<prompt> Human: Hey all,Sorry in advance for the long post, but I tried to convey all the information for what we think is a very unique situation.Im posting looking for advice for my girlfriend. She is currently a 24 year old grad student who files her taxes as an independent and is currently a New York State resident. Her mother and father divorced in 2011, and part of the divorce settlement involved her father signing a National Medical Support Notice to his employer stating that he would cover her and her younger brother with any insurance available. He is a retired NYS employee with at least 20 years of state service, and their insurance was through Empire Plan Insurance.After her father retired he was being sent bills for the insurance premium from New York State and was throwing them out, saying he intended to pay them when he sold his house a few years down the road. My girlfriend did not know that, and has been having doctors visits and medical procedures as normal for the past three years.Last week her father was notified that he and his dependents no longer had insurance, and that their plan was being cancelled and they would have to find new insurance. My girlfriend called the insurance company to confirm this and get more information. During the course of the conversation, she discovered that the insurance company was retroactively cancelling their insurance, with the cancellation date set in 2015. The insurance company was notified by the past employer to set this cancellation, and cannot do anything to fix it from their end according to them as this was all started from his employer NYS.The insurance company said that they will be sending out claim denial letters to all of the doctors she has visited and for all of the claims she has filed for medical services since the cancellation date. Essentially, the insurance company will be getting refunds for all of the money they have paid doctors for her. They informed her that the doctors would then be billing her directly since she was the patient and is over 18. She estimates approximately 20K in medical bills since 2015.The interesting part is that since 2015 she has visited at least 5 or 6 doctors, and all of them have been able to bill the insurance successfully, and the insurance company never flagged the account as being not paid. We think it is very strange that three years went by, with multiple approved claims, before the insurance company or employer caught on to what was happening.Her father wants her to contact every doctor she has visited and put all of her medical bills in his name so he can negotiate and pay them over time. They both do not want her credit affected because of his mistakes and they want the responsibility off of her. She has started hearing back from some doctors - some of them have no issue listing him as the responsible party and some are having trouble understanding the situation.She is very concerned about the whole situation, as she thinks that she may be held liable for upwards of 20K in medical bills that she is not going to be able to pay as a student. Even though it looks like she will be able to have all the bills in her fathers name, she is still concerned they could go after her if and when her father tries to get out of paying again.I also want to stress that over the last three years she believed she was fully covered and had heard absolutely nothing from NYS or the insurance company or her father saying otherwise. We want to make sure we get the best outcome and that in the end no liability is on her; her father agrees to accept all liability and all responsibility for these charges due to his negligence but we do not know how to make it legally official and remove the liability from her.TL;DR girlfriends dad stopped paying insurance premium in 2015, insurance company just cancelled and set cancellation date to 2015 and is retroactively denying all medical claims since. 20K in medical bills at play.EDIT: Fathers liability and divorce document clarification.  <response>: I think legally, the insurance company is entitled to recoup their losses.As for your girlfriend, due to the unique situation, I think shell be able to negotiate the bills down directly with the providers. While shell be out-of-pocket some money, it could be far less than 25k. 