"Per the 1987 Nursing Home Reform Act it’s not legal for an SNF (Skilled Nursing Facility/nursing home) that accepts Medicaid to force a third party to be liable for a resident’s costs. This doesn’t stop anyone from trying to guilt you into volunteering financial responsibility.
Spend your elder’s assets first. Period. When their assets are gone, it’s time to transfer to Medicaid. A vendor Medicaid application (when the SNF applies for Medicaid for your elder) is almost never denied. DO NOT pay out of your pocket.
There are special circumstances if you live in a Filial Responsibility state. These are states that have old laws on the books that require adults to support their elderly *parents*. If your person is an aunt, uncle, grandparent? There is no force of law on you.
FR states: Alaska Arkansas California Connecticut Delaware Georgia Indiana Iowa Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Massachusetts Mississippi Nevada New Jersey North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Dakota Tennessee Utah Vermont Virginia West Virginia
In most of these states, the filial responsibility statutes are *rarely* enforced. In several of these states, the adult child’s responsibility comes after the state’s responsibility (Medicaid), or only applies before the parent is 65.
Pennsylvania is the exception.
Pennsylvania nursing homes & ALFs use the filial responsibility law aggressively. They will sue the adult children for cost of care, regardless of whether the child has a relationship with the adult. They win.
My strong suggestion? If your parents live in PA, don’t live there.
There is no federal Filial Responsibility law, so there is no jurisdiction for a Pennsylvania SNF to sue someone who lives in Kansas or Arizona. And unlike child support, there are no state level filial responsibility reciprocity laws.
The further good news is PA may only recover a maximum of 6 times a person’s annual *disposable* income. They can’t touch your retirement accounts, nor leave you unable to pay your own bills, debts & cost of living, cannot touch your children’s fees or college money.
But you still don’t want to have a full body financial MRI & take the credit hit of a judgement. So Pennsylvania is out if your parents live there! (Or lobby to get the law repealed, but that’s gonna be a hard sell. PA loves FR & anything that pushes social costs to private.)
Filial Responsiblity laws are the very best reason to get & maintain a Long Term Care Insurance policy. (The payout of an LTCI constitutes fulfillment of the filial responsibility in most states.)
If you absolutely can’t, if even supporting yourself is dicey — that is your out.
All Filial Responsibility statutes have an anti-impoverishment clause.
Most states have a reasonable cause clause; they don’t force an abused/abandoned child to pay, but that means documents."
Re: my question is...
https://twitter.com/CZEdwards/status/1215023444720377856
"Per the 1987 Nursing Home Reform Act it’s not legal for an SNF (Skilled Nursing Facility/nursing home) that accepts Medicaid to force a third party to be liable for a resident’s costs.
This doesn’t stop anyone from trying to guilt you into volunteering financial responsibility.
Spend your elder’s assets first. Period. When their assets are gone, it’s time to transfer to Medicaid. A vendor Medicaid application (when the SNF applies for Medicaid for your elder) is almost never denied.
DO NOT pay out of your pocket.
There are special circumstances if you live in a Filial Responsibility state. These are states that have old laws on the books that require adults to support their elderly *parents*. If your person is an aunt, uncle, grandparent? There is no force of law on you.
FR states:
Alaska
Arkansas
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Georgia
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland
Massachusetts
Mississippi
Nevada
New Jersey
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
West Virginia
In most of these states, the filial responsibility statutes are *rarely* enforced. In several of these states, the adult child’s responsibility comes after the state’s responsibility (Medicaid), or only applies before the parent is 65.
Pennsylvania is the exception.
Pennsylvania nursing homes & ALFs use the filial responsibility law aggressively. They will sue the adult children for cost of care, regardless of whether the child has a relationship with the adult. They win.
My strong suggestion? If your parents live in PA, don’t live there.
There is no federal Filial Responsibility law, so there is no jurisdiction for a Pennsylvania SNF to sue someone who lives in Kansas or Arizona. And unlike child support, there are no state level filial responsibility reciprocity laws.
The further good news is PA may only recover a maximum of 6 times a person’s annual *disposable* income. They can’t touch your retirement accounts, nor leave you unable to pay your own bills, debts & cost of living, cannot touch your children’s fees or college money.
But you still don’t want to have a full body financial MRI & take the credit hit of a judgement. So Pennsylvania is out if your parents live there! (Or lobby to get the law repealed, but that’s gonna be a hard sell. PA loves FR & anything that pushes social costs to private.)
Filial Responsiblity laws are the very best reason to get & maintain a Long Term Care Insurance policy. (The payout of an LTCI constitutes fulfillment of the filial responsibility in most states.)
If you absolutely can’t, if even supporting yourself is dicey — that is your out.
All Filial Responsibility statutes have an anti-impoverishment clause.
Most states have a reasonable cause clause; they don’t force an abused/abandoned child to pay, but that means documents."