My mother has been in two hospitals since early this year due to complications from triple bypass surgery; she cannot talk as she has been on a vent for months, she hasn't walked in all that time, nor has she been able to eat (she gets food and medicine by I.V.) The hospital she's at now, which they call an acute care facility, wanted to send her to a rehab facility. The rehab facility wanted my mother's finanical information so they can get her on Medicaid. When I started giving it to them, they had all kinds of questions that I couldn't answer completely about certain transcations and why they occurred because when they contacted me on the phone, I was busy on the phone as I work on the phone. Stranger than that is that the contact at the rehab facility was basically a middle man for a group at the rehab facility that handles getting people on Medicaid to gain entry to the facility as they want, as the case manager at the facility my mother is currently at, get paid. After weeks and weeks of giving this information and answering there questions, I didn't hear from the rehab facility at all. Then all of a sudden, the doctor taking care of my mother at the hospital she's at now calls me up while in what I could hear was the main hallway stating quiet loudly that the rehab facility has denied her entry and has also put me under investigation for elder finanical abuse. I delayed putting her on mediacid due to fact giving up the assets she has would ultimately mean if she got better, that she would have no place to live. I ended up going through the process and giving them what they wanted. I can't believe that after all that, I now have to face this. I have already contacted a criminal laywer, an investigator was supposed to call me Friday afternoon after talking to my mother at the hospital. No one called me that day and I'm scared out of my mind. I'm going to talk to the lawyer about what's going, but I'd like to know if this has ever been done to anyone before where a rehab facility denied someone entry and then try to railroad them with elder abuse charges.
I went through this process...because all I wanted to do was talk to them about mom's SS. They required a long process and documents signed by her Doc (they do not accept a POA...they have their own process). At the end of this process...SS required that my Name had to be on the account where SS was deposited. This is their rule. All I wanted was to talk to them about Mom...this is what they REQUIRED
If i had to guess, it would be that your moms banking & other financial statements show her accounts (tied to her SS#) are co-mingling with you and it isn't clear that all things paid has been done on her behalf. Co-mingling is not allowed by SSA & if this happened it will get SS involved too. Or it could be that checks or withdrawls were done by you & no documentation as to what it paid for. So she won't be eligble for Medicaid. Then add to this that she is viewed as a vulnerable adult as she is bedfast, on a vent, not ambulatory, etc. It is not the rehab that put you supposedly under investigation. But rather they contacted APS. I imagine the facility staff are mandated reporters, so that means APS was contacted once issues with documents submitted surfaced that is keeping mom from getting the care needed. APS can be called in if they are considered vulnerable. APS can be viewed as a neutral party to look into the situation & do whatever to get your mom into a rehab facility ASAP. She has doctors orders for rehab & its probably very documented in her chart that she needs to transition to rehab like now.
APS will likely ask for & get from the court an emergency ward of the State order for mom with a court appointed temporary guardian. The guardian can get her into a rehab facility & out of the hospital & get this done within days if need be. They have judges orders to take over & will do so. Which on the positive side is what your moms physicians think she needs.
The doc speaking loudly to you on the phone was done - I'd bet - so that others (like staff at the nurses station) clearly overheard the conversation. So establishes that you were notified of the situation.
The guardianship can be temporary. There will be a hearing in probate court as to moms status which you should go to & with your guardianship atty. Before hearing, atty will need to go through whatever you sent to rehab place to find the items that were redflags for them, Medicaid & APS. Based on others on this site, going guardianship runs around 10k & you (not mom) will need to front the $ for this, which can be reinbursed to you if you become appointed guardian. Atty may need to hire a forensic accountant to rebuild moms finances to show in detail that what you or others did with her funds was totally for her benefit or for her property. If you spent her money on things other than for her or her needs, it will be a problem. Flat is no way around this.
I have a ?, you wrote... "give up assets". Medicaid doesn't require one to give up assets but rather they have to spend-down their non-exempt assets (like savings, investments, property other than their home) till they get to the level required for them to be at-need for Medicaid. The level depends on whether its community based medicaid program or LTC in a facility Medicaid. If you transferred money out of moms bank accounts to you or others, to obstensibly "save" them from being "given up" as an asset, that is NOT allowed by medicaid. Doing this will keep her from being eligible for Medicaid till the penalty period for the transfer is past or all $$$ returned to mom so she can do a legit spend-down.
Is there a reason why you contacted a criminal defense atty? That a real different skill set than elder law or guardianship atty.
I'm wondering why someone hasn't considered placing your mother in a long term (specialty) hospital such as Select Specialty. Their standards are different and they provide care for illnesses that require much more than a typical hospital provides, but not care at the level of rehab.
They're an interim level hospital bridging the gap between the two levels of care.