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Who is responsible for Medical Bills if not specified in CO

Started by marandksmom, Jan 02, 2010, 09:58:17 PM

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marandksmom

I am NC parent getting every other weekend and holiday time. About a year ago my child started complaining of tooth aches.  I looked at her teeth and one was obviously cracking off.  I notified the CP of this and was assured this would be taken care of. A few months later she was still complaining of the pain.  I took another look and the tooth was now almost half gone (this is a molar tooth).  I took pictures of the tooth for documentation purposes since we are going back to court on the 19th and I am filling for full custody.  I then called CP and advised that this tooth was now half missing and I would be happy to take her to the dentist if he would let me pick her up early one Friday.  He again stated that he would get it taken care of.  This was in September.  I have taken pictures of her tooth every weekend that she is here and as of last week it had still not been taken care of.  I get her the week before Christmas so I made an appointment with my dentist and took her in.  She had major decay and if this was a permanent tooth he would have done a root canal.  He got that tooth fixed and also put 4 sealants on other teeth.  She is covered under my insurance but the cost was $200 even with insurance.  I sent him text message advising of cost and would he like to split costs or how much could he pay.  He never responded.  I saved the message.
The day before the dentist trip I had to take her to MEA because she was running fever.  I asked him for her insurance information so that she could reap the benefits of being double covered.  He basically told me that if I couldn't take care of her when she was with me then he would come get her and he refused to give me any information.  Once again, she is covered under my insurance I just didn't see the reason why she shouldn't benefit from both of our insurance.  Also, it is not ordered that she be covered under my insurance but for her benefit I have her covered and because this has happened before and he refused to give her medical insurance information up, so I had her added to mine. When I sent her home, I included a laminated copy of my insurance card that he can use in the event that she needs medical attention.  I also sent him a message letting him know this and if he ever needed any information to just let me know. 
I pay $300 monthly for child support and have never been late.  My question is, if it doesn't state in our CO anything about who pays for medical bills then who is really responsible?  I have already paid the bills including meds and all.  I have a good job but I am by no means rich and having to pay $400+ on medical bills and dentist work and now I have $300 in child support all within a few weeks! That is almost half my income for the month.  I am due to pay him child support but I was thinking that I could just deduct for half of the medical expenses but I don't want to him to be able to say anything bad about me on Jan 19th when we go to trail but I need to be able to pay the bills as well.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

ShellyD

Definitely do not deduct the medical expenses from the cs. If it's not covered in the original order, then you may want to see of there is a state law that may cover it; but unfortunately you are in a position that's not in your favor unless you move to have the uncovered medical expenses split. Even then it would probably not retro to cover what you've already spent.

Keep documenting his neglect of these situations, hopefully that will help you at the hearing. It sounds like his mindset is definitely "you made the bill, you pay it." And the court may tend to agree (albeit unfairly, in some circumstances) unless you make an effort to include the medical in a revised order.