I am not personally responsible. The bill is in her name. I am POA & can sign her checks, which I would do in this case. She does have enough in her account to cover the bill, with very little extra. I expect her Medicaid to be approved very shortly. Would paying the bill effect her Medicaid process? Is it better to wait for Medicaid to kick in? I don't want to do anything that might disqualify her. .. Also, I got a call today from her bank saying someone called their customer service department pretending to be me. They used my current phone number. Wondering if this was the nursing home, trying to find out how much money my mother has. I am not listed at this number, so only people who have gotten the number from me personally would know it's my number. Thanks for any help.
The bank call you got sounds like a hoax, or phishing scam. Never give out information to an incoming call.
Here's a poor summary of what happens. Crooks in caller boiler rooms make random calls introducing themselves, as an example, as an employee of Bank of America. "We're calling about your account with us." If don't HAVE an account with BOA, you'll say that, and the caller will hang up. But if you DO have one, you'll answer something like, "Yes, what can I do for you?"
Then they tell you about the suspected fraud, say they want to verify it's actually you -- they might ask for your social security number, your password, account number verification. You get the picture.
I hope you haven't fallen victim. I doubt seriously that the call you received was from your bank. Your falling victim is completely dependent on how much info you gave them.