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Jorn96 Asked March 2020

Will my Mom have to pay for her stay at a rehab facility if she signs out AMA?

She was told she had to stay 20 days, but she is not getting better, and is in fact, getting worse. She is scheduled to have back surgery on 4/16.

JoAnn29 Mar 2020
Yes, 20 days is fully paid by Medicare. The 21st to 100 Medicare only pays 50%. So a good way to get her out is to say there is no money for longer than 20 days.

Come back and tell us what happened. She is not a prisoner and has a right to refuse rehab.

AlvaDeer Mar 2020
The rehab is apparently so determined to get their medicare payments, which they will get for that period, that they have lied to you. I am assuming that your Mom is on medicare. In fact it is a myth that you have to sign anything, even, tho they will try to insist that you do so. It isn't prison. The fact that your Mom was "non compliant with care" may have repurcussions in future with other facilities, but I seriously doubt that. Is she on medicare? If so, call 1-800-medicare to reassure yourself.
May I ask in what way your mother is getting "worse" from her rehab?

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Treeartist Mar 2020
You may want to get more information about that. Over the years my mother went to rehab numerous times and at different facilities. Twice, we removed her AMA and twice we were told that we would have to pay the Medicare cost because of it. We countered with “then we will have to go to court to contest the bill due to awful care”. The facilities never pursued it. My goodness, I still think about how often people are left in an almost vegetative state because they didn’t have family or friends to advocate for them.
worriedinCali Mar 2020
You were told wrong. It’s a myth that has been debunked. And it’s a common tactic to get you to stay. The same thing happened when I had my daughter and the pediatrician was nowhere to be found when it was time to be discharged. After waiting for 6 hours we said we were going home and they tried to say the insurance might not pay the bill if we left. Anyway Medicare has absolutely no policy when it comes to this, they will pay the bill. Years of misunderstanding have caused this myth to continue. If anything, insurance may not pay for the same treatment if you leave AMA. Basically if you go in to the hospital and you leave AMA and you have to go back for the same reason, insurance may decide not to keep paying for it.
worriedinCali Mar 2020
No, she will not have to pay if she checks herself out AMA.

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