Is DH financially responsible?
twinkl5379
member
I mentioned that H and I are moving, so we met w/ a mortgage counselor to see what type of loan we'd quality for.
H's credit report came back with an outstanding charge for SS's doctor visit over 2 years ago. H did not take him to this dr visit and didn't even know about it. BM takes him to all appointments, but he is on H's insurance.
My question is this... when she completes the insurance forms with H as the person who carries insurance, does this make him financially responsible even if he doesn't know about the dr. visits in the first place?
It makes me mad b/c H would've paid the outstanding $350 that BM apparently didn't, but he didn't know about it. It's certainly not worth a dropped credit score. And it worries me that she can take them to appointments, choose not to pay and then it affect my H negatively.
Re: Is DH financially responsible?
depends how your CO is worded.... unforunately sometimes all the t's need to be crossed and i's need to be dotted. has BM done anything like this before? or forgotten about it for a few months etc?
since the balance is so large, I would assume she either A) brought SS to a doctor that wasn't covered by insurance or
brought her to a specialist, in which case shouldn't your DH KNOW about an appt with a specialist?
if A) then DH should NOT be held responsible, but since BM never even mentioned it to DH she clearly isn't going to pay it so your choices would be to fight it in small claims court (which MIGHT get removed from the credit report) or just pay it and deal with it.
Also, isnt BM supposed to keep DH up to date on ALL doctors visits? technically if its in the CO that DH be kept up to date on all doctor apts then she is in contempt, which MIGHT mean she is responsible for the bill, but again that would have to be settled in court, unless shes cooperative. but since she hasn't paid the bill (I assume they are sending her atleast a monthly bill at this point and she probably received a notice that since it was uncollected they were sending it to a collection agency) I doubt she will cooperate...
My experience has been that any medical expenses are to be split 50/50. Now, if you know BM isn't going to pay her share (ours never does), document it by emailing her a copy of the bill with a due date or her share and when she doesn't pay by the due date, pay the entire bill and email her again stating that you've paid it and she needs to reimburse you for her portion. You may never get the money, but at least it will all be documented if you ever go back to Court.
Regarding the bill in collections, see of you can get a copy from the Dr. The $350 might be including penalties and late fees, which the Dr might remove. Find out if the billing is being sent to BM and if it is, how many times and when the invoices were sent out. Have your husband change the billing info to include your address to avoid this later on.
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What does the CO say? Mine states that I pay copays and XH is responsible for 50% of everything else.
If it's already on his credit report, he's already kind of responsible, kwim? In my experience, collections agencies and creditors are not interested in understanding that your ex-spouse is the one actually responsible for a debt. The exception to that would be if you have a CO clearly stating that YH is not responsible.
YH and BM seem to pretty often disagree on medical matters. Maybe if medical decisions is not something explicitly outlined in your CO, you could start the process for amending it.
If he wants to get it removed from his credit - yes, he is financially responsible. Unfortunately creditors do not care if it is fair or not.
However, medical collections are the least damaging to your credit. If your H contacts the doctor and asks if he can pay the bill, they will most likely accept payment and remove it from his credit. Make sure he contacts the original biller first, not the collection agency.
Document it all in case you are in court again, so you can having something written up that is more clear.
In the meantime, just pay it and move on. Taking everyone to court and paying laywers is probably going to cost you more than $350.
That's a good idea to chk with them to see if they tried contacting him. He plans on paying it and won't even ask BM for any money even though she's responsible for part of it per the CO. The money isn't the issue, it's that it's affected his credit that bothers us.
It may be easy to keep up with EOBs for most kids, but not for this SS. It's the one with autisum so we get TONS of EOBs - that are all denied. B/c even though our private insurance doesn't cover it, the therapy center still submits them all to insurance (I don't know why).
But this is the reason he is on the 2nd state insurance plan for $700/month premium. They cover everything our private insurance denies.
So I certainly don't fault H for not realizing insurance didn't cover something - they don't really cover anything! Tracking his insurance stuff would be a full-time job. H is always getting updates/notifications on legal things the therapy center is trying to put through. I stay out of it b/c it's so confusing and frustrating.
My H is not ignorant b/c he was unaware that his X-wife took his child to the dr. and left town with an outstanding bill of $350 that was sent to her.
He was never notified. He doesn't take an issue with paying the money. The problem is that she can take the kids to the dr, not pay and have it affect him negatively.
He's going to pay it himself without even mentioning it to her b/c he doesn't want to deal with any issues. But it's a crappy way it's all happened.
My H is not at fault. And to answer your question, they must not have sent an EOB b/c my H is not an idiot, so I guess he would've known had it come thru.
And here you go into your mode saying that my H such and his x-wife never does any wrong.
Why can't you just admit that the way it happened was sh*tty? My H found out that the bill went to BM, not him. She didn't pay it and she didn't inform my H that she took the kid to the dr. and had this bill as a result.
Yeah, it sucks that he must have missed one EOB among MANY, MANY EOBs that we receive. But it also sucks that BM chose not to pay the bill nor inform my H of the situation and the bill. Why can't you just admit that? Instead, you're saying it's all my H's fault. That's BS.