A WOMAN has slammed a care home after her family was charged £400 for not “giving 48 hours notice” before her mum died.
Margaret Butler, 84, died last month after a long battle with her dementia.
BPMLiz Butler says her family was charged for her mum Margaret’s care after she died – because they didn’t give notice[/caption]
Despite the Birmingham mum receiving palliative care, her death came as a shock to husband Raymond and daughter Liz.
And they say their grief was made worse when they were lumped with a bill for care Margaret never received.
When Liz and Raymond contacted Helping Hands Home Care they were told they’d been slapped with the bill “because you did not give 48 hours’ notice” of the much-loved mum’s death.
Liz told BirminghamLive: “It’s just an insult really. I think we are all just incredulous and angry.
“I’m not disputing paying for the care mum received. But what I’m disputing is the notice period.
“If it was planned, yes then expect notice. But this was unplanned.”
Margaret died on February 8 and in the weeks that followed Raymond noticed £1,005 had been taken from their account.
When they checked over the invoice from Helping Hands it noted that the family had been charged more than £400 for Margaret’s care on February 9, 10 and 11.
When the family quizzed why they had been charged for carers visiting the house to care for Margaret they were told they had to give notice, and told to check the terms and conditions.
They read: “Cancellation fee – we require 14 days’ notice to cancel care either on an HOURLY or LIVE IN basis. We are committed to paying our carers for calls cancelled at short notice.
“So, if care is cancelled without the required notice being given the first 14 days of care will still be invoiced. In the event of a customer passing away we will reduce the charge for the first 3 days after death.”
Liz said: “The carers themselves were fantastic. They did a really good job. This is to do with their invoices and terms and conditions.
“We complained and they have come back and are not budging. They offered their condolences. But to me it’s empty words.”
Liz explained that her dad had called Helping Hands to let them know Margaret died, and assumed that was all they needed to do.
The mum had “gone downhill” in January, which is when they recruited Helping Hands.
But, she quickly deteriorated.
Liz said: “My dad called Helping Hands straight away to say she had passed. They were due to come out on Friday and that weekend.
“Then we never heard anything. Normally, they would religiously send me a copy of the invoice on the Thursday with the date the money would be leaving the account.”
What to do if this happens to you
Care to be Different says you need to write a letter of complaint and invite the relevant Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to undertake a retrospective review for past periods of care where care fees have been paid.
As part of the process, the CCG should obtain all the relevant care home and medical records (usually hospital and GP records) and provide their own Assessment in the form of a Decision Support Tool.
Be patient as this could be a very lengthy process due to NHS understaffing and resources.
The company didn’t – instead just taking the money from the family’s account, to the disgust of Liz.
She said: “I phoned Helping Hands and there was no empathy. They just said ‘you signed the terms and conditions, we need 48 hours’ notice of stopping care’.
“They could see mum was in the last stages of her life. No family could give 48 hours’ notice of when their relative would die.
“Their argument is they still had to pay their staff. For me it’s not just about our family, it’s every family. Friends have said when their father died in a care home, they have charged them for the next month.”
The company has now offered to refund the full £1,000 for the care Margaret received – and what she didn’t.
Helping Hands told The Sun: “We have contacted Margaret Butler’s family to express our sincere condolences and apologise for any distress the situation has caused to the family at this very difficult time.
“We have refunded the full invoice value, and we are investigating why the invoice was not received in this instance.
“We are also reviewing our contract terms and how we process these in such unfortunate and difficult circumstances.”
It’s not unusual for people to be overcharged, or slapped with incorrect fines.
One man claimed he is now facing jail after being slapped with a £500 fine when he put a black bag next to wheelie bin.