Am I ultimately liable for medical bills?
I carry SD11 on my dental insurance. I have awesome insurance through my employer, so we chose to have me carry the insurance since SD is needing braces.
DH is required per the divorce agreement to provide dental insurance. I fulfill this by carrying her on mine. BM and DH are to divide equally what isn't covered by insurance and pay accordingly.
BM is not known for being timely with bill paying. I am anal about bills being paid on time and keeping my credit in good standing. I will have to routinely check with the doctor/dentist to make sure the account is current. BM is supposed to send us copies of bills, but I'm pretty sure she won't.
DH and I will pay our half. But if BM doesn't pay her portion, can the doctor's office come after us for the remainder? I'm assuming they can. If we end up paying the whole bill to keep from being turned into collections, can we get the money back from BM since she's supposed to pay it per the divorce agreement?
Thoughts or suggestions appreciated.
BTW, I knew up front that putting SD on my insurance could possibly be risky. But she needs a good policy. DH's insurance option for her is insanely expensive and covers barely anything and braces aren't cheap. I am willing to take the risks for SD's well-being. But I do want to know my rights and the best way to protect myself and DH.
It depends on the doctor's
It depends on the doctor's office. You can ask them what their policy is. They are used to this situation. I had two offices, practically in the same town. One would bill the other parent after half was paid by the first. The other didn't care. If you brought the child in, YOU were responsible for paying. Which doesn't work when the OTHER parent neglects to pay bills. If she doesn't follow the orders, you can file contempt charges and the judge can handle it.
I think if you work with the
I think if you work with the dentist and keep their office abreast of the situation that they will initiate collections against BM rather than you and DH.
But, ultimately they will try to collect from anyone who will write a check to clear the debt and it will impact at least your DHs credit. Though you are not the responsible party as the insurance holder you could end up with some or all of the liability.
We have gotten in to several knock down drag out battles with collections agencies who have continued to call our home because a former resident at that address had multitple collections actions against them. Our telephone # was different than the prior residents but that did not stop the collections companies from paying for our new number that was ........ UNLISTED!!!
We have also dealt with this issue for the portions of my SS's medical/dental costs not covered by the insurance that I provided ....my DW (we) and the SpermIdiot are each responsible for half of the uncovered med costs. We just kept sending a statement and copies of the bills to DickHead. HE refused to pay and we filed contempt charges. The judge rulled that any delay in payment of more than 2wks ARI would be subject to penalties and interest. So, we keep sending statments and copies of invoices (some from SS's birth) and we keep applying penalties and interest as defined by the Judge so it all ends up compounding. Dating back to $400 that DickHead owes my wife for delivery and hospital costs of my SS's birth through 18yo he owes us principle of $4000 on his half of uncovered med costs. With P&I he owes us more than $9000.00. So by his being stupid and not just paying the new charges when we first send them he will be looking over his shoulder for process servers either for trhe rest of his miserable pathetic worthless life or until he writes us a check. }:)
We don't care about the money but we send him by registered mail a statment and copies of receipts periodically so that the debt will not expire. We make sure to time a periodic process service delivery of the package to when he is just starting to get serious with a new GF. He lives in the same town he has always lived in and my wife's BFF's father is the police chief so we petty much know where DickHead is any time we want to know. We have had things served on him when is at dinner with a date.
When someone delivers him a new package we will get a call from SpermGrandMa ranting for us to leave "THEM" alone. We always tell her "you paid his CS for 18 years, you raise his three younger also oowl spawn by two more baby mamas in your home with no help from him, feel free to write us a check since he seems incapable of supporing his own children."
I know, I am evil but a life time of us bugging the crap out of him and publically humilliating him for beign a worthless POS will not make up for the toxic crap he dumps on our son or the drama he the adult members of the SpermClan have perpetrated on my wife and our family.
Though I am finding that now that my son is 19, in the USAF, self supporting, in college and not very interested in visiting SpermLand that I am losing my passion for barring the SpermIdiot's idiot ass. SS visits my family and my wife's family frequently but rarely visits the SpermClan though they live very near my ILs.
SO, I have fun with the whole situation. }:)
I would make sure that for any of the co-pays, etc.. that you pay her share of you immediately copy them, enter them in to a spreadsheet/statemetn, print it up and send it to her with delivery confirmation. Once she has established a history of nonpayment then request a hearing with the Judge who ordered your CO and petititon to have him apply penalties and interest on any outstanding balances older than XX days. Propose to the judge that the penalty and interest schedule the IRS uses for unpaid taxes be used. If all goes well you will own her ass in short order. You may never see a dime but this is great leverage for keeping the blended family oppostion under control and to use as a tool to protect your Skid's best interests.
All IMHO of course.
Thanks everybody for the
Thanks everybody for the comments/suggestions. They were all really helpful. I talked to the dentist's office this morning. You were all right. I am ultimately responsible if BM doesn't pay. Collections will come after me. Billing suggested that I call every month or so to make sure the bill is current. I will be doing that. If I/we end up having to pay BM's portion.....well, we'll just cross that bridge if and when we get there. At least now I feel a little bit more informed. Thanks.
We had to go one step
We had to go one step further. DH is required to carry insurance for SD. His plan is very expensive and not very good so she is on my insurance (her mother has PT job with no benes) They are to then split anything out of pocket. For years we had issue with BM changing the address every time she took SD to doctor or dentist. She has a long history of not paying bills on time (they get lost on her desk) We simply had discussions with both offices and now the file is marked to never change the mailing address without consent of DH. We scan all bills and email them immediately so we know she has received them. She has gotten better about paying but only after DH repeatedly calls her after following up with hospital, dr, etc to find she still hasn't paid!
Yeah, Taylore, you're
Yeah, Taylore, you're right.
But it's never been late to read good info like here, right?
THanks for this post!
Susana Pinkstone, manager of family tree maker