I was wondering if anyone here has dealt with this problem. This is long and complicated so I will try to shorten it. My husband must and has carried medical insurance on his child per the divorce decree (finalized in 2001). The problem is when we send the ex insurance cards she "loses" them. She has taken his son to the ER at least six times in the past 7 monthes. My husband believes that the ex doesn't want us to know any information regarding the child and using his insurance would make us privy to hospital, Dr. visits, etc. The one and only time we were told about the child being in the hospital hubby contacted the hospital and gave his insurance info to be used as primary coverage.
However, it was not used at all, hospital advised us that ex wanted to use her insurance b/c ours is out of coverage area and her expenses would have been very high. Her lastest stunt has back-fired on her. She has been turned over to a collection agency because she isn't paying the balances owed on the hospital bills. So she has informed the collection agency to contact us because we are supposed to carry insurance on the child.
We do have a very good attny working on a contempt case (with the insurance being one of the many issues) and she will be served shortly. We just wanted to know if anyone has dealt with this situation before.

Thank you

I do know that it is not too late to give the hospitals the insurance info. They can bill the insurance up to a year. The collection agency will never tell you that. But if you get anymore calls, Fax the insurance cards to the hospital with a letter requesting they bill the insurance.
If the insurance denies the claim bases on it not being presented in a timely manner, that would be good evidence in court!
Btw, you can have 2 insurance carriers for a child. The mom can request that her's is primary and yours is secondary. (the second one might cover any deductables or co-pays left over from the other.)

Does your stepson have some kind of serious illness where he would need to visit the ER 6 times in 7 months?

Stuck: We have tried this and mom cancels our insurance out, my undertanding is by telling hospital not to use it. Attny has told us not to worry about it, but he well send the new insurance card when we get it.And hospital has told us that she signed so she is responsible. The hospital actually works pretty well with us, but "gives" us no information. She has defrauded the government in tow different states and our attny has proof, this is just more info to help our comtempt case. I guess I don't understnad how a mom could do this to her child.


Missing: No medical reason. This is why my husband believes that she isn't using the insurance. Yes we are suspious (sp?) as well. When I called the hospital this last time I was told that I couldn't get info on the child since I was the step-mom, but that "the bills should be the least of our concerns based on the diagnosious" (sp?) . I have turned all of this info over to our attny. Unfortunatley we can only do so much as we are in Georgia and she is in Florida. My husband is in the process of getting the hospital records from the hospital to give to ur attny.

Stuck: We have tried this and mom cancels our insurance out, my undertanding is by telling hospital not to use it. Attny has told us not to worry about it, but he well send the new insurance card when we get it.And hospital has told us that she signed so she is responsible. The hospital actually works pretty well with us, but "gives" us no information. She has defrauded the government in tow different states and our attny has proof, this is just more info to help our comtempt case. I guess I don't understnad how a mom could do this to her child.


Missing: No medical reason. This is why my husband believes that she isn't using the insurance. Yes we are suspious (sp?) as well. When I called the hospital this last time I was told that I couldn't get info on the child since I was the step-mom, but that "the bills should be the least of our concerns based on the diagnosious" (sp?) . I have turned all of this info over to our attny. Unfortunatley we can only do so much as we are in Georgia and she is in Florida. My husband is in the process of getting the hospital records from the hospital to give to ur attny.
Your husband is doing everything he's court ordered to do AND since the ex has willingly taken on the full responsibilty of the medical payments, your husband has nothing to worry about as far as the financial end of things.

However, it sounds like there might be a bigger problem- his son's health. 6 trips to the ER in 7 months is alot, and that alone raises doubts about how well ex is caring for the child. I'm glad he's getting the medical records, there might be something in them that can show what the problem is. Please update us when he finds anything out.

Xena,

You are from Florida right? Maybe you can answer this question for me. What are the hospital policies pertaining to reporting child abuse? When I spoke to the lady in billing I asked her why my stepson's accounts weren't linked to each other and why the hospital hasn't contacted DSS or whatever it is called down there? She said it was because each visit was given a different billing number. I don't understand, b/c here in Georgia the accounts would be linked somehow and a couple of visits would be all it takes to contact DFACS and open an investigation.

Thank You

You can always report it yourself...

I need to address one thing that I didn't see mentioned here. The mother MUST provide ALL insurance information to the doctors (er, pediatrician, whomever) unless she is not using any insurance at all. When a person is covered by 2 insurance policies, BOTH policies' information has to be provided.


Your husband really has nothing to worry about (other than the fact that his child seems to become easily ill so often.) And as Stuck said, you can contact CPS (fill in the appropriate acronym). Actaully, if you suspect abuse or neglect, you HAVE to report your suspicions.

Xena,

You are from Florida right? Maybe you can answer this question for me. What are the hospital policies pertaining to reporting child abuse? When I spoke to the lady in billing I asked her why my stepson's accounts weren't linked to each other and why the hospital hasn't contacted DSS or whatever it is called down there? She said it was because each visit was given a different billing number. I don't understand, b/c here in Georgia the accounts would be linked somehow and a couple of visits would be all it takes to contact DFACS and open an investigation.

Thank You
As far as the requirement to report suspected abuse in Florida:
Every one working in the health care field is REQUIRED by law to report suspected abuse. The problem comes in when the "evidence" of abuse is very minor, then it is up to the individual to decide if it's enough to report or not.

In some hospitals the visits are automatically linked by the computer, but not all hospitals have the programs for that, nor is it required by law.

I agree with you, it is much better when it is all linked because things like excessive ER visits would be noticed sooner. I agree with the others though, if no one else reports it you can.