Wiki Billing insurance/guarantors in divorced situations

[cschramski]

I am wondering if someone could shed some light on whether or not they have a policy in place when the policy holder (mom) demands her policy not be billed for a visit that the father brought the child in for. This has come up a few times where the parents are divorced and both have custody of the child and are able to legally bring them in to our office. One of the parents is the policy holder of the insurance and refuses to "allow" the other parent to use their insurance because they state they will bring them in "on purpose" to generate bills (if there or any) for the policy holder. The several times this has happened the parent claims they will call their insurance and "not authorize" the billing of the claim. We collect the co-pays at the time of service so whoever brings the child in pays that portion. In addition, we currently bill the insurance policy holder for any incurred charges (coinsurance or deductible). Just want to make sure we have the best evidence based policy in place.

Thank you for your help,

Christopher

 

[arieljones1995@gmail.com]

If both parents are able to bring the child in, I would bill both parents for each of the visits. Or maybe have a paper ready at the front desk for the parent to sign when they bring the child in that says they are responsible for any payments due for that visit as they are the parent that brought them in? This sounds like something they should speak about in court to define who is responsible for what.

 

[cgaston]

I believe who the insurance carrier is would be laid out in the divorce decree. So even in Mom says she doesn't want to "allow" it, if the divorce papers say that she is the primary carrier then she agreed to allow it when she signed her divorce papers.

 

[Chelle-Lynn]

We concur with Carol. In our office when this situation arises and the two parents are at odds we ask for verification in the divorce settlement noting which parent is responsible for providing insurance coverage and who is responsible for any balances not paid by the carrier. Based on this confirmation we proceed as required by the courts for billing and ultimate financial responsibility.

 

[rthomas@impcna.com]

We have in our financial policy that we do not get in the middle of divorce decrees. We make parent signs the financial policy the guarantor/responsible party.

 

[Stacieramsey]

Our practice is that any remaining balances are billed to the guarantor. In our system you can have multiple guarantors. The parent that brings the child in would be the guarantor account used for that DOS. That being said, We do not get involved in divorce disputes. We bill the correct active coverage according to COB.