Credit Reporting for child health services?

I have 2 children and have and am not married to their mother. While it was her allotted time to visit with the children, one became sick and she took them to the hospital. She did not pay the bill. Collections has come after me and reported a delinquency to my credit bureaus.


Is that allowed, how is it something she was responsible to pay, be reported on my credit????|||If you have joint custody, then you do have legal responsibility for children's health bills if the primary parent does not pay.



If you have severed custody of the children, or have never legally addressed custody, then you "may" be able to avoid responsibility. However courts in many states have placed financial burden on non-custodial parents in cases where children have outstanding bills. I presume mom has no insurance and took the kids to the hospital under Title 19. Title 19 bills in particular will follow a non-custodial parent. There are court cases where a mother has sued to sever custody rights with the father and STILL won garnishment against his wages for both child-support and medical expenses. There are even a handful of cases where the 'father' had proof the kids were not biologically his, crazy eh?



So yes, you don't have a lot of options here. Courts use a "what is best for the child" type of doctrine. You can get a lawyer and dispute the bill for around $800 in fees, but that's about all you can do. If the mother agrees to and you have not yet done so - you should legally formalize joint custody rights between you and the mother including a schedule of fiscal responsibility that details who is responsible for what expenses. Her lawyer will likely request setting up a child-support schedule if you do not already have one. Alternatively, you many get some kind of protection from future expenses by abandoning your parental rights which includes severing custody and visitation. Even if you do this, it is very difficult to avoid responsibility for child-support or expenses related to medical costs.



One other point comes to mind. You may be able to prosecute the mother for larceny, even though you are likely legally responsible for the bill. If she used your name and social security number without your permission, that qualifies as fraud/id theft in some states. This even goes for husbands, in some cases you can prosecute your wife for taking out a joint credit card on id theft grounds... This may give you a route to sue her and recovery the money, after you pay it to the hospital first unfortunately.|||credrepair.freeoda.com - use this service to predict how your credit score would change in future for various procedures of these payments.