My Friend Needs to Get Medical Insurance Info for Her Kids from Her Ex

Dear Monika,

At my job the laborers are Teamsters & on a regular basis I receive forms (from the state)asking for coverege details of the minor children of divorced employees---I give them all the details of the Teamsters Union & forward it on. The form is from the office of child support so you would not require an attorney. I would suggest going this route & then everything should be covered, she should really be informed of her childrens medical coverage & I feel this is the best way to do it.

Yes. When men are being JERKS they can stroke you around plenty. The union makes it worse. You can probably get the IRS papers from last year to prove what he made.

I am not sure where your friend lives, but most larger cities have a free or reduced fee legal group for people that cannot afford a lawyer for very real problems. In Waukegan it is Prairie State Legal Services at ###-###-####. If they can't help her, they may be able to refer her to someone who can. Some great suggestions by other mamas, by the way, but sometimes finding the right person to fax anything to anywhere can be very hard. There is an Insurance Commissioner in the state of IL that investigates all problems with insurance companies, so it is always helpful to get the name of anyone (with their last initial), the exact time and day you made the call (most insurance calls are recorded), and write down exactly what they said to do. Many times if you are given a hard time, just mentioning that you will seek help from the Insurance Commissioner is all that it takes for them to "see the light" and want to help you. If not, simply call the IC.

I would urge your friend to get a consult from a lawyer - 1st is usually free. If insurance is part of the divorce decree and he is not abiding by it HE HAS TO PAY FOR HER LEGAL FEES. There is also a child support enforcement agency in will co. that could probably help with it at either n/c or possibly free. They also help find lawyers too.

Good luck!
I have to put my 2c in what a slime if he is not willing to give the insurance info. It's to benefit the kids.

The ex may be in contempt of the Divorce decree. If he is required by the Decree to provide the insurance -- and he is not providing ...
1) Send him a written request with a deadline date (2 wks) for the information -- send it 'Certified Mail' with return receipt.
2) Send a copy to his attorney.
3) If 2 weeks pass, go to the Courthouse and file a contempt of court order. You may need an atty - or you can represent yourself, although it isn't easy. Get a book at the library - get the forms from your county courthouse.
4) He can either give you the information - or explain it to the Judge.
Dear XXX
Please be advised that in accordance with the Divorce Decree dated XXXXm XXm, xxxxx, Article X, Number X -- the following information on the medical insurance for XXXX is needed by XXXXX, 2009.
1) Name of insurance
2) Policy #
3) xxxxx
4) xxxxx

This information is required to provide and continue to provide the necessary medical attention.

If he doesn't respond, send another letter to show 'good faith' --- the Judge will view you in good favor if you act nuetral and fair.

The second letter should add: Failure to provide this by XXX, XXX, XXXX will force me to hold you in Contempt of the Divorce Decree.

Signed, Mom-whose-been-there

Hi Monika...I thought I would give you the opinion from the other side. I have a step-son and my husband has to supply the health insurance for his son. We give his ex a copy of her own insurance for his son and let her know what Drs she can take his son too. They are also to pay 50/50 of whatever the insurance doesnt pay. Now if he didnt do this, then he would be in contempt of court because he wasnt following the court order! What she can do for free is just call the States Attorney's office or the Family court in her county and tell them what is happening. This will be free of charge for her and she can request that her ex pay for the court cost because he isnt following the court orders. At this time she can also change the papers for her to carry the insurance like someone else stated and for him to pay 100% of whatever the insurance doesnt cover since he didnt follow the court order to begin with and since it is now being taken out of her check because he wouldnt provide the insurance information to her. This is a serouis issue, not only because he is hurting his kids, but because he has gone against court orders. Good Luck to her and Happy Holidays to your family and Hers.
K.

I know there is a program thourgh the county where you can obtain an attorney for free. Each attorney is required to take on cases pro bono. My girlfriend did it for her divorce. My sister also went through the same thing. You can try contacting his employer to obtain the info. If they don't help you an attorney is your only recourse. It's too bad these men cannot realize that they are only hurting their children. Since he is supposed to supply health insurance, have the hospital send the bill to him. He is considered the guarantor. That worked for my sister.
Barb R.

Small claims court. It gets results the fastest.he will have to fork over that info and pay a portion if not all of that bill. Also legal aid services (free legal) they will help in pulling him back into court. THAT'S VITAL INFO THAT HE SHOULD NOT HAVE PURPOSELY WITH HELD FROM HER.

Have her contact Kidcare - in Illinois, also her social worker at the kids school. They can help her with information... Another great resource is WINGS - and the local community college.. they have a womans center and can help her.. At the local colleges, they have free legal help...certain days and times.. she will have to have determination, and be flexible... life is hard.. but there are many ways and people to help. She also needs not to give up on the insureance.. per

sistance is what will help her with that. Also she needs to know where she can go under her primary.. and that is where she will have to go to avoid anymore problems like this.

I hope this is helpful- I will say a prayer for her.

If she is in Illinois, go to www.illinoischildsupport.com. They will be able to send an medical support order to the employer.

