One issue that often gets overlooked during and after a divorce is insurance. In the typical scenario, one spouse's employer provides insurance benefits, and the rest of the family is included on this policy. In most cases, this is the simplest and most efficient way to deal with insurance matters in the event of a divorce. However, problems can easily arise if, for whatever reason, an ex-spouse is left off as a dependent on an insurance policy.

This is exactly what happened recently to one woman. In her case, it appears that her ex-spouse simply forgot to reinstate her on his medical insurance policy after he took a leave of absence from his job and stopped making the insurance premiums. He did add the couple's children, but for some reason not his ex-wife.

The 41-year-old woman was never told about this, and she continued to incur medical expenses as normal, assuming that she was covered by his insurance as she always had been in the past. She says she was not notified that she was dropped during a four-month period during which she unfortunately accumulated $1,500 in medical bills.

Interestingly, the insurance company claims that they were not required to notify her because she was an ex-spouse listed as a dependent on her former husband's policy.

Perhaps his employer should have notified all dependents of the loss of coverage and reinstatement. By doing so, at least she would have been on notice that there was a problem.

So what can divorcing parties in New Jersey do to limit their liability in terms of medical expenses after a divorce, especially if one spouse will continue to be dependent on the other for medical insurance?

There can be many possibilities, including potentially holding the spouse responsible for medical expenses in the event that he or she causes the insurance to lapse. It may also be a good idea to seek one's own insurance in order to discontinue dependency on an ex-spouse. This would certainly help if one simply wants to make sure that they are protected no matter what. In such a case it may be possible to negotiate an amount of money that would cover the cost of obtaining individual insurance during the divorce negotiations.

Source: Star Tribune, "Whistleblower: Surprise! Your insurance lapsed," Kelly Smith, Jan. 28, 2012