If your child is injured at school, does the school pay the medical bills?

[maxiesmom]

My step hurt her ankle and knee (separate incidents) in soccer this year. Totally our financial responsibility, according to the school. My insurance sees it differently. I suppose we'll have to see a lawyer. If the school had shown one ounce of compassion or remorse, I'd go after the insurance company. But they haven't, and so...

Not sure why you expect remorse from the school. Sport injuries are common. If you are not prepared to deal with them, and expect the school to bend over backwards if your child is hurt, then you have unrealistic expectations. I highly doubt you will get anything from the school for a sports injury. You would have to prove they were negligent, and I bet they were not.

Didn't anyone have to sign a waver? I have a niece who plays soccer, basketball, and golf. You have to sign a waver for each sport.

If you are not prepared to deal with sports injuries, then you shouldn't have a child in sports. I know that with your child actually being a step child you probably don't have a whole lot of say. However you do need to be up to date on all of the school policies regarding sports and how they handle injuries, and who is responsible, and it sounds like you are not. It doesn't matter what your personal insurance thinks. There must have been some paperwork signed at some point(by your husband or his ex) explaining who has to pay. And it seems to be your husband's insurance.

 

[ancestry]

In our school district we have to sign waivers for field trips and sporting activities releasing the school of any and all responsibility. In fact you have to either have personal insurance or purchase the school's plan in order for your child to play sports. The school makes it very clear they don't cover any injuries for the children unless you can prove gross negligence on the part of the school (i.e. the example someone gave about the piece of metal in the food, or not repairing a broken step, etc.).

Those of you who have been successful at getting your school to pay anything are very lucky!

 

[ancestry]

My daughter got a level 3 ankle sprain at school. The costs were ours to bear.

I would not go to the ER. My son had a broken arm once and I took him to the ER. They just sent us to the PCP and then mailed a huge bill. I would just wait and go to the regular doctor in the morning.

I think it really depends on the doctor's office. Our PCP won't treat broken bones and they send you to the ER (opposite of what happened for you). Each office is different. Around here only the ERs or advanced Emergency Care Centers have the equipment necessary to diagnose breaks (i.e. x-ray machines, orthopedic doctors on staff, etc.)

 

[fakereadhed]

If something's broken don't be surpised if your insurance doesn't try to collect from the school anyway. My DD16 was staying at Grandma's last summer and walked downstairs in the dark and missed the last step. They took her to the ER and her foot was broken. She has private insurance as well as additional insurance so everything was covered. The private insurance co has sent me three letters(not legal, but legal looking) trying to get me to disclose where the accident took place so they can have their insurance pay. I'm not turning in Grandma unless I get a legally binding letter! I did warn my mom and she said it happens all the time. Someone at their church got gear stroke during a car wash and since it happened on church property the woman's insurance company went after the church's insurance to pay, against her will. My mom says it's common practice for ER visits that are marked as injury.

 

[aprilgail2]

My kid got hurt in gym class and when I went to pick him up they gave me a form to give to the doctor to bill the school's insurance for the claim even though I have private insurance. It must vary.

My daughter was fooling around and jumped off the bleachers and hurt her feet- we had to go to the urgent care place. The school gave us forms so their insurance would pay for it but I just lied and said she was jumping off the stairs at home and hurt herself and used my own insurance. I did not want the hassel of going through the schools insurance and if I said it happened at school my insurance company would have went after the schools and it would have just been a long drawn out mess. I paid my small co-payment and that was that.

 

[Becky2005]

I think it's a "it depends on where you are at" type of thing. Last year my son collided with another student in gym class pretty hard (the other kid ended up with stitches in his head -- neither quite knew what happened) and it knocked out his adult front tooth and nearly knocked out a second one. Luckily, they found the tooth & we were able to save it but we don't have dental insurance. I actually hadn't even thought about asking the school to pay but I think it was here that I read about doing so.

I went ahead and filed a claim. I did have to get the Principal to sign, etc... It did take over a year and many, many, many times of sending in the bills but eventually they did pay it.

