OT: Medical Bills Passed on to Heirs?

Does anyone know if medical bills are passed on to a person's family/heirs?

My mom is in the hospital with a heart issue. Although she has a Medicare HMO, the doc is considering a procedure Medicare may not cover.

She has no assets and her only income is Social Security. She lives with us. If she has this procedure and passes away, and Medicare won't pay for it, are the hospital/surgeon/etc. going to come after us for payment? She probably has enough money in her bank account to cover her funeral expenses.

I know I should be concentrating on being positive about my mother's getting more healthy, but I'm kind of cried out right now and I'm just trying to find more concrete things to worry about.

Thanks.

Patti

My mom died in the hospital in April 2008.  Her bill wasnt too bad, no op or anything.  She was dying from COPD and was at home and a DNR/DNI but got scared at the end so went into the hospital her last 4 days.  It was a good descion, good pain drugs, 24 hour care.  She had wanted to die at home so we let her decide what to do.  Any way, luckily my mom had prepaid her funeral arrangements when my dad died 10 years earlier so everything was done for that.  She had about 4,000 in the bank and the next 2 months my sister paid off all the bills that came in, then when her Medicare and Medigap insurances paid everything they would pay she called the hospital about the balance.  My mom had about $2000 left in the bank at that point.  My sister sent the hospital a check that was the remainder of my mom's estate (ie the money in the bank account) and my sis explained to them that that was it.  there was no more.  And so the hospital just had to write off the rest.  But, like I said, she was just in for comfort care, was not a huge bill with an operation.  My sister sent a copy of her bank statement showing that the check she sent them was cleaning out her bank account and that was the end of that. You may want to check with an attny though if they can legally make you pay.  The hospital might be more aggressive if you are talking 10,000 bucks or more for an operation.  But this was my experience.  Hopefully, your mom will do fine.  Best wishes.

Well I can only say for California but I believe it is similar in all the states. When my dad passed away I was afraid of this as well. The heirs DO NOT owe the money, the estate does. So if she owns property or has any money then they can come after her estate for payment. If you are the executor of the estate they can come after you but not personally. They will just be contacting you because you manage her affairs. Once all the money from her estate is gone including liquidating assets then you need to inform the companies there is no money left. They can not come after you personally or your personal money. Debts are not inherited.

I'm in California.

I'm glad to hear that I won't inherit my brother's student loan either. (Don't get me started on that one. She continues to pay it even though he's making good $$$.  He graduated in 1993.)

Thanks so much!!

 sorry to hear bout ur mom... will keep u both in my prayers.... hugs... 

    First thing you need to do is to buy a prepaid funeral insurance.  Use up as much of the money in her account  as you can toward her funeral and her care.  If the money get left in the account.  The account can be lock  down untill the estate is settled or will is read.   Which can be 90 to 120 days in Texas.   You made not have your own mother,s money to bury her with.  If you do not have proof that you are the owner or signer on the account.
   You can be left standing in the wind. 

When my parents died, the hospital, etc. had to file a claim with their estate if they wanted paid after Medicare.  No one filed a claim though, they wrote the balances off.   This was in California.

If you can though,  take the money out of her account now before she passes away and the account is frozen.  We did this.  It sounds tacky, but we needed the money for expenses, funeral, etc. 

Hope your mom does okay though. 

Linda

After five pints of blood, four days in the hosptial and her 23rd(?) endocopy in the past three years they are releasing my Mom from the hospital today. I guess I'm taking her down to a Kaiser facility in Hollywood to get evaluated for the heart procedure sometime later in the week.

I really thought I was going to have to bury her after this one. We came home from work on Thursday and it appeared that she had spent the day stuck on the loveseat, without her oxygen. She was still in her nightgown, hadn't put her support hose on. I found her glasses inside her water glass about 6 feet away(?). All I can figure is that she got confused and couldn't find the telephone. She was hyperventilating when we walked in the door at 6 p.m. Called the ambulance.

She can't remember how long she was on the love seat. But she said she started having difficulty breathing in the middle of the night (I HAVE NO IDEA WHY SHE DIDN'T WAKE ME UP. WE HAVE A BABY MONITOR ON IN HER BEDROOM FOR A REASON, FOR CHRI'SAKES!) She's usually not up when we leave for work, so nothing was out of the ordinary when we left for work/daycare.

She has gastrointestinal bleeds that can drop her hemoglobin levels (anemia) from normal to super low in a day. She also has moderate mitral and severe aortic stenosis, but she's an incredibly bad surgery risk, so they've has not wanted to put in new valves.

I'm glad she's partially out of the woods on this one. But now is time for my post-Mom-scare binge. Can't do that anymore!!

Thanks for the support!!! You're all wonderful.

It's hard not having food for the comfort factor. You and your whole family have had a rough time. What other treat can you give yourself besides food?

I can offer a cyber hug!

Thanks for the hug.

I guess my treat is spending time with my sisters. They came down on Friday night for Mom.

One of them has to go back home today because she had an abnormal EKG in preparation for her WLS and has a doctor's appointment. We're hoping that the technician placing the leads in weird places will have caused the bad EKG (she's an RN -- I'm surprised she didn't correct the technician -- she was jumping all over my Mom's nurses' backs this past weekend).

However, the other one (currently unemployed) will probably hang around until Saturday.

I have found myself wanting to stuff my face, but I've kept it under relative control. I've eaten a little more than I should have when we've gone out to eat. I've eaten more carbs that I should. Somehow I got almost all of my vitamins in (missed Thursday night when I was in the ER with Mom).

I'm back on track today. I've already had 45 g of protein. And for some reason, I've had to urinate like a race horse four times today. So, mebbe I'll see a loss tomorrow. Sigh.