Oakton, Virginia · Child Support

When your child needs braces, a specialist, or an unexpected trip to the ER, the last thing you want to fight about is who pays the part insurance did not. Medical bills are stressful enough on their own. The good news is that Virginia has a clear way to split the costs insurance does not cover, so you are not meant to carry them alone. Let me walk you through how it works.

By Alisa Chunephisal, Esq. · Founding Partner, NOVA Legal Professionals

This article is one part of our larger child support guide. For the full picture, start with our cornerstone, Child Support in Virginia. Here, I will focus on unreimbursed medical expenses, the bills insurance does not cover.

Premiums and uncovered bills are two different things

It is easy to mix these up, especially when you are tired and the bills are piling on the counter. The monthly cost of the children’s health insurance is one thing, and it gets folded into the base support calculation. The bills insurance does not cover, the co-pays, deductibles, prescriptions, braces, and therapy, are a separate category called unreimbursed medical expenses. They are handled on their own, and simply knowing the difference can keep you from quietly missing money you are owed.

How the split works

The general rule is that unreimbursed medical and dental costs are divided between the parents in proportion to their income, the same income shares that drive the rest of support. So if you earn about 55 percent of the combined income, you generally cover about 55 percent of the uncovered bills, and the other parent covers the rest. It is designed to be fair, not to leave one parent holding the entire weight of a child’s medical needs while the other looks away.

What counts

These costs are broader than most parents expect, which usually works in a caring parent’s favor. They include doctor and dentist visits insurance did not fully pay, prescriptions, orthodontia, vision care, and often necessary therapy or counseling and other reasonable medical needs. If it is a real, necessary medical or dental cost for your child that insurance did not cover, it most likely belongs in this category, so it is worth tracking even the smaller ones.

How and when you ask for reimbursement

Most orders set a simple rhythm: the parent who paid gives the other parent the bill and proof within a set number of days, and the other parent reimburses their share within a set time after that. If your order does not spell that out, or the other parent simply will not pay their share, there are ways to enforce it, and you should not have to absorb costs that belong to both of you. We know that chasing a co-parent for money while you are caring for a child is the last thing you have energy for, so we try to make this part as straightforward as possible.

When the bills are unusually large

Sometimes a child has a serious condition or a bad injury, and the uncovered costs run far beyond the ordinary. Those situations can also factor into whether support should deviate from the standard guideline, because extraordinary medical needs are one of the recognized reasons a court can adjust the number itself. If you are facing something big and frightening, please know you are not without options, and the law does account for it.

We are genuinely on your side here

Few things wear a parent down like worrying about a sick child and the bills at the same time. So please hear this clearly: the law already expects both parents to share these costs, and you do not have to prove you are a good parent in order to ask for that. It is simply your child’s right and yours. You can read more on our unreimbursed medical expenses page. Oakton is part of Fairfax County, so these issues are handled in the Fairfax Juvenile and Domestic Relations court, or through the state.

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