Guardian Fails To Apply For Medicaid - Nursing Home Can Take Legal Action, Court Says

Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession

June 1998

  Quick Summary: Any interested party, including the nursing home, has the right to file a formal challenge to the accounting a court-appointed guardian must periodically file in court.  The court said a nursing home is an interested party, but it must follow procedures and must act within the law’s short time deadlines.

   The Court of Appeals of Ohio recently ruled that a nursing home has the right to take legal action if a resident’s guardian exhausts the resident’s assets to pay for nursing home care, but then neglects to apply for Medicaid.