He also got kicked in the eye on the playground the year before but we didn't file anything wtih the school because that was his own fault & he was lucky he just had a huge black eye for months instead of losing his eye or anything worse. I was just happy it happened at school so I only had to deal with the questioning looks and "what happened?" outside of school.

The supplemental insurance here only covers before/after school stuff...it actually doesn't cover while you are IN school at least that is how I read the forms. So basically if you were on the basketball team and sprained your ankle it would cover that as the school wouldn't cover something along those lines.

 

[sam_gordon]

The private insurance co has sent me three letters(not legal, but legal looking) trying to get me to disclose where the accident took place so they can have their insurance pay. I'm not turning in Grandma unless I get a legally binding letter!

What kind of legally binding letter are you looking for? And how are the letter 'not legal'? If your insurance company wants to be an a--, I'm guessing they could drop your insurance when it comes time for renewal (for not answering their letters).

 

[WantToGoNow]

My ds broke his foot last year on field day - the 2nd to last day of school. He did this first thing in the morning (about 9:30) doing the long jump. The teachers said they thought he twisted his ankle and they made him continue all day. The nurse called me at 3:00 (school is over at 3:30) and said he hurt his foot, it was being iced but thought he would be ok. So I figured he hurt it early in the morning, it's now 3:00 and schools out in 30 minutes so I told them to go ahead and send him home on the bus. I knew as soon as I saw him trying to get off the bus. Took him to the ER and he had broken 3 bones in the top of his foot. I think there was negligence on the part of the teachers/nurse in this case because they didn't take the injury seriously.

 

[fakereadhed]

What kind of legally binding letter are you looking for? And how are the letter 'not legal'? If your insurance company wants to be an a--, I'm guessing they could drop your insurance when it comes time for renewal (for not answering their letters).

They are the same type of letters they send me when I take my kids to the ER and they don't approve based on the dx code. Like the time I brought my son in on Memorial Day(doctor's office closed) when he was around a year old because his face was swelling shut and he had hives all over his body. They checked his oxygenation and considered putting a stint in his nose to make sure he could breathe since his face and throat were so swollen. They weren't sure if it was a severe allergic reaction to penicillin or his vaccinations so the called it "unspecified rash". Insurance company sent me a letter wanting me to agree in writing to appropriate use of the ER by signing the agreement they sent me. Took a while by phone to talk to a higher up and she explained that they will probably send more, but the official letters you have to sign for. Told me not to worry about it. She said they don't actually read the chart, they just have certain things that the computer flags and generates a letter.

 

[girli565]

I am a teacher and at my school any student that plays a sport like basketball, baseball, or football must buy the supplemental insurance offered by the school. And if the student is taking a PE elective class they also have to buy it. It covers things like what happened to the OP's child. It's pretty cheap, I think this years was something like $40 for the school year (summer is an additional $10).

 

[Becky2005]

And if the student is taking a PE elective class they also have to buy it.

Maybe that's the difference between places. Here PE is required every single year of school. It's a graded class in the upper grades and counts towards your GPA. In grade school they have it 2x day but also count recess as making sure they have something physically every day. In Middle School & up it's a daily class. You have no choice but to take it.

 

[mjkacmom]

Maybe that's the difference between places. Here PE is required every single year of school. It's a graded class in the upper grades and counts towards your GPA. In grade school they have it 2x day but also count recess as making sure they have something physically every day. In Middle School & up it's a daily class. You have no choice but to take it.

PE is required here, too, and graded in the upper grades, but if you get hurt, you pay (unless you signed up for the insurance).

 

[girli565]

Maybe that's the difference between places. Here PE is required every single year of school. It's a graded class in the upper grades and counts towards your GPA. In grade school they have it 2x day but also count recess as making sure they have something physically every day. In Middle School & up it's a daily class. You have no choice but to take it.

PE is required here, too, and graded in the upper grades, but if you get hurt, you pay (unless you signed up for the insurance).

