
I’m not the “custodial” parent.
Sometimes, it puts me in an interesting bind.
Yesterday was one such day. It takes some history to understand and the story takes many strange twists and turns. Bear with me if you can.
According to my divorce decree I am responsible for the insurance and 50% of the medical expenses for my two children.
My oldest child was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder when she was about 8 if memory serves correctly.
I don’t really like ADD. I distrust the diagnosing process and it’s awfully suspicious that doctors and pharmacies are making major dollars off of this “disease” that seems to be over diagnosed and expensive to treat. But, let’s assume that I agree with this diagnosis. She definitely is a bit scatter brained. I just prefer to blame it on a highly evolved thinker that easily gets bored at school. It must move on to more exciting things.
I should probably have left out the previous paragraph. You can re-read and skip it.
So, the last two years this eldest spawn of mine has decided to try and fail school. She’s almost 14 now so I suspect it has something to do with hormones and all that craziness that goes on when you go from girl to woman. Her behavior made my ex so crazy that she’s asking me for advice.
My advice was to seek out professional help. She was diagnosed with ADD by a pediatrician. I recommended going to an ADD specialist to see if they agree with the diagnosis or perhaps she just needs counseling to get her on the right path. This makes it doubly my responsibility to pay for the medical bills because now I had recommended a course of action that will require co-pays and possible new drugs.
My ex found an “ADD Expert” on my insurance plan and set an appointment. He is the great Doctor Neil Jacobson of Dallas. For $150 he talked to my 13 year old daughter for 15 minutes and then handed her a prescription for a “new drug” to treat her debilitating disease.
The next morning, she was in the emergency room with heart palpitations and unable to breathe. So, I was summoned to the emergency room from work. I am starting to feel like I paid $150 to this quack so that he could try and kill my daughter. Luckily, she got to the emergency room in time and they were able to calm her down and get her on the road to recovery. We couldn’t get in touch with good Dr. Neil. I suspect he was probably out cruising in his new Jaguar or something.
The directions on her bottle of "turn my fingers blue" death pills said, “Take 1 or 2 tablets daily”. Luckily, I guess, she only took 1.
How can a medical doctor prescribe this kind of medicine to a 13 year old after a 15 minute consultation? I still can’t get in touch with this whacky Dr. Neil Jacobson.
I decide to send him an email. I tell him he’s already wasted more than 15 minutes of my time and if I get a bill from the hospital then he’ll get a bill from my lawyer for giving life threatening medication to a 13 year old after a 15 minute consultation.
Yesterday, I received the bill from the hospital: $1300. I had already paid a $50 co pay. Now, I am out $1500 so I send a note off to an attorney. I’m not normally one to sue. People should just be human. Accidents happen.
The attorney told me that because of changes to medical malpractice law about 5 years ago, only the most severe cases are economical to pursue. So, if she had died I could afford to sue. Now, I am just out $1500 and get to think of Dr. Neil “the Jackass” Jacobson driving around in his Porsche.