Will You Be Asked to Pay Nursing Home Bills for a Loved One?

1 in 7 Adults with Healthcare Debt Say They’ve Been Threatened with a Lawsuit

One other thing that might be in your future life is a nursing home. It's something increasingly common. Six out of 10 Americans will spend, at some point, life in a nursing home. Let's say that you're living in a nursing home, and you don't pay your bill. Maybe you die without paying everything that you owe. What's the nursing home going to do about this? What do they do if you haven't paid your bill? They're going to throw you out. Well, frankly, the first thing they may do is sue. They're going to sue you. But that's not all. They're also going to sue your family and even your friends.

One in seven adults who have had healthcare debt say they've been threatened with a lawsuit or arrest by their nursing homes. Nursing homes routinely accuse friends and relatives of what? Of helping you hide assets. Their attitude is you're trying to avoid paying the bill so you can preserve your money for your survivors, your spouse, your children, your grandchildren. And so by giving your money to your friends and family, makes it look like you don't have any money to pay the bill. Nursing homes, fearful of that tactic, are now suing friends and family, not just the residents themselves. It's an increasing and increasingly disturbing trend.