My mother (81) has dementia. We (my brother and I) took her to the ER from her home because it really got bad for her. She went in on a Monday afternoon, at 11pm that night they told us she was being admitted, she didn't get into a room until 1am Tuesday morning. She was in the hospital Tuesday & Wednesday and Thursday morning the social worker at the hospital said she could be released to a nursing home for further care and so she was. Then Friday about 3pm at the nursing home the director pulled me into his office and said he had received a phone call from the hospital social worker and that the social worker apologized for making the mistake of releasing Mother too early to be eligible for Medicare coverage in the nursing home. The rules for Medicare coverage are that you have to be admitted as an INPATIENT for 3 nights but Mother was classified as being admitted to her room as OBSERVE on Monday night so she was only in for 2 nights as an INPATIENT.
Now my brother and I are not trained to know this stuff like the social worker and the nursing home personnel are and we don't feel that we should pay for the mistake THEY made and the nursing home agreed because they are not charging for the 1 day she was in before the mistake was found but since the call came in so late in the day Friday I had to wait until the following Monday to contact the hospital to get information about the problem and then I didn't get an answer from the hospital until late Monday and couldn't return their call until Tuesday. SO I don't feel as if we should be responsible for the nursing home bill from Friday to Monday because it was the hospitals mistake and they were unavailable to talk to until Monday.
BTW - I already talked to the hospital and they, of course, blew me off.
Now my brother and I are not trained to know this stuff like the social worker and the nursing home personnel are and we don't feel that we should pay for the mistake THEY made and the nursing home agreed because they are not charging for the 1 day she was in before the mistake was found but since the call came in so late in the day Friday I had to wait until the following Monday to contact the hospital to get information about the problem and then I didn't get an answer from the hospital until late Monday and couldn't return their call until Tuesday. SO I don't feel as if we should be responsible for the nursing home bill from Friday to Monday because it was the hospitals mistake and they were unavailable to talk to until Monday.
BTW - I already talked to the hospital and they, of course, blew me off.