Then tell your hubbie to change the mailing address.Quote:
Quoting celais
Does she have shared legal custody of the children? If so, she may well have a right to that info concerning the care and treatment of her child. If this is simply a bill, then this is something hubbie needs to address with his insurer or the doctor's office.Quote:
We have brought it up to the attention of our insurance company and even though we have the childs address as ours on our papers whatever address she chooses to give to the doctors is where the EOB are going.
And if he really is bent about this then HE can go back to court and stipulate in the custody orders that she forward all mail to him.
Many insurers want to see a local address ... they may not be comfortable billing a third party out of state.Quote:
However, it has been 9 months and we still never get bills unless we go online and check to see if the child has been to the doctor, because we never know if/when she has because we live a few states over and don't communicate with the ex
Until you can get a judge to act on her possibly violating a court order, this is a nowhere issue. No US Attorney is going to blink at an ex spouse looking at an insurance billing concerning the ex's child! It just is not going to happen.
- Carl
Opening Mail With Someone Else's Name
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10-19-2007, 07:21 PMcdwjavaRe: Opening Mail With Someone Else's Name
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10-19-2007, 07:23 PMcdwjavaRe: Opening Mail With Someone Else's NamePart of the problem might be that hubbie is out of state. I recall that when I was living in the north state and my wife and kids were still in San Diego, my insurer and the doctor wanted a LOCAL address - the address where the kids would be staying, and the person who would be responsible for their treatment. Even though they were covered by MY insurance, I was a few hundred miles away so SHE got the bills at her mother's house.Quote:
Quoting jk
- Carl -
10-19-2007, 07:48 PMjkRe: Opening Mail With Someone Else's NameI have a hard time understanding this as first of all, all an EOB is is what it states; explanation of benefits. It merely informs the policy holder of what was billed and what was covered at waht amount. It effectively informs the consumer of what they will be getting billed from the provider. It is not a bill. It does not benefit the mother unless she is required to pay part of the med bills not covered by insurance. Even then, I suspect she would need to have the courts direct the ex-hubby to provide such info rather than allowing her to open anothers mail.Quote:
Quoting cdwjava
OP already stated the ex wife is not covered by the insurance.
As to any legal entity getting involved? I suspect the postmaster general would investigate this regardless of damage. As in another thread, although there may be n damages, the fact is the law has been broken.
as to sending it to a local address; I live very near a state line and utilize med services in the state I do not live in. My insurance is contracted to a provider within my home state with their office at least a couple hours away (driving time). I cannot imagine them caring where they send anything as long as they are sending it to me as it is I they have the contract with and no other. Nobody else is legally entitled to the info contained in the EOBs from my insurer. It is based solely upon my contract with them.
OP claims they were not directed by the hubby to mail the info to the ex's home. As a matter of fact, they had already addressed this with the insurance comapny seeking the EOB's be sent to the hubby's address.Quote:
Doubtful. Besides, if the medical info was sent to the husband's listed address, then they did not violate HIPAA by sending it to where he directed them to.
but besides all that, I do not see this as a life changing event and OP should simply address this with their insurance company and the courts the next time they all get together there. OP had already stated the ex was given a verbal directive by the judge to refrain from opening hubby;s mail. -
10-19-2007, 08:22 PMcdwjavaRe: Opening Mail With Someone Else's NameEven if the letter of the law were broken, a prosecution for this would be a waste of resources and I cannot imagine a US Attorney anywhere in the US wasting his time with it.Quote:
Quoting jk
Prosecutors prioritize cases all the time, and cases that are not worth their time and effort are not pursued. THIS would be one of those.
OP also stated that it was no in any written order. Hence this is unlikely to be enforced. And unless the issuing court was in the same state where the ex currently lives, good luck and enforcing the out of state court order violation. Very few states will extradite from out of state for a misdemeanor court order violation ... and, depending on the OP's state, this may be a civil court order and thus knocked down a rung further on the ol' priority scale.Quote:
OP had already stated the ex was given a verbal directive by the judge to refrain from opening hubby;s mail.
I agree, hubbie needs to address the issue with the insurance provider or the medical offices doing the billing or mailing. Whoever is mailing it out needs to be spoken to, because it sure as heck ain't gonna get prosecuted.
