LTC – Adult Children May Face New Responsibility
Recently, a Pennsylvania state appeals court ruled that the adult son of a nursing home resident is responsible for her unpaid $93,000 bill. The decision has some elder care professionals and legal advisors wondering if this is just the beginning of a trend.
Pennsylvania is one of 30 states that have “filial responsibility statutes”. These laws , which can be traced back 400 years to Poor Relief laws in England, impose a duty on adult children to care for their indigent parents. About two-thirds of the states that have such statutes, including Pennsylvania, allow home care agencies and nursing facilities to sue family members to recover unpaid costs. Many of these laws have been on the books for decades, but they have been rarely enforced. However, that may change in light of the current aging population and the high probability that up to 70% of that population will need care for at least 6 months.
While these laws don’t directly apply to Medicaid recipients, they may force children to pick up their parents’ long-term care costs. This would effectively shift significant costs from states to families – families which may be erroneously confident that the state will take care of them.
If this court case is a harbinger for care providers getting paid, it is yet one more reason for advisors to include long-term care insurance in their discussions and annual reviews with both younger and older clients. Such discussions will allow time to offer solutions that not only protect assets but ensure that the cost of late-life care is not going to be an overwhelming emotional and psychological burden for the family.
