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Medical Bills-need suggestions/help

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panda88

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Pennsylvania

I am the step-parent. We do not have any visitation or custody at all of the child. My husband pays an outstanding amount in child support, carries medical insurance for his child, and also is responsible for 50% of medical bills that aren't covered by insurance which is fine. The problem is that he isn't being told about these medical bills. We have been building our credit to buy a house and recently our realtor suggested we get a copy of our credit report. Turns out the medical bills have been put on his credit report because they were in collections! Apparently, the medical billing practice of the doctor is to bill the main insurer to the child's address. Well the main insurer is my husband, however his child does not live with him. So his ex is paying her half, then waiting until the rest of the bill goes into collections, then sends it to Domestic Relations. Domestic Relations then contacts him and draws up a court order for him to pay them within 10 days which he does, and he would pay them sooner if he knew of them sooner! An example would be just in November we received bills from May. Domestic Relations said typically, the custodial parent pays the bills, then mails them in for the non custodial parent to reimburst them and it gets added to their child support. But...this isn't what is happening in this case. Apparently the custodial parent has 8 months to file any unpaid medical bills. Well a doctor AT MOST will only wait about 60-75 days before sending the bill to collections. There has got to be something we can do about this...does anyone know???
 


Just Blue

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Pennsylvania

I am the step-parent. We do not have any visitation or custody at all of the child. My husband pays an outstanding amount in child support, carries medical insurance for his child, and also is responsible for 50% of medical bills that aren't covered by insurance which is fine. The problem is that he isn't being told about these medical bills. We have been building our credit to buy a house and recently our realtor suggested we get a copy of our credit report. Turns out the medical bills have been put on his credit report because they were in collections! Apparently, the medical billing practice of the doctor is to bill the main insurer to the child's address. Well the main insurer is my husband, however his child does not live with him. So his ex is paying her half, then waiting until the rest of the bill goes into collections, then sends it to Domestic Relations. Domestic Relations then contacts him and draws up a court order for him to pay them within 10 days which he does, and he would pay them sooner if he knew of them sooner! An example would be just in November we received bills from May. Domestic Relations said typically, the custodial parent pays the bills, then mails them in for the non custodial parent to reimburst them and it gets added to their child support. But...this isn't what is happening in this case. Apparently the custodial parent has 8 months to file any unpaid medical bills. Well a doctor AT MOST will only wait about 60-75 days before sending the bill to collections. There has got to be something we can do about this...does anyone know???
Please have hubby sign up here. Thanks.
Blue:)
 

panda88

Junior Member
We would like to know the same! He isn't told anything about anything. Before we were married, we paid like $137 to file for shared custody/visitation and there was some mediation thing where the lady said we seem to be 'unstable'-because we weren't married, and we had moved as well as switched jobs twice within the last year. So she suggested we worked something out on our own. So they both agreed to do that. Well ever since we have gotten married, things changed drastically. He is told nothing about his daughter, he isn't allowed to see her, etc. So we are trying to become more 'stable' in the eyes of the court and then file again for shared custody.
 

Proserpina

Senior Member
We would like to know the same!



You answered your own question below:


He isn't told anything about anything. Before we were married, we paid like $137 to file for shared custody/visitation and there was some mediation thing where the lady said we seem to be 'unstable'-because we weren't married, and we had moved as well as switched jobs twice within the last year. So she suggested we worked something out on our own. So they both agreed to do that. Well ever since we have gotten married, things changed drastically. He is told nothing about his daughter, he isn't allowed to see her, etc. So we are trying to become more 'stable' in the eyes of the court and then file again for shared custody.


Dad frankly needs to get off his backside and file for an enforceable visitation order.

If he can't be bothered, that's on him. He is CHOOSING to not participate in raising his child. It's an active choice.
 

panda88

Junior Member
It is not that the custody thing doesn't bother him, that's just another whole big mess we are deciding how to handle ourselves. I'm sure we will need a lawyer when the custody issues come up but since my question is just in regards to medical bills, I thought I could get an answer regarding that. According to what domestics says, child support and custody aren't connected in any way so we are working on the custody issue ourselves, I just thought the medical bills would an easier resolution but if anyone has any suggestions on how to start the custody battle once again your suggestions are welcomed.
 

Just Blue

Senior Member
We would like to know the same! He isn't told anything about anything. Before we were married, we paid like $137 to file for shared custody/visitation and there was some mediation thing where the lady said we seem to be 'unstable'-because we weren't married, and we had moved as well as switched jobs twice within the last year. So she suggested we worked something out on our own. So they both agreed to do that. Well ever since we have gotten married, things changed drastically. He is told nothing about his daughter, he isn't allowed to see her, etc. So we are trying to become more 'stable' in the eyes of the court and then file again for shared custody.
If you actually had the nerve to attend a custody mediation, for a child that is not your own, then no wonder Dad has no visitation.
 

Proserpina

Senior Member
It is not that the custody thing doesn't bother him, that's just another whole big mess we are deciding how to handle ourselves. I'm sure we will need a lawyer when the custody issues come up but since my question is just in regards to medical bills, I thought I could get an answer regarding that. According to what domestics says, child support and custody aren't connected in any way so we are working on the custody issue ourselves, I just thought the medical bills would an easier resolution but if anyone has any suggestions on how to start the custody battle once again your suggestions are welcomed.


Get Dad to sign up. Please.

with his child support order in his hands.
 

panda88

Junior Member
And again, my question is in regards to MEDICAL BILLS, not custody. I will post a thread about custody...on the custody portion of this website later on when we get to that point in the case.
 
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