hospital looking for money after patient is dead

my father was a patient in a dublin hospital and transfered to a nursing home 4 years ago he looked after his own affairs until his death 2 years ago im his executer and have recieved a bill from a billing agencey for a large amount i explained he was dead and was told later the account was closed yesterday i recieved another bill once again i was told it was closed but they would investigate with the hospital involved i have given the money to his heirs and have no way of retriving the money surley they cant come looking for this money 4 years later help

If he had a medical card , then they would not be entitled to ask for the money back.

If he had no medical card and no medical insurance then, they are entitled to their money. I dont think it works the way it used to work years ago - that if you die all your bills die with you.

I assume that there is no assets left in this name ? so there would be no way for them to get the money back. In fairness though if they treated him well and looked after him while he was ill then some sort of contribution should be made to pay off part of the bill even if it is only a small sum.

if i had known at the time of his death there was a bill from the hospital i would havve paid it can they make me pay it as his executer 2 years after his death

It is the responsibility of the executor to find out who is owed money from the estate and to pay it. To be unaware of a debt is not, in itself, a defence.

Your defence is the publication of a Statutory Notice to Creditors. If you have done that, you are home free (See http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1965/en/act/pub/0027/sec0049.html ). If you have not, then you have a problem.

i brought all bills into solicitor for the decesed would he have published statutory notice to creditors

asdfg said:

i brought all bills into solicitor for the decesed would he have published statutory notice to creditors

Click to expand...

Probably, if he was assisting you in dealing with the estate. So your obvious next step is to ask him.

But I think that the moral issue overrides and legal "out" here.

Your father was cared for by the hospital and would have wanted to pay his bills.

You should contact those who received the money and ask them to return sufficient to pay the bills.

Otherwise the taxpayers pay the bill for your father when he should have paid it himself.

Brendan

Brendan said:

But I think that the moral issue overrides and legal "out" here...

Click to expand...

I am in sympathy with that point of view, but OP told us that the estate was distributed and there was no way of retrieving the money. I was taking that at face value.

If there were no protection for executors other than waiting until all possible claims were statute-barred, then we would have a lot of people refusing to act as executors and large numbers of disgruntled beneficiaries.

padraig i have decidedto take your advice and contact solicitor thankk you all for your advice