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Dr. Bills

libra2libra83's picture

My SO has a court order stating that both parents are to pay half of all doctor bills. We recently received a bill from BM that looked a little high for what we should have paid. When we called the doctor, we found out that BM felt justified to only pay a partial amount of her half, and was hoping SO would end up paying all of the remaining balance, since SO does not pay attention to stuff like that. When he noticed it, SO called her doctor's office to find out if he could get separate bills that were already split 50/50.

The doctor's office said they could not do that, nor were they able to send out two bills to two separate homes. You would thinks that at a time where 50% of marriages end in divorce,and people have children out of wedlock that they would have an updated system to be able to do this.

Has anyone else had a problem with this?

Orange County Ca's picture

Even a computer system would take time and effort to set up but its their choice and the customer/patient choice to go elsewhere if they don't like it.

Now its known that the mother will try and cheat the father. Father should tell mother what happened and that from now on she will have to send over a copy of the total charges for the visit - something the office should be willing to provide. It should show a balance due. I.e. Total charge $100. Paid on account $25. Balance due $75.
Father sends a check for $50 and that's the end of it for him.

If they're on a insurance plan the co-pay if any should be pretty standard.

lorlors's picture

What a complete joke. Like these BMs don't squeeze enough money out of the ex husband. My FDH and his ex BM were asked to attend the judges chambers to explain exactly what was going on with their property settlement and asked if he was being blackmailed as it was so in her favour. One of the most generous he had ever seen apparently. Yet she STILL cries poor mouth and asks for him to pay private skl fees from him.

I reared up about that one let me tell you. It isn't in their CO and he isn't obliged to pay.

Regarding the above drs fees- that's so dishonest and tantamount to stealing if it is meant to be 50/50.

learningallthetime's picture

Simple, tell the Dr. you will no longer be providing any payment unless you have all the bills for previous services and are sent a copy of future invoices. Tell them if they think BM will pay 100% they can enjoy that. Ask insurance for EOB of all previous visits, ask BM for all invoices. If none of them provide it, do not pay. Simply tell BM "you screwed up and only made a partial payment, and we noticed. Now you get new rules". Of course you could be more polite than this...

sickofitall's picture

We have 9 more months and SD21 is off the insurance. We could keep her on until 26 but we wont.
SD wants nothing to do with us or her 2 sisters. BM is everything and we have never done anything
for her according to her.

Co pays are split but we have to do mail order. She orders $60 worth of meds every 3 months and never pays it.
They will not send out more meds until balance is under $30 and cant be more than 30 days late,
My DD has a serious chronic disease that she has to have her medicine so I have to keep the account current.BM just keeps ordering and
they wont split the bills to her household. And with all the privacy rules we cant even ask any
questions about any of it but we are on the hook to pay it.

DH doesnt want to fight about it with only 9 months left but I have spent hours on the phone trying
to seperate our bills and they refuse! To me shes getting away with something as usual and I
cant stand it!!

onthefence2's picture

I lived in a small town where we had a hospital and another town 10 miles away with another hospital. One would accommodate, the other wouldn't. You might be able to find an office more accommodating.

Calypso1977's picture

i personally dont get why medical bills have to be split.

my fiance has to pay $500 a month to insure him and SD (and the BM, but once we're married she's off). If he didnt have to insure SD, he'd only have to pay $120 a month for a single plan. So right there its costing him $380/month in insurance. why on earth shoudl be have to split any bills? BM is only responsible for the first $250 - woop de doo.

Fortunately for us, she's a moron and has never asked him for his 50% portion and we certainly arent going to volunteer it up.

whoever pays the insurance shoudl not have to pay any co-pays, deductibles, etc. just like whoever pays the CS should get to claim the kid on the tax return every year.

there are just no breaks for dad!

SMof2Girls's picture

In my state, whatever is paid for insurance is factored into the CS calculation. If he WASN'T paying for it, his CS payment would go up to cover his share of insurance costs. So in theory, mom also pays a portion of insurance by receiving a lower CS payment. Make sense?

Calypso1977's picture

oh, maybe that's how it is here then...its so odd trying ot figure out what they include and dont include and their rationale on each!

SMof2Girls's picture

We're lucky in that BM receives free health care from her job (military) so it's not an issue/factor for us. But yeah, CS isn't the most straight-forward concept here either Wink