Originally Posted by TomCopeland:
There are several issues raised in this thread I'd like to address.
First - Regardless of what you put in your contract about a provider not being liable for injuries to a child, this won't hold up in court. A parent can't give up her right to sue you. Besides, the child could always sue you. So, I would take out all such liability waivers from your contract.
Second - If a child is injured in your program, you are going to be held liable for the injury because you were the responsible adult. So, if the parent sued you for the ambulance fee you would be held liable. If the parent or the parent's health insurance company sued you for the child's medical expenses you would be held liable. Someone made a comment in this thread about a center not paying for an emergency visit by a child. Just because the center didn't offer to pay doesn't mean they were liable for the child's injury. If you had sued them you would have won. The center didn't speak up because they were hoping you would pay without complaining.
Third - Calling a parent before calling 911 can be a problem. We had a recent case in Minnesota where a 4 year old choked on a whole grape at a child care center and died. The center staff first called the parent and then 2 minutes later called 911. The center was sued and found liable for not calling 911 first. In this situation the child was obviously in peril whereas your situation was not life threatening. If there is anything approaching a life threatening situation you should not hesitate to call 911 first.
Fourth - All providers should have business liability insurance to protect themselves in this situation. You should not pay a parent voluntarily without checking first with your liability insurance agent. Paying the $100 ambulance bill could create a problem later if the parent decided to sue you for a lot of money because of health complications later on. Your payment would be considered a sign of admission of responsibility. (Yes, you are responsible, but paying voluntarily just complicates the issue against you later.) Whenever there is an injury in your program you should always contact your liability insurance agent to report it. They may want to do their own investigation. This can be extremely important later on if there is a lawsuit since this investigation can be helpful in reducing your liability risk.
I would treat the $100 ambulance bill as separate from what the parent owes you. In other words, I wouldn't reduce their bill by $100. The reason is that you don't want to do anything that might make the parent mad after their child was injured. It could lead to them making complaints against you to your licensor or try to sue you for medical expenses and more. I know that the parent owes you a lot. You should take them to court for this, if they refuse to pay. I would be somewhat careful about enforcing this until this injury issue is resolved.
So - if you have liability insurance, contact the insurance company and follow their advice about paying the ambulance bill. If you don't have insurance, pay the bill.
Tom
Here it is