Health Care
Medical Enforcement
The FOC is mandated to enforce orders for health-care expenses; similar to the way the office enforces for child support. The FOC follows the language of the Uninsured Health-Care Expenses provision in each court order.
Ordinary Medical Expenditures
The government has determined that it takes $454.00-for one child, $908-for two children, $1362-for three children, $1816-for four children, $2269-for five or more children per year to provide the medical care they need (this is for co-pays and deductibles, not vitamins, Band-Aids, or over the counter medications). Each party has to pay their portion of the $454.00-for one child, $908-for two children, $1362-for three children, $1816-for four children, $2269-for five or more children per your court order. The following example is used for “easy” math and does not reflect your particular case. You will need to substitute your percentages from your most recent court order to determine your responsibility. This annual ordinary medical amount is on a calendar year, from January 1 to December 31. Each January 1st the full amount is due again. If the court order takes effect after the first of the year, the amount owed would be pro-rated for the portion of the remaining year.
Example:
- If the recipient of support had medical bills that total $550.00, they would need to provide the other party with copies of the medical bills and proof of insurance payment and/or denial of claim. The recipient of support would subtract their annual ordinary medical amount of $454.00 for one child from the total medical bills (the parties must each pay their portion of the annual ordinary medical amount before collecting from the other party). The recipient of support in this example must subtract the total medical bill expenses of $550.00 from their annual ordinary medical amount of $454.00 for one child, leaving a balance of $96.00. The recipient of support would only be able to file a Request for Health-Care Expense Payment on the $96.00 balance, which would be collected based upon the percentages in the order. Using the example above, if the percentages are 50% and 50% the payer of support would owe the recipient of support $48 (50% of the uninsured health-care expense).
*NOTE: REVIEW YOUR COURT ORDER FOR THE ANNUAL ORDINARY MEDICAL AMOUNT. THE AMOUNT SHOULD BE LISTED ON PAGE 2 OF THE UNIFORM CHILD SUPPORT ORDER (FOC10), INCLUDED WITH YOUR COURT ORDER.