Some nursing homes slyly get family members to sign admission agreements for admitted loved ones in order to make the family member legally liable for the costs of care of the admitted family member (“resident”). Protect yourself – know what you are signing and how it can legally expose you to liability.

An elderly person arriving at a nursing home is usually accompanied by a spouse or child, who often is also the elder’s fiduciary (an agent under either a power of attorney or conservatorship). The elder and the family member usually encounters an admission agreement for the first time during the intake process when the elder is asked to sign any number of forms, notices, releases, and waivers. It is easy in these circumstances to sign the admission agreement without really understanding it, but don’t!   It imposes several obligations on whoever signs it.

The agreement establishes the basic contract for care and payment: the nursing home promises to provide care and the resident promises to pay for it. The agreement can be signed by the resident or can be signed on her behalf by her fiduciary, often a family member. However, the nursing home often asks the family member to also sign the agreement as a “responsible party.” By doing so, the family member becomes a party to the contract with the nursing home and assumes explicit and personal contractual obligations. In short: you are now “on the hook” for payments. Typically the responsible party promises to: 1) spend all of the resident’s assets (which the responsible party controls or can access) on the resident’s care; 2) to conduct a proper and timely spend-down of assets in anticipation of eventual Medicaid benefits; 3) to promptly qualify the resident for Medicaid once assets are depleted; and 4) to spend any assets the responsible party has previously received from the resident on the resident’s care.

When this agreement is given to you, alarm bells should go off. What about the joint accounts that both the resident and family “responsible party” own?  Does the responsible party have a duty to spend it all on the nursing home?  What is a “timely and proper spend-down” under the Medicaid regulations?  What does it take to qualify someone for Medicaid?  Is the responsible party guaranteeing that the resident will qualify no matter what?  What about the money the resident gave the responsible party for the responsible party’s children’s college tuition?  Does such money have to be given back to the resident and then to the nursing home for care?  What happens if that is not financially possible?  Depending upon the wording of the agreement, these concerns and many others could become the legally binding woes of the responsible party.  How the family member represents herself is critical.

The courts even have stretched contractual responsibility to impose responsible party status on family members.  In one Connecticutcase where the son signed as fiduciary under the parent’s power of attorney but did not sign as responsible party, the court nevertheless decided the son had entered into an oral contract with the nursing home because he was silent after the nursing home explained the obligations of a responsible party to him.  TheConnecticut courts have also not hesitated to hold responsible parties personally liable for care costs when they have failed to promptly and properly qualify a resident for Medicaid benefits. There is alsoConnecticut caselaw supporting an action brought by a nursing home against a family member who received assets from the resident prior to admission.

Do not try to handle this on your own.  Seek legal guidance — always sound advice when signing any legal document, but critical when assisting a loved one facing resident care!  Our experienced elder lawyers can guide you through the process, avoid liability to family members, and help ease your mind over such stressful situations.