Nursing homes seek guardianships of patients to ensure the bills get paid
Nursing homes in New York are seeking guardianships of their patients to ensure bill payment, even when a family member has been designated to perform that function.
That’s the conclusion of the New York Times, based on research conducted for the newspaper and experts familiar with the system.
Confidentiality concerns make access to guardianship cases difficult, the Times says. But the newspaper was able to draw on findings by researchers at Hunter College acting on the newspaper’s request. Their study looked at a random sample of 700 guardianship cases filed in Manhattan from 2002 to 2012—scrubbed of identifying details—and found that more than 12 percent of the cases were filed by nursing homes.
Some of the nursing home cases may have been filed because no relatives were available, embezzlement was suspected, or family members disagreed, the story says. “But lawyers and others versed in the guardianship process agree that nursing homes primarily use such petitions as a means of bill collection,” the Times says.
The findings show “the practice has become routine,” the newspaper says, “underscoring the growing power nursing homes wield over residents and families.”
At least one judge has ruled that using guardianships as bill collection is an abuse of the state’s guardianship law, the story says.
Nursing home lawyer Brett Nussbaum defended the practice in an interview with the Times. “When you have families that do not cooperate and an incapacitated person, guardianship is a legitimate means to get the nursing home paid,” he said.
Missing word “more” added to third paragraph at 7:50 a.m. after commenter pointed out the error.
