Nursing home bill for deceased father

[rfrenzke]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan
If my fathers estate does not have enough money to pay the nursing home bill how can I notify or negotiate a reduced bill?? My father is deceased and the estate is not insolvent but just not enough funds to pay the bill in full.

 

[not2cleverRed]

https://forum.freeadvice.com/elder-law-powers-attorney-living-wills-advance-health-care-directives-115/who-gets-paid-if-incapacitated-person-dies-before-final-hearing-639026.html

You skip having a funeral. Donate his body to science and get him cremated.

The estate pays his bills.

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan
If my fathers estate does not have enough money to pay the nursing home bill how can I notify or negotiate a reduced bill?? My father is deceased and the estate is not insolvent but just not enough funds to pay the bill in full.

If the bill can't be paid in full, then the estate IS insolvent.

 

[Zigner]

https://forum.freeadvice.com/elder-law-powers-attorney-living-wills-advance-health-care-directives-115/who-gets-paid-if-incapacitated-person-dies-before-final-hearing-639026.html

You skip having a funeral. Donate his body to science and get him cremated.

The estate pays his bills.

I disagree - the funeral expenses are a priority expense, second only to the costs of administration of the estate, and would be paid before any other debts. The estate can pay for any funeral expenses.

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(kt2vf0rfs0nobec00zwdpciz))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=mcl-700-3805


ETA: Of course, the funeral expenses must be "reasonable".

 

[LdiJ]

https://forum.freeadvice.com/elder-law-powers-attorney-living-wills-advance-health-care-directives-115/who-gets-paid-if-incapacitated-person-dies-before-final-hearing-639026.html

You skip having a funeral. Donate his body to science and get him cremated.

The estate pays his bills.

Huh? Funeral costs have precedence over creditors so why would you give that kind of advice?

 

[HRZ]

And a reasonable executors fee and costs off the top of pile first as well.....

 

[Zigner]

And a reasonable executors fee and costs off the top of pile first as well.....

Yep - reasonable administration costs come even before the funeral costs.

 

[latigo]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan
If my fathers estate does not have enough money to pay the nursing home bill how can I notify or negotiate a reduced bill??

My father is deceased and the estate is not insolvent (?) but just not enough funds to pay the bill in full.

Correction if you please. The estate is indeed insolvent!

 

[commentator]

Donating ones body to science, at least in my neck of the woods isn't as welcome or cheap as it used to be. It is something that you cannot generally do without having made prior arrangements in most places. Around here the medical schools politely tell you that unless you died of something really interesting to them for research purposes, they simply have more bodies than they need. But cremation is still fairly affordable. The bills are paid from the estate until the estate runs out of money, but then the heirs are not responsible for the rest of the nursing home care costs. Was your father on Medicaid? That he was not paying as he went along causes me to think maybe he was. So they'll take whatever is left in the estate after funeral expenses as payment on the cost of the nursing home such as property, etc. And then it is over.

 

[FlyingRon]

Yes, you need to pre-arrange the donation. They won't just take some body that's lying around the morgue. My father-in-law left his body to the local medical school (said it was the only way he was getting in there). What we didn't realize was that after a year, he came back (cremated). His remains lived in my mother-in-law's house until she went into long term care in which he lived in our hall closet for the next few years until she passed. We discretely slipped him into her coffin prior to burial.

Anyhow, the order of priority for Michigan is:

Expenses f administration.
Funeral and burial expense.
Homestead allowance.
Family allowance.
Exempt property allowance.
Debts and taxes with priority under federal law.
Reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the decedent's last illness, including a compensation of persons attending the decedent.
Debts and taxes with priority under laws of Michigan
All other claims

 

[Zigner]

Yes, you need to pre-arrange the donation. They won't just take some body that's lying around the morgue. My father-in-law left his body to the local medical school (said it was the only way he was getting in there). What we didn't realize was that after a year, he came back (cremated). His remains lived in my mother-in-law's house until she went into long term care in which he lived in our hall closet for the next few years until she passed. We discretely slipped him into her coffin prior to burial.

Anyhow, the order of priority for Michigan is:

Expenses f administration.
Funeral and burial expense.
Homestead allowance.
Family allowance.
Exempt property allowance.
Debts and taxes with priority under federal law.
Reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the decedent's last illness, including a compensation of persons attending the decedent.
Debts and taxes with priority under laws of Michigan
All other claims

These are all listed at the website I gave above -

 

[rfrenzke]

Nursing home

My dad had life insurance so funeral and arrangements were paid in full.

 

[Zigner]

My dad had life insurance so funeral and arrangements were paid in full.

Who was the beneficiary of the life insurance and why should they not be reimbursed for funeral expenses (if the proceeds didn't go directly to the estate)?

 

[rfrenzke]

Who gets paid

Life insurance went directly to funeral home..it was just enough to pay for funeral and arrangements.

 

[justalayman]

Life insurance went directly to funeral home..it was just enough to pay for funeral and arrangements.

Ok so the administrator is entitled to whatever the law allows. The rest of the estate needs to be used to pay estate debts. When the money runs out, that’s it.

Just to be clear: he didn’t have any real estate? No 401k accounts or such?