“Are You on the Hook for Mom’s Nursing Home Bill?”

A column in the Wall Street Journal asks whether nursing homes can seek reimbursement from adult children for unpaid long-term care bills:

Thought you were immune from your parents’ debts? Not so fast. Twenty-nine states have “filial support” laws that could be used to go after patients’ adult children for unpaid long-term-care bills.

The article cites a recent Pennsylvania case that appears to be the first in the nation ordering adult children to satisfy the debt of their parents to a nursing home.

The case began when a Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, couple was injured in a head-on collision.

After the couple suffered complications at HCR ManorCare, one of the country’s largest corporate nursing home chains, they left and filed a malpractice claim against the facility.

A few weeks later,  HCR ManorCare went after the couple’s son to collect an unpaid bill of $92,943, even though it could have sought reimbursement from Medicaid.

The family challenged the bill and won in arbitration. However, a three-judge panel in Pennsylvania state court overturned the decision and upheld the debt, stating that the son would be responsible to the nursing home to pay his parents’ bill.

As Katherine Pearson, a law professor at Pennsylvania State University, has written in a recent paper, other states – including Virginia – have filial support laws that may soon be the basis for seeking repayment from adult children:

§ 20-88. Support of parents by children.

It shall be the joint and several duty of all persons eighteen years of age or over, of sufficient earning capacity or income, after reasonably providing for his or her own immediate family, to assist in providing for the support and maintenance of his or her mother or father, he or she being then and there in necessitous circumstances.

Virginia families may be able to rely on a section of the law that appears to include an exception for Medicaid-eligible parents who are currently receiving assistance:

This section shall not apply … if a parent is otherwise eligible for and is receiving public assistance or services under a federal or state program.

Although no Virginia court appears to have ordered “filial support” to satisfy a debt to a nursing home, it is important to otherwise carefully read any documents that the long-term care facility provides to you during the admissions process.

Before you choose long-term care for a loved one, speak with your parents about financial planning. If necessary, obtain professional advice from an elder law attorney and a financial advisor who specializes in long-term care management who can help your family.