Are you aware that today there is a question of whether children will need to pay an aging Alabama parent’s nursing home bill? The concept of parents being held legally responsible for the action and debts of their minor children is taken for granted, but did you think that there would ever be the possibility of adult children being responsible for the debts of their parents? Almost half of the states in the U.S. have filial responsibility laws, which can create a legal obligation of adult children for their parents. Even though little attention may be paid to these laws, it could be that when a parent is placed in a nursing home these laws may have some potential to go after adult children. For now, nursing homes utilizing filial responsibility laws to force adult children to pay the nursing home bills of their parents looks to be the exception, rather than the norm. These laws, however, remain on the books in many states.
In addition, filial responsibility laws may obligate adult children to cover the cost of their parents’ food, clothing, shelter and medical expenses when the parents themselves cannot afford to do so. Recently, some states have seen these laws applied in a novel way to obtain judgments against adult children for the bills incurred by their parents in a nursing home. Because of the astronomical cost of nursing homes, this may be a legal risk adult children cannot afford to ignore.
What can adult children do? One of the first steps in minimizing such a risk may be having a critical discussion with adult parents regarding their ability to afford a nursing home. They may have long-term care insurance, something they may have elected to obtain as an employment benefit. If this is the case, it is important for their adult children to have copies of the policy. Because if a parent were to suffer a stroke and experience loss of mental capacity, there may be a real possibility of no one ever learning of the long-term care policy. Parents may also have money put aside to cover a nursing home. If this is the case, the adult child should have a way to access these funds, perhaps via a durable power of attorney or a trust.
If the parent does not have insurance or the means to cover a nursing home, it may be necessary to find out whether they have Medicaid or what Medicaid planning needs to be done in order to make the parent Medicaid eligible, which would go towards covering the nursing home expenses. We would highly recommend scheduling a meeting with an experienced Alabama elder law attorney as soon as possible.
Contact our office to discuss your options if you will be giving or receiving money or other assets this holiday season and anticipate this may impact your Medicaid eligibility. At the end of the day, legal planning is not just for you. Instead, it is for the ones you love most. If we can answer any questions for you on putting this estate planning in place, please do not hesitate to let us know. For more information, please reach out to our office and schedule a time to meet.