Articles Posted in Nursing Home Abuse

If you have a power of attorney from your elderly parent or relative who lives in a nursing home, does that mean you can be held liable for nursing home bills? The answer is no, but nursing homes may try to go after you anyway.

That is the short answer. Having power of attorney does not make you personally responsible for your parent’s nursing home bill. A power of attorney gives you the authority to act for the resident. It does not turn the resident’s debt into your debt.

But there are traps. Nursing home admission paperwork can be confusing. Some facilities use “responsible party” language that makes family members think they are signing only to help with paperwork, while the facility later argues they agreed to do more. Some nursing homes or debt collectors may send bills to adult children even when the child never agreed to be personally responsible. Some may suggest that having power of attorney means you owe the bill yourself.

On this page, our nursing home lawyers will look at nursing home negligence lawsuits involving bedsores (also known as pressure sores or pressure ulcers). Bed sores are skin tissue wounds that develop when a person remains immobile in the same position for prolonged time periods. Bed sores can lead to infection and often death. Nursing home bed sore lawsuits are very common because bed sores are frequently the result of negligent care.

This post will explain how and why bed sores develop and examine the basics of how nursing home bedsore lawsuits work. We will also look at the average settlement value of these cases.

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