PE is only required in 6th, 9th, and 10th (1/2 year) grades here. When it's an elective you have to buy the insurance. But they push it very hard on the kids in the required classes too. And if they play a sport afterschool it's required.

 

[daughtersrus]

We had to take our district to court.

Our case is a little different. Our DD is severely disabled. She was in a "self contained" special ed class. At the IEP meeting, the school district pulled physical therapy completely from DD saying that it was no longer educational. We argued back and forth for some time. We were in the process of filing for Due Process. The school insisted that they would instruct her 1:1 aid how to do the proper stretches and range of motion before putting DD in a sitting position.

Needless to say, the aid was never given the instruction. She was putting DD into sitting without doing any of it even after they were told by DD's orthopedic that it was necessary. DD was ring sitting and started to fall to one side. Instead of helping her up from her shoulders or waist, the aid pushed down on DD's knee that went up in the air. Since she wasn't stretched and ROM wasn't done, the hip wasn't in the socket all the way and the muscles were tight. The aid ended up causing a spiral break in DD's femur.

The break required surgery to insert two titanium rods. The insurance investigated and sent us paperwork to fill out. They determined that someone else was at fault and refused to pay. The school district refused to pay because in IL there is something called the "tort immunity act" that protects public entities.

We were stuck with bills over $30,000 that no one wanted to pay.

Finally our health insurance agreed to pay with a subrogation agreement saying that we would seek reimbursement from the school district.

Because I had saved the communication note book that goes back and forth from home to school, we were able to prove that the school district employees had specific knowledge that what they were doing (or not doing in this case) could cause harm to our DD. Had I not saved the book, we wouldn't have had the proof.

It took a few years but we ended up settling out of court. The lawyer ended up with the most money since he took his 1/3 off the top. We had to pay back the insurance for the $30,000 that they paid and DD got very little that was put into a Special Needs Trust for her.

It's been 6 years and DD still has the rods in her leg. If and when she needs surgery on that hip, they will take them out then.

When DD was able to return to school, she was placed out of district in a school run by United Cerebral Palsy being paid for by our local school district.

 

[tlbwriter]

If something's broken don't be surpised if your insurance doesn't try to collect from the school anyway. My DD16 was staying at Grandma's last summer and walked downstairs in the dark and missed the last step. They took her to the ER and her foot was broken. She has private insurance as well as additional insurance so everything was covered. The private insurance co has sent me three letters(not legal, but legal looking) trying to get me to disclose where the accident took place so they can have their insurance pay. I'm not turning in Grandma unless I get a legally binding letter! I did warn my mom and she said it happens all the time. Someone at their church got gear stroke during a car wash and since it happened on church property the woman's insurance company went after the church's insurance to pay, against her will. My mom says it's common practice for ER visits that are marked as injury.

I'm glad you posted this. I said the same thing on a different thread and was told that I was wrong, that an insurance company will not go after the owner of the house where an accident happened. Even though I had heard of it happening too!

 

[Ladygoldenhair]

We had the same issue as above and growth plate. In a cast that came off to shower and I think to sleep. There have been ongoing complications and PT needed with stability and pain during soccer. The injury happened on old equipment that did not have the special material under the monkey bars for shock. The school has accommodated as far as approving a trip request to the Fall instead of the scheduled one the first week school was out, but that was it.

I think if the stability and growth plate issues continues, with the co-pays we need to contact the school. The area has since been deemed unsafe and being redone.

 

[DebbieB]

I work for an insurance company and we typically put an exclusion for medical payments for athletic participants on school policies. The cafeteria incident would be covered, as well as slipping on the ice (assuming negligence). The main criteria is proving negligence on the school's part.

 

[Gracie09]

Zombie Thread

 

[Judique]

Zombie Thread

Looks like it but not a zombie poster.

And as far as who pays, in many cases it's a good idea to contact your district's Risk Management office (or whatever they call it where you are). You may be surprised at what they will pay for.

 

[DebbieB]

Just noticed that this goes back to 2011. Hopefully his thumb is healed.....