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Father Passed Now Getting Calls for Medical Bills

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  • 09-11-2007, 08:13 AM
    MBAwoman
    Father Passed Now Getting Calls for Medical Bills
    My father in law passed in March 2007 and all of a sudden my husband gets a call today from some pharmacy collection agency saying he owes $198. Well from my understanding, they can't require that he pay for the debt because first its his fathers debt, and they can't put it on his credit.

    He hasn't agreed to pay for anything because his father was on medicaid, and they were "supposedly" taking care of it.

    The gentleman that called said to my husband " Its affecting your credit"..and I'm thinking how can a bill that doesn't even apply to my husband be on his credit. What happens if I find out its on his credit??
  • 09-11-2007, 08:19 AM
    aaron
    Re: Father Passed Now Getting Calls for Medical Bills
    This is in what state?

    How did the pharmacy obtain your husband's name and number?

    Is your husband executor of his father's estate? Was an estate opened?
  • 09-11-2007, 08:27 AM
    MBAwoman
    Re: Father Passed Now Getting Calls for Medical Bills
    We are in Missouri. I guess they looked it up in the whitepages, our # is listed. This is the first call we've received and we have never received a bill from this company. They are called CMS..and the collector said it was for 50plus Pharmacy or something.

    No estate opened. Father was severe alchoholic, didn't leave any money, left A LOT of bills but was under Medicare.
  • 09-11-2007, 09:21 AM
    lealea1005
    Re: Father Passed Now Getting Calls for Medical Bills
    Please clarify whether your FIL was a recipient of Medicare, Medicaid or both. Unless, there's a coincidence with the name, CMS (Center for Medcare/Medicaid Services) administers the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The explanation of benefits a patient receives will be from CMS. It's not a collection agency. Are you sure your husband isn't just confusing the explanation of benefits (EOB) from CMS with a bill from the Pharmacy?

    If he was on Medicare & Medicaid, or just Mediaid, there should be no balance. If he was just on Medicare, there may be a balance from the portion he owed, but it would be relatively small. Hope this helps to clarify.

    I'm not a lawyer, so I cannot answer your question regarding whether your husband is responsible for payment if there isn't an estate.
  • 09-11-2007, 09:01 PM
    Betty3
    Re: Father Passed Now Getting Calls for Medical Bills
    Your husband would not be responsible for any bills/debts in his father's name only as long as your husband didn't sign anything to be responsible for them. If there had been an estate - creditors would have had to make a claim against the estate for payment.
  • 09-11-2007, 10:12 PM
    MBAwoman
    Re: Father Passed Now Getting Calls for Medical Bills
    Okay thats what I figured. He didn't sign anything saying he'd be responsible, all he said was that he would be the next of kin contact because his fathers ex wife, and daughter lives in Houston. My husband was his only close family.

    I was told that they would try to contact next of kin to collect $ but if were unsuccessful theres nothing else they could do.
    I'm not sure if he was on Medicare or Medicaid, he was a Veteran.

    Well CMS called us today out the blue saying he owed $193. We haven't received a bill or anything.
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