Guardianship or Custody

[LanceBabe]

My question involves guardianship in the State of: Virginia

What exactly is the difference between guardianship and custody, and which is better? My husband, myself, and our daughter have joint legal and physical custody of our granddaughter. They live with us and our daughter gets Social Security Disability benefits because of mental health issues, so both she and our granddaughter are on Medicare and/or Medicaid. Because she does live us, her social security benefits are not as much as they would be if she lived apart from us, but it pays for her cell phone and clothing for herself and daughter. We provide pretty much everything else. We wanted to put our granddaughter on our health insurance, but the insurance company said we had to have guardianship in order to do that, that having custody (joint or full) was not enough. We don't want to take our daughter's child; we just want to provide for her.

[Mr. Knowitall]

It seems very odd that the insurance company would find a custody order insufficient to include your granddaughter on your benefits. Have you discussed this with your H.R. department at work?

[LanceBabe]

Our insurance is with my husband's company. I'll have him look into it further. Thank you!