The New York Times published an article on 1/25/15 entitled "To collect debts, nursing homes are seizing control over patients." 

It described some nursing homes' attempts to gain legal guardianship over patients (and their money) to collect past-due bills.

According to the article, one survey of a decade's worth of guardianship cases in one urban region indicated that over 12 percent were filed by nursing homes. 

In the example the article gave to personify the issue, a NH patient's husband had disputed some bills and deferred paying while seeking a resolution, and the NH proceeded to file the court petition for guardianship. 

I found this not entirely surprising, but nonetheless chilling. Has anyone else encountered this phenomenon? 

Bernstein, N. (2015). To collect debts, nursing homes are seizing control over patients. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/nyregion/to-collect-debts-nursing-home...