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National Medical Support Notice- WTF_I'm livid!!!

calm retreat's picture

I'm Livid!!! How can the government do this? Has anyone else been hassled by this? DH and I live in CA, the child and BM live in CO. The child support was established in 2007 in PA and hasn't changed. Medical insurance was determined at the time of the order to be covered by BM, with DH is paying his half thru his payments. It's all stated very clearly in the order....

Out of the blue, DH's employer gets this Court Order from PA, "National Medical Support Notice" to withhold medical support for his kid in Colorado, and they do it without his knowledge or consent, just like that, they start withholding money from his check. WTF. He's currently on my insurance plan for free, but now they need to insure him if he is to carry SD too. So we had to turn around and contest it with PA, and they've since acknowledge that DH was not ordered to pay for the insurance. So as of this morning PA is going to send a vacate order to DH's employer. WTF,.... In the mean time DH is having his wages attached, paying for something he doesn't even need and is already paying BM for, until the payroll department gets it together and acknowledges the vacate order.

Who is the "National Medical Team" and who came up with this backwards ass protocol. Unbelievable. How can they get away with this?

Comments

RedWingsFan's picture

I had the same thing happen to me last year! But it wasn't enforced after I showed my employer the court order that my ex is obligated to pay for DD15's medical insurance and I pay separate child support, with my portion of medical already included.

Fight it.

calm retreat's picture

Yeah, we are. PA has already vacated, so as soon as DH's payroll dept gets it they'll stop the attachment. I'm just so livid, it's so back assward, they put an order thru without checking the original order, just to have you contest it so they can vacate it. What a waste of everyones time and money.

RedWingsFan's picture

I know, I was told the same thing. They never looked at the original order and I was freaking out thinking "shit, I already pay exH $500 per month and now I have to put DD15 on my insurance, which will be a minimum of $200 per month, I can't afford that!". But then I calmed down, got the original order, faxed it to my corporate office and they shut that shit down immediately.

calm retreat's picture

Right? Exactly! but they already started to withold. I hope they can shut it down and quickly as they set it up.....

RedWingsFan's picture

I was given the notice to withhold and immediately called my corp office to stop it. I went home, got the original order showing my ex was court ordered to provide DD insurance, faxed it to them and they shut it down immediately.

calm retreat's picture

That's right Nothinforya!!! as I stated below, it's been around for a lot longer, It has everything to do with the courts not following their own court orders. I have half a mind to sue PA for contempt.

nothinforya's picture

It doesn't even apply to employers with fewer than 50 employees. Try sticking to ACTUAL FACTS instead of bashing the president at every chance you get.

calm retreat's picture

This particular flaw is with PA not reading the support order. WE ALREADY CARRY INSURANCE FOR THE KID...It has nothing to do with the Health Care Act. This is a different agency OCSE (Office of Child Support Enforcement) and they are messing with constitutional rights. DH's payroll department sucks too. They're treating him like a criminal ....oh sure they vacated it, when pigs fly.....I know that it will get cleared up but I just can't believe they can attach your paycheck without first consulting you and showing you the order, and asking you if it pertains to you. They had 20 days to respond to the notice and 40 days to complete the attachment but they did both in 1 day. They didn't even give DH a couple of days to contest it. I'm livid!!!

chocolatelover's picture

I do payroll and it sucks, but I have to follow withholding orders sent to me. It's not worth me getting in trouble with the law for not following withholding/insurance orders. Please don't be mad at the payroll dept- be mad at OCSE.

calm retreat's picture

Hi Chocolatelover,
I'm sorry that you have to deal with this stuff too. I do sympathize with payroll and all the laws they have to follow, but this lady my DH is dealing with is really irritating me. OK maybe it's the fact that DH's employer is a Chicago based company and everything goes there first, and they don't even know DH. But the way I understand the NMSN is that the employer has 20 days to respond to the court and another 20 days after that to attach. In that amount of time payroll and/or his employer could have contacted DH to let him know what was going on and he could have cleared it up before it went thru. After speaking with PA he found out they sent the Order (mistakenly BTW) on April 1st, payroll ended on April 5th. WTF Why were they in such a rush? And I can't be mad at OCSE because it appears after reading the regulation that they built -in plenty of time for the employee to contest. It was PA for sending an erroneous order and payroll (the employer) for not following directions by not notifying him that they had received the order. I'm mad at the lady in payroll for actually telling DH that she doesn't think she can refund the money because she was only doing her job. DH called the HR depart and they said they haven't even had time to put the insurance package together. I do so hope he gets his money back. He works hard and doesn't deserve this type of treatment.

calm retreat's picture

So I just read this (copied below): and it has nothing to do with the Affordable care act...

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 249 / Wednesday, December 27, 2000 / Rules and Regulations
Office of Child Support Enforcement
45 CFR Part 303
RIN 0970–AB97
National Medical Support Notice
AGENCY: Office of Child Support
Enforcement, Administration for
Children and Families, HHS.
ACTION Final rule.

Section 303.32(c)(5) was a part of
proposed paragraph (c)(4) in the NPRM.
Based on comments received on the
NPRM, under paragraph (c)(5),
employees may contest the withholding
based on a mistake of fact. However, the
employer must initiate the withholding
until such time as the employer receives
notice that the contest is resolved.

WTF--- Really? So basically guilty until proven innocent?....WTF. This is simply unconstitutional. How did this ever get approved?

calm retreat's picture

yikes is right!!! That is outragous! This is a different issue though, we already have SD insured thru BM's plan and pay half, and then PA orders DH's employer to cover it again.

myspoonistoobig's picture

Not to quibble, but is there a reason why child support management wasn't changed to the child's current state of primary residence?

calm retreat's picture

It's a long story... Custody did get officially transfered. They did the support calc and figured it wouldn't change the amount so why go thru the trouble of messing with it. PA gives BM a debit card and it's all electronic. The custody order states that any modification to support would entail an official transfer to CO. They've managed to live with it status quo. SD ages out in 1 year 10 months and a couple of days. I'm counting down.

myspoonistoobig's picture

With only that amount of time left I suppose you wouldn't want to bother, but this whole situation sort of answers the "why go through the trouble of messing with it" question. :/