SSI And Care Home Question

[egremont]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[egremont]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

New Jersey

 

[BL]

New Jersey

What question?

 

[egremont]

Something VERY strange happening, here.
I posted and it came out blank.
I shall repost below:

A longish post, so firstly, my apologies
A year or so ago, a dear friend of mine was ill (and still is).
During the course of this long illness and hospitalisation, a few things happened to her. Some of them very nasty indeed.
She was deemed, by a lawyer, to have become incomptent for just as long as it took to get all her monies, and distribute them to whoever he thought was a priority to recieve them.
He obviously thought her health insurance wasnt a top priority, so that didnt get paid and therefore her insurance was cancelled, and they no longer paid her hospital bills. She went on Medicaid rom then on.
The hospital she was in then turned very sour on her and her few remaining extended family members (a sister-in-law and a neice)
The eventual outcome of this is that she was placed in a County Government run nursing home by her family. BTW, she is only 61 and now shares her days with senile dementia patients, Alzheimers sufferers and so on. With virtually no contact with the outside world, except for a every so often from her now "retreating back into the woodwork" family, and a cell phone that has to be topped up to get any minutes of use. I think she gets 250 minutes per month and is expensive per minute. And a very flaky interenet connection that wont allow her to connect to much..not even yahoo or the like
Once in there, lo and behold, she was then found to be compus mentis once more, would you believe??
While all this was happening, her rented apartment "evicted" her and all her posessions, including her car were disposed of, leaving her with literally the clothes she had on her at the time of her first admittance to hospital.
While she was in the original hospital, she put a claim in for SSI (Not bad for someone deemed incompetent, huh!!!!)
This took time, but was eventualy granted, and any entitlment she had from the time she made the claim to present day was recently awarded to her. Quite a considerable sum. As she also had her bank acount closed (LONG story in itself!)
She has to wait until a debit card gets to her.
This not so wonderful care facility are telling her that, as Medicaid know she has all this cash, they stopped paying them. So they are now looking to her to give up this cash to them !!!
The care home loosely arranged a meeting with her to discuss the situation. This was kept in limbo. Now, however she has been furnished with a bill fom Medicaid and the care facility, plus a letter from Medicaid stating she owes ALL of this SSI back payment to the care facility she is in. Whats worse, the figure stated is $900 more than this SSI payment due to her cashing in a life insurance policy so she could eke out some sort of existance where she is now.
This is much needed by her to rebuild her life, as she is, through guts and determination (and some physical therapy as well) getting to the stage where she can apply to be "returned to the community" as these people so glibbly put it.
I know this next part is very unethical, and even immoral to suggest to her but.....what would be the likely outcome, if she were to say to this care home that she was keeping all this SSI payment to try and rebuld her life after she is released from there, and that they wont be getting a cent of it?
From what i am learning SSI and suchlike cant be garnished, so what would the likely actions be by the care home should she suggest to them that possesion is nine tenths of the law?

Regards
Egremont

 

[ecmst12]

Does she require nursing home care or can she live on her own?

 

[Onderzoek]

Not really a Social Security question except that you are right that SSI cannot be garnished. SSI can be involuntarily withheld to pay an SSI overpayment on a monthly basis and retroactive benefits can be recovered to pay a Social Security overpayment. But that's about it. The company will do whatever they usually do to recover overdue debt.

 

[egremont]

Does she require nursing home care or can she live on her own?

She can live on her own, with but a few little issues with grab rails being needed in bathroom, etc
But saying that, these will only be for the time being, as she will, hopefull make as full a recovery as possible
She certainly doesnt want, or need Assisted Living Accommodation

Egremont

 

[egremont]

Not really a Social Security question except that you are right that SSI cannot be garnished. SSI can be involuntarily withheld to pay an SSI overpayment on a monthly basis and retroactive benefits can be recovered to pay a Social Security overpayment. But that's about it. The company will do whatever they usually do to recover overdue debt.

So, just to clarify...the only time SSI can be garnished is for an SSI related overpayment?
And she doesnt owe Medicaid any money. The only people she owes money to is this care home?

