I'm not sure where this should be posted... overall question is; can a hospital treat minors without parents permission?


I received two medical bills from the hospital for my children. I called to find out what was going on as they hadn't been there. I was informed that their aunt, their fathers sister and who I don't get along with, had taken them to the ER and reported it as child abuse. She even contacted the sheriffs office so a deputy went to the hospital to take a report from the aunt.

I told the billing department that I didn't feel that I was responsible for the bills as I didn't even know they were treated, and certainly not for such erroneious allegations. After talking with them, they dismissed the bills all together and said they don't want to get into the middle of a family dispute. I'm wondering if they dropped them because they shouldn't have seen the children without a parents consent. I asked them the question about seeing minors but was told, 'I don't know the answer.'

Not that it matters with the question at hand, but abuse was never even followed up on. I contacted the sheriffs department myself after finding out about all of this to see out what was going on and was told there isn't an active case!

Any information would be appreciated.