After mom passed away, the nursing home issued a refund for the remainder of the month. They issued the check to a "Trust", what can we do?

I think the real problem is incompetent accounting personnel.

No doubt each resident has a "Trust" account where the PNA money goes and this account is set up for debits and credits and to write checks out of, you just have to be smart enough to change the payable to to a different name ie persons name only and not the in-house name of the account.

I have no doubt this earns facilities millions of dollars in revenue, they make it so hard many people just throw their hands in the air and say forget it.

This practice should be exposed and these facilities should have to answer for any practice intended to steal money.

I wonder if an Ombudsman could help.

Does your Mom leave an estate? Is there an executor of said estate. You say there is no Trust, and I cannot imagine an entity writing a check out to something non-existent.
If your Mom left no estate then you do not need to file probate. On the other hand, it is impossible for the Nursing Home to write a check to you or another relative. They can only issue a check to The Estate of __________ or to The Trust of _____________ if said exists.
You might consider seeing a probate attorney for an hour of time (admittedly a third of what you are getting back in cost) as to how to proceed.
Your Mom clearly can't create a Trust after she has passed so the Nursing Home wrote out a check to something that doesn't exist knowing (in all likelihood) that it cannot be cashed.
I myself might try contacting an Ombudsman, and telling this Nursing Home that you will be reporting them to the regulatory agency in your State for fraud. It might get their attention.
I sure do wish you luck. There are always so many hoops to jump through with settling things. I am so sorry for your loss.

I had alot of trouble getting my moms refund from her AL when I moved her. She caused some trouble , the director was vindictive. It took me four months to get the correct amount as they kept refunding the wrong amount. Only after I threatened to go over their heads did it get corrected .

not sure what an ombudsman does… ( I hear that word often here) but I would tell the facility you will contact them .

They're clueless. A trust is a very specific legal thing, and if you don't have a trust, you don't have a trust.

They have no business assuming she had one. In fact, ask them to show you their copy of her trust, which they should have with her admission contract. When they can't find it, tell them to cut another check correctly.

The correct way to issue the check is to "The Estate of" Mom. Tell them to do their job correctly or contact a higher-up in the organization to get it fixed.

You do not create a trust, and you couldn't if you wanted to. You can't creat trusts for dead people.

Take the check to them and ask them to reissue it to "The Estate of XXXX". Sounds like they had someone who was unfamiliar with what to do process the check the refund.

What a sleazy way to not really issue a refund.

I would tell them you will take this obvious, fraudulent behavior to every news station and licensing board in your state if they persist in refusing to change the check.

How annoying! Good luck.

It should have said "to the estate of". During Probate you usually have an estate account. Weird that it says Trust.

I know I had to open an estate account after my father passed. Once a person passes their SS is no longer valid. I had to open an account and get it assigned an EIN number. The lady at the bank said it was a good idea to keep the estate account open for a couple years just in cases like this because you can't deposit any check made out to the estate or trust.