Who Would be Responsible? cont...

[PAMommy1228]

I had made a post a few weeks back ( http://www.daycare.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19254 ) about a family who was going to give me their bill for the ambulance ride to the hospital. I was told by the husband that it wasn't much that it was only about 100 since insurance paid most of it. I was going to suck it up and deduct it from their bill. Well, I get the bill from them today, it's $1000 He must have missed a "0" lol


Anyway. On the bill it asks to have insurance information sent to them so they can deduct from there. So I am going to have them give me an updated bill to copy. But on top of that they charged $314 for miles to this particular hospital that the parents requested me to bring her to since the Grandmother works there. It's about 25 miles away from my house, but my contract says that I will go to the Hospital we have in town which is only 5 miles away. Would it be wrong of me to just do an adjustment on the miles since it was requested by them to go to that hospital?

[melskids]

if i remember correctly, doesnt this family owe you like $1000? i'd deduct that from the bill first

[PAMommy1228]

Originally Posted by melskids

if i remember correctly, doesnt this family owe you like $1000? i'd deduct that from the bill first

Oh, I am definitely doing that. But if the insurance company pays for some, and I deduct the extra miles, she still owes me money too. I know she gave that to me to pay, but I am just going to give it back to her saying I made a copy for my records.

[MarinaVanessa]

Yes I agree that if they asked you to take the child to a particular hospital because it was their preference and you state in your handbook/contract that the child will be taken to the local hospital then you should not have to pay the mileage fee from the ambulance bill.

Once their insurance pays their share of whatever they cover the parents can request and give you another copy of the bill of what they actually have to pay. From this amount I would deduct the ambulance mileage fee and then you can credit them from the amount that they owe you. Give them an invoice that spells everything out including the amount that is still owed to you and any payments that they've made towards it etc and why you are deducting the mileage fee and quote the contract and have the new total that is owed to you. This should work just fine.

[misol]

Originally Posted by MarinaVanessa

Yes I agree that if they asked you to take the child to a particular hospital because it was their preference and you state in your handbook/contract that the child will be taken to the local hospital then you should not have to pay the mileage fee from the ambulance bill.

Once their insurance pays their share of whatever they cover the parents can request and give you another copy of the bill of what they actually have to pay. From this amount I would deduct the ambulance mileage fee and then you can credit them from the amount that they owe you. Give them an invoice that spells everything out including the amount that is still owed to you and any payments that they've made towards it etc and why you are deducting the mileage fee and quote the contract and have the new total that is owed to you. This should work just fine.

This is what I think you should do as well.

[DCMomOf3]

Reread Tom Copeland's responce to your fisrt post, hat may answer some of this. My gut tells me you won't be able to adjust for the hospital choice, you agreed to send the child there.

[missnikki]

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