Father died, Large IRA, Even Larger Debt

My father passed in January.

He left me, his sole heir, a large amount of money in an IRA.

Apparently, he did not name me, or anyone, the beneficiary in said IRA. I don’t see how that’s possible, but that’s beside the point.

They’ve told me I now have to go through probate. Yay.

I do have a will, in which he named me the sole beneficiary, but we did not turn that into his IRA account before he passed.

Now, I am very worried because he has a huge amount of medical debt and credit card debt. He was in the hospital for almost 3 months before he passed.

The medical debts and credit debts could very well wipe out his estate.

I am hiring a probate lawyer, but

1. is there any way I’m not going to have to pay all, or such a huge amount, of his debt?

2. Can I still be named the beneficiary on the IRA account after death with the will, so that I can simply transfer the IRA to an inherited IRA? Or will it just have to go through probate no matter what?

Thanks in advance…

I live in Georgia, by the way.