#Parenting #LegalRights #HospitalConfusion
Hey fellow parents! 👋 Have you ever faced a situation where a hospital designated someone else as the responsible party for your child without your consent? I recently found myself in this predicament and am looking for some advice on how to navigate through it.
Here’s my scenario: My son’s dad carries primary insurance, while my husband (bonus dad) carries secondary insurance for the family, which includes my son. Despite me being the primary caregiver and the one who has always taken my son to appointments, the hospital has designated my husband as the responsible party, causing me to be unable to access information about my own child.
🔹 Has anyone else experienced something similar?
🔹 How can a hospital legally assign responsibility to someone with no legal ties to the child?
🔹 Any tips on how to rectify this situation and gain access to my son’s medical information?
One possible solution that comes to mind is to:
1. Reach out to the hospital’s administration to clarify the situation.
2. Provide proof of legal guardianship or primary caregiver status.
3. Seek advice from a legal professional if necessary.
I would appreciate any insights or advice you could share on this matter. Let’s help each other out! 💬 #ParentingIssues #LegalAdvice #FamilyHealth
Location?
“responsible party” on medical forms just means the person who has the insurance.
Are they preventing you from accessing your child’s medical records. Can you be more clear on how this is a problem?
I work in health insurance, not a lawyer to be clear, and this is typically just language used by providers to designate who is primary insurance. It doesn’t generally confer responsibility but if you wanted to make it extra clear you could likely ask them to note on the account who is primary caregiver. It’s not clear this is causing any actual issues from your post, and to be honest with coordination of benefits, if they’ve already got it handled correctly from the insurance perspective, I probably wouldn’t muddy the waters.
I work at a hospital in medical billing. The guarantor on the account (responsible party) should be whoever brings the child in to be seen and signs the documents that agree to be billed for the expenses.
The father’s holding the insurance should have nothing to do with the guarantor on the account. They would be the subscriber for the insurance policy.
The step father did not sign agreements in order to be the guarantor and be the responsible party for the remaining bill therefore they have no legal standing to send him a bill. This is how my hospitals handle billing in PA/NY. I would definitely look into this further.
Contact hospital Patient Relations