I'm kinda at my wits end here. My grandmother is in a NH and we are in the midst of the Medicaid qualification process. Sometime back in the middle of July, I received a call from the NH saying that the 100 days of Medicare coverage had passed and since Medicaid had not yet been approved, we needed to turn over my grandmother's soc sec. When I explained that we were continuing to pay her bills as we did before she ended up in the NH with her soc sec, this included her taxes, utilities for her home and credit cards. The first thing out of their mouth was "she's not allowed to have a house". Clearly I'm aware of this and explained we were in the process of getting the house on the market for sale (considering the market, we weren't expecting this to be a quick sale. They really didn't want to hear any of that, but that was the reality of the situation and I had nothing to hide So what we were told was to start paying x dollars the next month and then deal with months owed later. I had no knowledge there were months owed as with all that was going on, I must have missed the expectation to pay out of pocket which wasn't the case when my grandfather ended up at that same NH and his Medicaid qualification took 6 months. So I've since been paying the NH their payment of a little over $1000.00 a month, paying my grandmother's health insurance and paying the utilities on the house; the credit card bills kinda fell out of priority and I cannot afford to pay them myself as I have my own household to maintain/sustain. Fast forward to the beginning of this month, without notification, the NH apparently had her soc sec payments diverted directly to them, We called them this afternoon and this woman had the gall to say my grandmother's soc soc had been MISAPPROPRIATED!! My boyfriend warned this woman that unless you know exactly what it is you are accusing someone of, you should chose your words wisely. When told that they now have to take on the responsibility of paying her health insurance they immediately told us they weren't paying it for this month, they'll pay it next month. I'm annoyed and now they've pretty much placed the burden of my grandmother's household expenses that were previously paid by her soc sec $ on ME!!! I'm so sick of hearing them start a single sentence that begins with "usually the family pays....." we are not a family of "means" with extra $ to spare. Thankfully my grandmother is not remotely cognizant of what's going on as she would be so incredibly heartbroken to find out about all of this craziness and the monetary impacts on me. She has always said that she didn't want to be a burden. Its definitely my cross to bear as I would do whatever I could for her. I have a younger brother and an older brother and neither feel remotely "on the hook" to help out. I go to the NH every week to visit and I take care of my grandmother's laundry, I've been paying her bills and whatnot and now I'm in the process of clearing out her house and putting it on the market. I'm annoyed and stressed out by this entire process again. Getting my grandfather qualified for Medicaid was also challenging cause once again, it all fell on my shoulders. I just want to make sure my grandmother remains comfortable and gets the best care possible but GOOD GRIEF, I'm so annoyed at how the NH has handled this situation and the accusation they made today. It really doesn't pay to get to the point where you need to use the Medicaid system and it certainly doesn't pay to be anything above indigent if you or your loved ones need to qualify.
Carol