This is from their website "Whether or not you already have a court order for child support established, the Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) is here to help you. In addition to establishing paternity for your child (if necessary), locating the non-custodial parent, and obtaining/modifying a child support order, we use various methods to collect the basic support your family deserves at no cost to you. By signing and returning the the Child Support application, we can get started."
We can:
Send an income withholding notice to the non-custodial parent’s employer for payroll deduction;
Send a medical support notice to enroll dependent(s) in health insurance coverage.

Dear Monika,

I am divorced as well. If your friend has "certain" information the insurance company should/will be able to give her some information. As for the employer of the ex...that is a little sticky because she isn't the employee.

If she has her ex's soc.number still, the date that the child was taken care of, other dates or situation that the child was at the doctors office as well. By telling the person over the phone that she is the mother and obviously with the information she would be giving him/her would let them know that she is the concerned parent.

I don't know what she is seeking for but by law your ex has to provide info for insurance and your friend should have an insurance card.

I do understand that a lawyer at this time is not a priority but I would contact the lawyer (if she can) that took care of the divorce. Nicely mention it to the secretary etc....to double check her thoughts or questions.

I would still try to get ahold of legal advice of some sort but it doesn't have to be a major situation.

She may want to check with the hospital and ask them how to remove her from the insurance claim and submit everything to the father. That is another direction to go.

Good luck and hope all turns out okay.

Heather

Do you know if a certified copy of her divorce judgement, that the judge signed, has ever been faxed to the insurance company? If so, they have to legally pay the claim but it could be they never received that. I know my ex wouldn't have done it had I not.

If their divorce judgement states her ex is to provide insurance and she doesn't have the information necessary to file claims, then she can also file a petition with family court. You don't need a lawyer to do this, and it will only cost her time, and the filing fees. Her ex will be served papers and if he doesn't appear, is in contempt. She can go before a judge and discuss the insurance issue and he will be legally ordered to provide her what she needs.

If her ex is with Teamster Local 142 out of Gary and has Teamcare insurance through BCBS of IL I can give her phone numbers. Let me know.

Monika-

If the hospital can find out the by the childrens' SSN's they have other health ins coverage they can find out what that ins. info is. There are a few online services that they can use to get this info one of the services is called Ecare and a lot of medical billing services use it. You as a person can not use this...but it is a useful tool for the medical billing community. She should not be stuck with a medical bill that there is coverage for. If she has her ex's SSN try giving that to the hospital billing staff and they can use this to locate the other coverage policy numbers and billing addresses.

I am sorry I re-read the post and looks like they already used this type of online billing tool at the hospital. Regrettably this will have to be handled in the courts. If the Ex is responsible for health coverage and is refusing to provide the info and if it is in the divorce decree...I would make darn sure he has to pay for all legal fees too for taking him back to court....an attorney can request that at any hearing you are calling him back to court for due to his reluctance for giving up the information.

If she does not have a lot of money she might be able to get a public defender at no cost to her.
She also can call find out a lot of information right on the internet to what is available to her.
She also could go it alone and not get a lawyer and hall him into family court and ask the court to force him to give over the information.

Those are 3 viable options wise your friend the best.

She needs to carefully go over her latest agreement papers that she arranged with her ex. If it states in there that he is required to carry insurance on the kids, then she can go to the ciruit clerk and have them supply her with pro se' paperwork to ask for enforcement. Requiring him to supply the cards and permission to be forwarded to the insurance company so that all claims can be paid. As far as the bill goes, if she does have all of her eggs in a row and the papers do state he is responsible to carry insurance and did not give her access to it that he would have to pay any bills that have occured as a result of this. Small claims court is not too hard to do and should get results.

Your friend can go through public aid to get an attorney for free. Also, If it is in their child support/divorce decree that he is suppose to provide insurance for the kids than he is in contempt of court and he will have to pay for all of her court and lawyer fee's. Unfortunately, I have to disagree with you and your friend on one point. At no time should "finances" hold her back from making sure her children are cared for properly. I have had to go and get a part time job to pay for fee's when I had to take my ex to court for child support. This issue with the insurance will cause her stress and anxiety which will wear her out as well as impact the emotional well being of her children. If she can't find an attorney who will serve for free, then tell her to find one that will let her make payments past the retainer.

He legally has to provide that info to her. He's hurting his kids by not providing it! If she can't afford an attorney, she can still call or write to her county's juvenile prosecutor's office. I would call first just to make sure I'm contacting the right office, and then send a letter if needed. But either way, she needs to contact them to see if they can send him a letter letting him know if he doesn't turn the info over immediately (date specified), they're going to proceed with establishing a court date. Or maybe they'll just make a court date without giving him that option. The battle of the exes is very hard, and it's even harder on the kids. I wish your friend luck!

M.
www.spiceglamup.com

I did have this problem. The insurance wouldnt give me any info because it was under my ex name but the drs I took her to always billed me because my daughter lived with me. A real catch 22. By law my ex had to give me insurance info and I just contacted the court house- got a mediator- I believe that cost 100 each. Eventually I got him to sign papers that I would provide the insurance but we still had to split the bill 50/50. Of course we went back to court mulitple times because he wouldnt even do that. my daughter is 20 years old now and he still is a jerk when it comes to anything. They just think of it as a power trip. One would think after years of divorce they would get over it. Merry Christmas!