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Brother Passed Away, Hospital Bills, California

Hi there.

As stated in the title, my brother passed away. This was in February in Sonoma County, California. He was transported via ambulance to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was at his girlfriend’s short term rental (AirBnB or something like it as she’s a traveling nurse) when this happened and since they were a fairly new couple, alongside some other things that really aren’t relevant here, she did not know his home address, or our family’s contact information. She gave the hospital the address that she was living at the time.

My brother did not have a bank account, investments, etc.. My older brother and I paid for the funeral and all of the costs that come with it (release from coroner, cremation, etc.) and all of us just sort of waited to see what hospital billing might look like. Now those bills have come in and we aren’t sure what to do. To complicate things further, my deceased brother’s girlfriend has since moved from the original address and now that homeowner is receiving mail from the medical expenses. Their post master advised to continue “return to sender” when these come in, but now I feel terrible that this stranger is being dragged in to this.

While we could pull together and pay these bills, my parents certainly can’t afford it and they likely wouldn’t let my brother and I pay them out of pride.

I’ve since read posts here that we are not liable for these medical expenses as my brother has passed away and he has no estate to pull from. However, my question is, for the sake of getting this third party out of our mess, will calling to change the mailing address assume responsibility for the payment?

I’m sorry if this is a mess or hard to understand and I’m happy to clarify anything or give additional information that may help. Thank you in advance.

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Brother Passed Away, Hospital Bills, California

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