Barbara Robinson stated she spent two years combating a lawsuit after she volunteered to assist a household buddy transfer to a Rochester nursing dwelling.
She informed CBS Information shopper investigative correspondent Anna Werner that in 2018, she agreed to behave as energy of lawyer to assist an aged buddy file for Medicaid to pay for the nursing dwelling. She additionally helped transfer her into the nursing dwelling.
Robinson stated that there was a number of "stress" to make sure all the things was set for the lady.
"Plenty of stress for me to get that achieved and get it in there as a result of they wanted to get her signed up," Robinson stated.
Robinson stated the nursing dwelling requested her to signal an admission settlement that acknowledged that she could be the "accountable occasion."
She stated she informed the nursing employees that she wouldn't be accountable for the invoice of the lady's nursing dwelling keep however was reassured that this could not be the case. After allegedly being informed this, Robinson signed the admission settlement.
Shortly after, Robinson's buddy handed away and Monroe County sued Robinson for the steadiness of the lady's nursing dwelling keep which got here out to be $21,000.
Robinson stated if she knew she would have been billed for the lady's keep, she would not have signed the settlement as a result of she lives off her Social Safety checks alone.
She additionally not had an influence of lawyer for the lady. A decide later dismissed the lawsuit. However the expertise was stunning to Robinson who had no concept she would find yourself with the invoice for her buddy's nursing dwelling keep.
"I believed, you may't do this to anyone. You possibly can't simply knock on anyone's door and say, 'You want to pay this invoice,'" she stated.
Together with our companions Kaiser Well being Information and NPR, CBS Information has discovered that what begins out as a superb deed can flip right into a authorized nightmare in some instances.
A overview of courtroom data by Kaiser Well being Information discovered that 24 federally licensed nursing houses filed 238 related lawsuits in Monroe County alone. Two-thirds of these fits are discovered to have focused family members of residents or buddies.
Federal legal guidelines prohibit nursing houses from requiring third events, together with family members or buddies, to ensure fee of payments.
However lawyer Anna Anderson informed Werner that it's a rising drawback that's solely getting worse. Anderson has represented individuals who have been sued like Robinson for signing admissions agreements, even when they aren't legally accountable.
She stated the language on the admission agreements is usually complicated to most individuals.
"I do not suppose anybody that I've met after they're signing these papers — even after they ask the correct questions — I do not suppose they actually perceive what they're signing up for," stated Anderson.
The nation's largest nursing dwelling business group, the American Well being Care Affiliation, informed CBS Information that they have not heard of their members doing this and that they don't imagine it is a widespread follow.
Robyn King says it occurred to her in Cleveland when she was sued after serving to transfer her 86-year-old mom right into a nursing dwelling in 2017.
King stated that she had made it clear after studying the paperwork that she couldn't pay for her mom's payments.
"There was one paper we got here throughout and it stated, "Would you be financially accountable in case your mother can not pay this?" And I used to be like, 'No, completely. Like no, X marks the spot,'" King stated.
However three years later, King was sued by the nursing dwelling for $78,000 for the unpaid steadiness.
King was finally dropped from the lawsuit filed by her mom's nursing dwelling, however she says the house remains to be in search of funds from her mom's property.
King testified this 12 months in entrance of a Senate committee about her expertise.
"There is no such thing as a purpose my household's means to construct a greater future for ourselves must be worn out as a result of my mother bought sick and we bought her the medical care that she wanted. There's simply no excuse for this in America," King stated.
Neither nursing dwelling responded to CBS Information' request for remark, however Monroe County in New York, which operates the nursing dwelling the place Richardson took her mom's buddy, informed Kaiser Information and NPR, "It will be a disservice to the hospital's residents, and to Monroe County's taxpayers, to permit residents who've property to not pay what's owed."
Robinson replied and stated the buddy who she helped place within the nursing dwelling principally had no property.