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Parent's Responsibility for Medical Bills

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  • 07-10-2009, 01:05 PM
    wecare
    Parent's Responsibility for Medical Bills
    My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: Mississippi

    The father of 2 children lives in Illinois and provides health insurance for his children who live in Mississippi with their mother. She, of course, takes them to the doctor in Mississippi and signs for their medical care. The mother does not pay the balance on the medical bills, in some cases no one has even made sure that the insurance company has been properly billed and paid their portion of the medical bills. Some of the claims are now several years old, too old to be submitted to the insurance company and now the medical office is harrasing the father for payment and has sent him to collections. If he did not sign for their medical care and was not included in the billing process is he legally responsible for these bills?
  • 07-12-2009, 09:15 PM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Parent's Responsibility for Medical Bills
    The child custody order is out of what state? The child custody order assigns what responsibility for uninsured medical bills? If the mother's not paying her court-ordered share, dad can seek recourse through the custody court.

    I haven't found any authority making a parent responsible for payment for medical care contracted for by the other parent, but that doesn't mean that it's not out there somewhere. States typically do allow collection for a minor child's medically necessary care against the parents.
  • 07-14-2009, 07:27 AM
    wecare
    Re: Parent's Responsibility for Medical Bills
    Quote:

    Quoting Mr. Knowitall
    View Post
    The child custody order is out of what state? The child custody order assigns what responsibility for uninsured medical bills? If the mother's not paying her court-ordered share, dad can seek recourse through the custody court.

    I haven't found any authority making a parent responsible for payment for medical care contracted for by the other parent, but that doesn't mean that it's not out there somewhere. States typically do allow collection for a minor child's medically necessary care against the parents.

    The child custody order is out of the state of Illinois and it orders a 50-50% responsibility split between the parents of the remaining medical bills once the insurance has paid. The father doesn't have a problem with paying his 50% but the problem is that he had not been billed for his 50%, the mother hadn't paid her 50% AND the physicians office is sending the father to collections for the entire amount. Our question is whether or not they can send the father to collections. Since he didn't sign for the care shouldn't the mother be the one who is dealing with the daily harrassing phone calls from the collection agency and the one whose credit score is taking the hit for this? Thanks for your help.
  • 07-14-2009, 07:35 AM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Parent's Responsibility for Medical Bills
    As I said, I haven't found any authority for Mississippi. I suggest trying to get a free phone consultation with a Mississippi family lawyer, who can probably answer this off the top of his head.

    Your spouse can protect his credit by paying the bills, then seeking 50% reimbursement through the Illinois court; although I don't know the amounts involved to assess if that's feasible.
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