medications submitted to insurance over that period. I also asked about the over $1,000 rent that we paid up front since he only lived there 9 days that month. I fell like had I not asked, we'd not have been offered that money.
So at this point, there is no money, there is no estate, even if there was a bank account, by SSI rules it could never have more than $2,000 in it. So who is responsible for this bill or does it just go away? If the care home hasn't submitted these for reimbursement, is this a serious issue with Medicare/Medicaid? Since there was under $2,000 in an account removed just before his death, can they look back at that and say that's his estate even though it was spend on his own burial?
We are in the state of PA if it matters.
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