Help with Dad's room and board at nursing home

I was really hoping not to have to do this. Unfortunately, thanks to the repeated errors by the Department of Children and Families and my dad's nursing home billing office, it's that last part that has been a challenge.

When a patient cannot afford to pay for their lodging, they can apply for Medicaid, and Medicaid directs the patient to give the nursing home all of their Social Security, less a $160 personal needs income. Things get trickier when the patient is married and the spouse is still living in the community.

Medicaid allows the patient to transfer some of their Social Security income to their community Spouse to live off of. That amount is known as a Spousal Diversion. The rest, sans the $160 personal needs income, goes to the nursing home.

After approval, Medicaid calculated the Spousal Diversion at $1500 and ordered Dad to pay approximately $784/month to Social Security. This calculation is wildly inaccurate, almost double what it should be. We have no idea where we got that number from, but we suspect that they did not include the rent my mother pays, or her utilities. It should be closer to $400/month by my calcluation.

DCF does not make it clear how to request a recalculation, and in over two weeks, we have not been able to get through on the phone - their pre-recorded message states that agents are all assisting other callers, to call back later, and hangs up no matter when you call. They have not responded to emails, letters, or faxes. We attempted to hire an Elder Law firm to help, but they wanted $3500, which we don't have.

On top of this, the business office manager at Parkview Rehab is new and barely knows what she's doing, and is often not in the office, so we spent almost a month trying to get simple questions like how much dad owed, and when it had to be paid by, or even how it needed to be paid. We still have not even received a physical bill.

We received a call from the nursing home today indicating Dad owes $1500+ for July and August ASAP. Mom will not be able to pay that from dad's Social Security and simultaneously pay her own rent for her home. Due to the lack of community from both DCF and the nursing home, mom had no idea how much to set aside, and we'd hoped we'd have the diversion recalculated by now.

Dad is not at risk of being evicted yet, but with September's bill coming next, we are trying to prevent a disaster. my financial situation has changed to where I can no longer help - I do not have this in my savings and I no longer have available credit due to my debt management program. I am very close to needing to file for bankruptcy due to my out of control debt. Mom is also not receiving the $900/month she used to receive as a caretaker since dad is in a nursing home.

We are hoping to raise dad's rent for July and August ($1500), and some additional to either help hire an Elder Law attorney, or get a head start on September's rent, so we can get back on top of things. Long term, we feel more confident about being able to manage, especially if the recalculation is successful but as of right now we haven't had much time to make arrangements since the miscalculation was completed.