Egremont

 

[egremont]

Update on this:
This care home are saying that, in order for my friend to continue her Medicaid benefits, she HAS to give up all her back social security back payments, plus all but $35 of her monthly check each month she is in there.
This is from a letter that was left in her room last night ans she has only just managed to type it out to me, on a very flaky internet there at the care home.
From what i can gather, the only people saying anything to her about her paying this are**************...the care home themselves
Not SSI
Not Medicaid (not directly, just implied by the care home)
Naturally the poor woman is devastated at this latest development, and fears she will be stuck in that place forever, with them taking all her cash resources, both in lump sum and monthly income.

Egremont

 

[BL]

Update on this:
This care home are saying that, in order for my friend to continue her Medicaid benefits, she HAS to give up all her back social security back payments, plus all but $35 of her monthly check each month she is in there.
This is from a letter that was left in her room last night ans she has only just managed to type it out to me, on a very flaky internet there at the care home.
From what i can gather, the only people saying anything to her about her paying this are**************...the care home themselves
Not SSI
Not Medicaid (not directly, just implied by the care home)
Naturally the poor woman is devastated at this latest development, and fears she will be stuck in that place forever, with them taking all her cash resources, both in lump sum and monthly income.

Egremont

http://www.nj.gov/ooie/ Hope this helps.

 

[egremont]

http://www.nj.gov/ooie/ Hope this helps.

Thanks for the link. This will come in handy some time in the future, but its this immediate financial situation thats causing more concern
The care home are saying her Medicaid benefits WILL stop if she doesnt give them (the care home) all her back social security benefits and all but $35 of her monthly check.
This, stopping of Medicaid ,as you can imagine is having a devastatinf effect on her, as it puts paid to the plan i was going to suggest to her. That of telling the care home to whistle for the cash, as there was nothing they could do
If the above IS true then that plan no longer applies
So, can this happen?
That, because she wont give the care home what they want from her, they can stop her future Medicade and other benefits?
There needs to be a sound stratagy that i can convey to her that she :
A) Has nothing to fear by keeping the back SS payments. IE she WONT lose future entitlements to both SS and Medicaid
B) must spend the rest of her life in a place thats not suited to her, and no hope of any future outside if it

egremont

 

[BL]

Thanks for the link. This will come in handy some time in the future, but its this immediate financial situation thats causing more concern
The care home are saying her Medicaid benefits WILL stop if she doesnt give them (the care home) all her back social security benefits and all but $35 of her monthly check.
This, stopping of Medicaid ,as you can imagine is having a devastatinf effect on her, as it puts paid to the plan i was going to suggest to her. That of telling the care home to whistle for the cash, as there was nothing they could do
If the above IS true then that plan no longer applies
So, can this happen?
That, because she wont give the care home what they want from her, they can stop her future Medicade and other benefits?
There needs to be a sound stratagy that i can convey to her that she :
A) Has nothing to fear by keeping the back SS payments. IE she WONT lose future entitlements to both SS and Medicaid
B) must spend the rest of her life in a place thats not suited to her, and no hope of any future outside if it

egremont

I gave you a good link .

Someone in the Know , not YOU should be advising HER if she is now competent.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

I gave you a good link .

Someone in the Know , not YOU should be advising HER if she is now competent.

They will be able to answer the question immediately. I am sure she is not the first person in NJ to be in this position. No one here can answer the question for you as we don't know whether she was a public charge.

 

[Onderzoek]

I gave you a good link .

Someone in the Know , not YOU should be advising HER if she is now competent.

Why would you believe that a care home determines whether or not someone remains on Medicaid? There is a state or county official that does that, not a private party. The care home may be telling her what they think is true. Doesn't mean it is true. But the state or county official also won't tell you anything since your friend is legally competent.

You said she is an SSI recipient. But then you also referred to her as getting SS benefits. Answers would be different, depending upon which program you are referring to. In some states, all SSI recipients get Medicaid for the months they are on SSI. Then it is a federal decision that allows the Medicaid.

I think she has too many problems to try to solve in this forum. She is a legally competent adult. What does she want to do?

 

[ecmst12]

And if she doesn't require nursing home care...she should move out!