Shrift, barging in with the past 2.5 wk experience with stubborn ass independent parents & 2 weeks in icu for the executive functional one(dad) and a good week where it looked like he wouldn’t make it. Get someone (not spouse of parent) as joints on main accounts, if possible. This was recommended by my family lawyer. My parents were amenable & there’s no drama between me and my brother, so we both were added. Did some on telebanking with dad just coming down off hallucinatory steroid doses & making really innopportune jokes. That was fun. Some with statutory POA. Tax implications should be considered but it was a nonissue for us, for various reasons. My dad is so fucking organized, I was literally walking into the icu with all the docs & numbers when he was close to dying, on the phone with lawyer. I need to get that organized.
Also, and THIS IS FUCKING HARD: you can raise concerns with the hospital that will trigger home health evals covered by Medicare. I did this. Probably one of the hardest and rightest things I’ve done. SO MUCH FUN EFFECTIVELY QUESTIONING YOUR PARENTS COMPETENCE TO THEIR FACE. I sandbagged my dads’s discharge with this. The way his face fell. I’m still not wrong. I went and ran 2 miles around the desert in boots & I hate running, after. Bless the hospitalist dr who was just so fucking kind but no nonsense with us.
They can refuse the services. I don’t know if they can totally refuse the eval visits (prob) because my parents agreed. They sent out nursing, pt & ot evaluators to the house. OT not needed. PT once a week (my dad likes that, goal oriented.) Visiting nurse 2x week for 2 weeks, 1x for rest unless changes. He’s had 2 total 15 minute visits from nice Nurse Sara (I’m Evil Fake Nurse Sara, I I’ll totally own that) and already wants to go to once a week, damnit.
Covers 9 weeks before their supplemental bcbs or Ltc needs invoked.
It’s hard. I’ve been home 2 nights & I’m waking up confused as to where I am. But you can do this. Just one day more, each day.