I was being pushed by a nursing home to put my mother in their facility. I am her POA even though I have three other siblings. I finally agreed I needed to do this for my mom and myself.
The office coordinator said she need me to come in and sign all the papers for admission before she's admitted. She had all papers completed and ready for me to sign.
The coordinator had it setup that my mothers SS check would go to me and I would be billed monthly. I also had to sign a document being responsible for any cost for my mother's care. My mother has approved Medicare and Medicaid.
This bothered me to the point that I canceled her going there.
My mother has Alzheimer's and will eventually will need to go to a Nursing home. I need to know if this is normal practice?
Your mom's care is HER financial responsibility, not yours.
Seek legal advice about signing "Jane Doe, in her capacity as POA for Betty Doe".
It is a shame you cancelled the ALF. Really a shame.
In short this is how it works. You will be now signing ALL legal things. You Mom is no longer able to sign anything if she is incompetent to do so. You sign HER name. For instance if her name is Alva Deer and your name is Little Dear you sign her papers Alva Deer by Little Dear, POA or Alva Deer by Little Dear, POA in fact. Look up the various ways online but the point is here you sign her name by your name as her POA. If you sign only her name it means nothing if she has dementia. If you sign YOUR NAME (worst case screnario) you make YOURSELF beholden for the costs. That can be disasterous, and ignorance of the law is no excuse under the law.
If your Mom is going into care all her assets will go to pay for that care except a small allowance, and when she dies all assets she has will be there for recovery of the state/federal Gov. to recover what they invested.
Please go at once to an elder law attorney to learn about being POA and research online your duties, obligations under the law, and how to sign things.
Should you? NO!
Facilities make it sound like it's run of the mill and that everyone does it. They tell you not to worry about it. Worry about it. There's no reason for you to sign anything signifying that you personally accept responsibility. You are representing your mother. Sign on her behalf. The way I sign things is "My Name for Mom's Name". I make it clear that I'm signing on someone else's behalf. I'm not signing for me.
My husband is joint PoA for his mom, along with 1 brother. Only 1 of them is required to perform any function as PoA. This can only happen because there's nothing controversial or contentious about their relationship or disagreements about their mother's care. My husband signed the facility document with his mother's name and then underneath it "XX, as PoA for XX" and he brought in his documents so they could copy them for their records. Every state's facilities must adhere to differing rules so you must please check with an elder law attorney for your mom's state of residence.
Because you have siblings it is strongly recommended that you know exactly how to manage your PoA responsibilities so that if anyone ever questions what you're doing you will be able to show them excellent record keeping. FYI as PoA you are under NO obligation to share any info with them, but limited transparency would help head off suspicions and therefore problems, but that's just my opinion.
My MIL is on Medicaid in LTC. Her SS check gets directly deposited into a checking account in her name, with the PoAs on it jointly. Then the facility automatically withdraws the monthly fee from that same account. Medicaid pays the balance directly to the facility. We never have to write a check.
You must check what her state's Medicaid pays for. One must both medically and financially qualify for Medicaid. In my state it only pays for LTC, not AL or MC. There is such a thing as an Elder Waiver from the county/state that helps pays for other care, but not 100%. You must know what your state offers.
"The coordinator had it setup that my mothers SS check would go to me" IMO this cannot be done. SS has to OK payee. I did sign papers, as POA, that the NH could apply for SS payee then the payment came to them directly.
Has Mom actually been OKd for Medicaid LTC? Which is different than Medicaid for health. It must be applied for and you only have a certain time to take advantage of it within a certain time. In my state you have 90days to spend down assets, get Medicaid info required and get the person placed.