How nursing houses put mates and households on the hook for residents’ money owed

Nursing houses are suing family and friends to gather on sufferers’ paymentsPlay

Barbara Robinson was simply attempting to assist her mom’s buddy join Medicaid and transfer into the Monroe County nursing residence in Rochester, New York. However as a result of Robinson signed the admissions kind, the nursing residence thought of her financially chargeable for the lady’s care, Anna Werner reported for CBS Information. After the lady died, the county south Robinson for $21,000 in unpaid payments.

This report was completed in partnership with a KHN-NPR investigation of America’s medical debt disaster. Noam N. Levey, KHN senior correspondent, wrote about Lucille Brooks, one other girl sued by Monroe County, this time over her brother’s nursing residence invoice.

Pursuing unpaid payments, nursing houses throughout Rochester have been routinely suing not solely residents however their mates and households, a KHN evaluate of court docket data reveals. In most of these instances, the folks south did not have an lawyer. In practically a 3rd, the nursing houses received default judgments as a result of the defendants by no means responded.

Shopper attorneys in California, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio advised KHN they frequently see such lawsuits in opposition to household and mates.

Choose Debra Martin dismissed the case in opposition to Robinson. She admonished the county, saying its case, offered with out documentation, “doesn’t meet the naked minimal necessities.”

Brooks is now within the clear, too, after the county dropped its case in opposition to her.

This text was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Household Basis. Kaiser Well being Information, an editorially impartial information service, is a program of the Kaiser Household Basis, a nonpartisan well being care coverage analysis group unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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