- Carl -
10-19-2007, 08:29 PMjkRe: Opening Mail With Someone Else's Nameagreed, that is pretty much a given.Quote:
Whoever is mailing it out needs to be spoken to, because it sure as heck ain't gonna get prosecuted.
the point about the judges direction would only be applicable should they appear before the same judge and either he remembers or is given proof of the statement. Not intending to imply that it was a court order, I would think it may simply piss off the judge and cause him to be less accomodating of the ex-wife. -
10-19-2007, 09:56 PMMr. KnowitallRe: Opening Mail With Someone Else's NameThe USPS is concerned about what happens to a letter from the time it enters the system to the time it is removed from the destination mailbox. The Postmaster, receiving a complaint which states that nothing improper happened to a letter between the time it was placed into the mail and the time it was delivered to the destination address and removed by the owner of that mailbox, can be expected to reply, "This isn't our concern."Quote:
Quoting jk
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10-20-2007, 04:49 AMjkRe: Opening Mail With Someone Else's NameQuote:
Quoting Mr. Knowitall
sounds like since it was intended for the OP (per the name on the correspondance) so the ex is in fact breaking the law. The control of the postal service is not merely to the time it is placed in a postal delivery box but until it reaches the intended addressee. If this were a business situation, I would believe diferently since there is a right for a business to open all mail recieved at their address but this is personal correspondance at a private residence so I believe the business exception situation would not apply.Quote:
Sec. 1702. Obstruction of correspondence
Whoever takes any letter, postal card, or package out of any post
office or any authorized depository for mail matter, or from any letter
or mail carrier, or which has been in any post office or authorized
depository, or in the custody of any letter or mail carrier, before it
has been delivered to the person to whom it was directed, with design to
obstruct the correspondence, or to pry into the business or secrets of
another, or opens, secretes, embezzles, or destroys the same, shall be
fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 778; Pub. L. 103-322, title XXXIII,
Sec. 330016(1)(I), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)
There may also be state statute that would be applicable as well. Haven't been that worked up to research that possibility. -
10-20-2007, 07:08 AMMr. KnowitallRe: Opening Mail With Someone Else's Name
Mail is directed by virtue of the address on the correspondence. Have you ever received a letter addressed to a former occupant of your residence, or a misdirected letter intended for a neighbor? Do you think you committed a felony because you took it out of your own mailbox? Obviously not because (a) it was directed to you via your mailbox, (b) you have the legal right to empty your own mailbox, and (c) even if you ignore those facts you can't have the intent requisite to violate the statute before you know something has been misdelivered to you. Once delivered mail is lawfully out of your mailbox, by its plain language, that statute does not apply.
If the ex-husband wants the mail to be directed to him at a different address, he can take that up with his insurance company. The USPS can be reasonably expected to continue to deliver his mail as addressed by the insurance company. -
10-20-2007, 09:17 AMjkRe: Opening Mail With Someone Else's NameNot for removing it from the mailbox BUT if I opened it or disposed of it, then absolutely yes.Quote:
Do you think you committed a felony because you took it out of your own mailbox?
Would you consider reading the statute again. How could the statute address the OPENING of the mail unless it was removed from the mailbox?Quote:
Once delivered mail is lawfully out of your mailbox, by its plain language, that statute does not apply.
There never has been any argument on these points.Quote:
If the ex-husband wants the mail to be directed to him at a different address, he can take that up with his insurance company. The USPS can be reasonably expected to continue to deliver his mail as addressed by the insurance company.
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10-20-2007, 09:26 AMMr. KnowitallRe: Opening Mail With Someone Else's Name
Perhaps you don't understand the plain language, "before it has been delivered to the person to whom it was directed". As has been repeatedly explained to you, the USPS is concerned about the integrity of mail from mailbox to mailbox, but not even a split second after the mailbox owner removes his or her mail from the mailbox. Here, the mail was unquestionably delivered to the designated address, and was lawfully removed from the mailbox by its owner. That's the end of the line. There may be a state statute which applies at that point, but it's not a violation of the federal statute.
Let's say you take your mail out of your mailbox, and put it on your kitchen table. A burglar breaks into your house and steals a letter. You truly believe that would violate the statute or that the USPS is going to investigate?
You can keep hammering on this until you're blue in the face. It won't change the fact that this is not a federal offense.