A U.S. district court dismisses a lawsuit by a Kentucky nursing home to obtain retroactive Medicaid benefits for a deceased resident because the nursing home does not have standing to pursue a claim on behalf of the resident's estate. Diversicare v. Glisson (U.S. Dist. Ct., E.D. Ky., No. 16-141-HRW, October 27, 2017).
Wilma Fryer entered a nursing home, and the nursing home applied for Medicaid benefits on her behalf. The application was still pending when Ms. Fryer died. The state eventually denied the application due to missing information about Ms. Fryer's finances.
At the hearing, the nursing home produced the previously missing information, but the state denied the application because the information was not produced before the application was processed. The nursing home filed a claim in federal court, arguing that the state wrongfully denied Ms. Fryer benefits.
The U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Kentucky, dismisses the claim, holding that the nursing home does not have standing to sue on Ms. Fryer's behalf. The court notes that the nursing home is not the administrator of Ms. Fryer's estate. According to the court, the nursing home "is, at best, a creditor" and there "are no Kentucky statutes that allow a creditor of an estate to sue directly on behalf of a deceased debtor."
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