Author Topic: Medical Bill Liability  (Read 5415 times)

KS Step Mom

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Medical Bill Liability
« on: March 09, 2013, 12:12:48 AM »
I know this is not the place for legal advice.. so this is a bit of a vent.

BM frequently takes the kids for medical treatments outside of our insurance coverage etc.  Sometimes things are covered. Either way, the divorce states that BM is to provide us with receipts after insurance had finished paying what they will pay. We have 30 days from the day we receive the "receipts" to pay our half. Early on, she provided us with receipts for every $7 prescription etc... so we paid them. She has not submitted a single receipt to us in YEARS and her lawyer just sent us a letter saying that we better start paying the medical bills and quit claiming that the "bills" were not submitted to us in time.

So my thought is that the divorce says she is to submit "receipts" to us for us to reimburse her half. It does not mention the bills being submitted to us.

Any thoughts on whether or not this will be viewed as us being petty?  I figure the divorce decree specifically says "Receipt" for a reason. So we always have reimbursed when she submitted a reciept.  She has not sent us a receipt (or a bill) in at least three years... so how can we be blamed for not paying? We're not refusing.. but we're also not begging her to send us receipts or bills. It's weird. Like we're expected to ask for bills when we've been told there was an expense. We did not initiate the medical service, so we don't know when it has gone through insurance anyway and when it is "due." She sends us nothing... but the lawyer is chastizing us and telling us that if we don't start paying, we will wind up in court. Paying what?

1) we dont get the bills, she does.. she does not send them to us or request payment.
2) the divorce says she is to present us with reciepts for us to reimburse our half.

What are they saying we are doing wrong? Not begging for bills? I'm not sure. I plan to respond to the letter and explain, verbatium, what the divorce says and to also point out that we have NEVER recieved any bill from her, or any doctor etc. AND we have not received any reciepts in over 3 years. So what are they talking about?

Sorry. I know I typed in circles there... but I got more confused the more I explained it.

Guru

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Re: Medical Bill Liability
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2013, 06:59:54 PM »
Been there, done that.  You can't pay bills you don't have.  It's also not the honor system here.  You're not going to take her word that her half was $150.  For all you know it could have been $5.  Technically if she doesn't send the items to you certified mail, return receipt, she has no proof that she sent them at all.  You can do what you like, but I can't see a judge ordering anything other than payment of the bills, and making a future order for receipts to be sent certified mail within 30 days.

You may also look at the orders, but sometimes it says the word "agreed."  This means that if this is some kind of elective medical treatment that BM decided was needed, you may not be required to pay anything because you didn't know about it, and you didn't agree to it.

Attorneys will commonly write nastygrams just like the one you got and will tell you they're going to request attorney fees.  Well, you can do the same thing for having to be there.  She is the one who disobeyed the order, so any out of pocket expenses are on her.