“He Owes Me $300 for the ER”: How Medical Expenses Actually Get Collected From a Co-Parent in Texas
“Well no, but I texted him saying I had to pay the $600 ER copay and he owes me $300.” No, mami. 😭 We hear a version of this every week, and we say it with love: a text message is not how a court order gets enforced. Here’s how it actually works.
What most Texas orders say
Most Texas custody and support orders require the parents to split the child’s uninsured (out-of-pocket) medical expenses, commonly 50/50. That includes copays, deductibles, prescriptions, glasses, braces, therapy, and the ER visit that ruins a whole month’s budget. The order also almost always includes a procedure: how one parent notifies the other, what documentation gets sent, and a deadline for each step.
Why the notice procedure decides these disputes
This is where we see winnable money get lost. Courts enforce their orders as written. When an order says the bill must be furnished within a set number of days, the parent who followed that procedure is the one standing on solid ground. What we ask our clients to do tracks the order, every time:
- We ask them to send the actual documentation: the itemized bill, receipt, or explanation of benefits (EOB). Not a screenshot of a Venmo request. The paper.
- We ask them to use the method the order specifies. If it names email, a co-parenting app, or certified mail, that’s the channel that counts.
- We ask them to watch the deadlines: many orders set timelines (often 30 days) for furnishing the expense, and timelines for the other parent to reimburse after receiving it.
- We ask them to keep proof of what was sent, when, and how: screenshots, delivery confirmations, app logs. That file is what a court can act on later.
What we’ve seen resolve these disputes when a co-parent won’t pay
When the procedure was followed and the other parent still isn’t paying, the options escalate:
- A demand letter from a law firm: formal notice that itemizes what’s owed and warns of enforcement. We’ve watched “I’m not paying that” turn into a payment plan remarkably fast once it arrives on letterhead.
- An enforcement action: asking the court to enforce its own order. Unreimbursed medical expenses can be enforced like child support, and courts can award attorney’s fees.
- Contempt: in the right case, a parent who willfully refuses to follow the order can be held in contempt.
Our firm recognizes that it’s expensive for a mom to go to court just to say “he owes me money.” That’s exactly why we built our Demand Letter program, a lower-cost first step that has resolved many of these disputes without a courtroom, in the cases where it makes sense.
Habits we ask our clients to build
- Keeping a running log of every out-of-pocket expense with dates and receipts, recorded the day it happens.
- Using one consistent channel (a co-parenting app is ideal) so everything is timestamped in one place.
- Avoiding informal offsets (“I’ll just keep the tax refund”). We’ve seen those create messes that are genuinely hard to enforce later.
Avalos Family Trial Attorneys advocates for single moms across Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Austin, and we practice what we post: educate, empathize, empower. Anyone who wants to discuss their own situation with an attorney can schedule a consultation through our website. 💚
Schedule a ConsultationThis article is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. Avalos Family Trial Attorneys does not represent readers of this blog, and reading this post does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every family and every case is different; nothing here is a prediction or recommendation for any specific situation.
