Review of Berthoud Living Center

1 Star User Review

My Dad is 79 years old. Today I received a bill in the mail for HIS treatment at Berthoud Living Center where he was placed in by the hospital to recover from surgery. This bill is for $17,733 dollars, it is addressed to ME as the "responsible party," and they said if I don't pay they will hand it over to collection. Medicare has already paid this facility nearly $22,000. The facility claims that I am personally responsible for my Dad's bills and they will sue me. They even went as far as requiring him to sign over his VA and Social Security benefits to them, despite the fact that he is a dementia patient and does not understand. He is on three different medications for dementia and was at the time they made him sign. I only found out that they literally STOLE from him yesterday. He was NEVER to stay there as a permanent resident and they KNOW that. However, because he was denied Medicaid they claim it was in their rights to take his Social Security and VA Pension. Next month, he will not be able to cover his monthly bills. He has life insurance policies that need to be paid and many other things including a legal debt of over $50,000 thanks to his ex-wife who took out loans and credit cards in his name. Requiring a family member to agree to be the financially responsible party for a nursing home resident is illegal under federal law, in Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 483.12(d)(2). Under this law, nursing homes are not even supposed to ask if a family member wants to become a responsible party. Nonetheless, some nursing home agreements contain fine print that claims to make a responsible party or cosigner personally responsible for the resident's bills. If a nursing home attempts to enforce such an agreement, the person who signed the papers may need legal help to get out from under the nursing home's claim. What they are doing to ME and MY FAMILY is illegal. Our family is now devastated thanks to this greedy company. I do not have the money for an attorney, I cannot work to earn the money because my Dad requires constant supervision. I do not know what we will do.



Replies to This Review

You are only responsible to pay this debt IF you signed paperwork at the beginning of his admission into the nursing home stating you would be the responsible party. This, of course, is why it is SO important to read what we sign, however I would definately get a free consultation with an attorney before making the first payment on your dads debt.