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Old medical bills from adopted child?

982 Views 7 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  1growingsprout, 
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this is xposted from frugality/finances..the ladies suggested you ma'ams...

i love all my children and i dont love my neicea nd newphew who are now daugher/son any differently but....

Im at a loss here... and i hope i can get some unbiased thoughts... my dd and ds were adopted in april... their mother has been nice enough to send all the old medical bills to our care... they are addressed 'to the parent/guardian of child"... some of these go back 6 years or more... i love my niece/newphew but are we responsible for the old bills? it just really miffs me off she would go and do something like this... we took them on with no help from her and never ask for payments etc... basically she got to walk away.. no calls, no interaction nothing... now she goes and changes the billing info to us??

my gut says we are not responsible.. and while the bills are costly in the scope of things we can pay them w/o problem...

wwyd? they are bills at all different collection agencies.. some still at dr's offices... medical and dental... oh dear gosh....
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C
That's a good question for the adoption attorney.
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S
I would say that if the debts are this old and have been sold to another collection agency, there is no way that they can validate the debts or that you are responsible for them.
I would run this buy the adoption atty but I would say No
Amanda
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T
I too, would think no you are not liable. However, you mentioned dr. bills. Is this a dr. you will be taking the children too? If so, the dr. may want the bill paid before they will see the children. Just a thought.
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I
I wouldn't think you'd be liable since the bills came before the adoption but I'm no attorney. Your best bet would be to check with someone who knows the laws. I have to wonder what made the BM do such a thing. Have you tried talking to her? She sounds a little bitter to me. Maybe over the kids... maybe over the situation which led to it.
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C
I was thinking about this. Ok so the birthmom is the one who the bills are addressed to? she's the responsible party named on these bills....correct? So if they were to file any judgements it would go against her. They weren't your children at the time, you never signed anything agreeing to the charges. I don't see how you could be held responsible.

I do agree that if you wanted to continue with the same docs you may have some probs. But even there - they would probably understand. Their contract is with the parent not with the child. The bills don't go along with the children...they are under age and can't be held to any contract.

While you are the parent/guardian now...you weren't the responsible party then.

I still would contact the attny about it.

Be careful - don't go starting to pay them because they could have you on the hook if you send them anything at all.
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D
I think you got really good advice on this post already. I just wanted to say hugs to you and congrats on your growing family. I also want to say that I have no idea about your circumstances with the biological mom, but she might be angry and that's why she is sticking you guys with the bills. I guess it is called "passive agressive".
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1
DH and I decided to just shred them... they all have come addressed to the 'parent/guardian'... There were some family issues... the children lost their father a couple years ago... and he really was the glue that held the home together... for the past 2 yrs its been constant with CPS etc and h#ll for the kids... a bit of rebellion from mom... a bit of anger... maybe she just cant deal anymore i dont know ... but this is very like her.. unpredicitble

we love those kids more then anything... thanks for all the help.. and yes we also checked with the atty who handles our affairs and NOPE we are not responsible... toss them shred them whatever they re not our problem
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