social security benefits for hospitalized residents

kcochrane · Nov 3, 2010

Medicaid Nursing Home Payment Requirements in Alabama | Caring.com

Some good info here.

Most likely the social security check will be sent to the nursing home to pay for her costs. That is unless the family has money to pay private or she has private long term care insurance. They do end up giving the residents around $50/month for other stuff. Doesn't go very far and they have been trying to get that increased.

I doubt the family is going to be able to resist very much longer before mom is moved. The hospital is not going to allow someone to stay that is now long term care. Insurance at some point will force the issue. At least in my area, you can only refuse a certain amount of options with regards to a nursing home. I can't even see them trying to get mom home with all the issues she has. She doesn't sound like a candidate for home care.

Forgot to add that the vent may be making it harder to place, but there has to be long term care vent units.

kcochrane · Nov 3, 2010

Alabama Nursing Homes with Special Care Units

There are a few long term care units that probably take vents. The social worker on your unit should have this info.

merlee · Nov 3, 2010

It's the social worker who should be trying to find placement. There are a couple of national chains that do long-term vents And, yes, the family is hoarding her check while she is in the hospital, they probably missed it while she was in an LTC facility.

One of the chains is Kindred, another might be St ----- Ann Seton. I don't remember her first name. Maybe Elizabeth?

BabyLady, BSN, RN · Nov 3, 2010

Can anyone tell me or give me a reliable source to find out what happens to a residents social security benefits once a person becomes long term care resident of a nursing home? We have a patient who was admitted to our hospital from long term care nursing home who has been on the vent for 3 months and we cannot find suitable placement. The patient will never be able to wean off of the vent and has a terminal illness. She spends day after day in her room, on the vent, without visitors. Her family wants "everything done" but won't even come to visit. One of the doctors mentioned that the family is most likely getting the social security check and that is the reason they have made the decision to leave her in our facility. I would greatly appreciate any information on where to find information on how this system works and if in fact this is the case. State of Alabama if that makes a difference. Thanks to anyone that can give me some info! Also if ANYONE knows of resources to place long term vent patients (with or without terminal illness) I would be extremely grateful.

I don't know about your state, but in our state, if the family refuses to come visit and is able to, the physicians will do an ethics consult to see if it is ethical to keep someone on life support, especially if they have a terminal illness and see if something else can be done instead of dragging it out.

indigonurse · Nov 25, 2010

To get the most accurate answer you can call the Social Security toll free number. Off the top of my head I believe that if a person is confined to a hospital, nursing home, prison, etc. then after the 30th day or so their SS payment is affected. Sometimes this goes undetected and SS winds up over paying. This usually gets caught because most of these agencies are required to report the SS numbers to SS of people who stay there for 30 days or more.