What happens if you have gone through a divorce and your child has uninsured medical expenses? This could become a matter of attention when you have entered the divorce process with your spouse and child support is in the works. Uninsured medical expenses are usually figured in with child support and are medical expenses that are not covered by insurance. This means that your child could have prescriptions, co-pays, and medications that are not covered and you may not know what to do as the bills add up.
Uninsured medical expenses are “extraordinary” medical expenses under the law and are usually completely out of pocket. Child support orders will sometimes state that one parent has to pay a percentage of uninsured medical expenses and that the other party is responsible for paying the rest. This can be developed to follow your child support order. However, many states have guidelines on how medical expenses should be handled when it comes to giving support to a child.
How These Determinations Are Made
So, who pays? Many states require parents to follow what is called the “income shares model,” which means that parents will share the costs based on a proportion of the income they make every month. In other states, the noncustodial parent will have to share in the cost of the medical expenses when the medical expense amount exceeds the original child support payment. Usually, however, the custodial parent will have to give a reasonable time period before they request that money is paid for these expenses, unless they already have an order in place that states otherwise. This is due to the fact that nobody wants a week’s notice to pay a huge medical bill when they don’t make enough income to be able to afford it.
And what happens if parents disagree? What if one parent doesn’t think that the treatment is reasonable? That’s when they would take these matters to court so that a judge can determine the reasonableness of the medical services and whether or not the noncustodial parent should have to pay based on this.
If you have questions about how this system works because your child has experienced medical expenses due to treatment, we have answers for you. At the Law Offices of Amy M. Montes, we want to help you through your divorce in the best way possible. Call us for more information on how we can help.
