Why are there so few developmental pediatricians, esp in Virginia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shapiro charges $540? (off the top of my head so it these figures may not be correct) admin/testing/background fee before you get to meet with him. His office visits are $290 for 50 minutes. He charges $560 for school observations and our IEP meetings. Completely worth it, IMHO.

That sounds about right from what I recall. It's so pricey but worth it for us. We have insurance but it does not cover anything out of network so none of it is reimbursed.

To put it into perspective, we did an initial evaluation and an office visit to discuss, then another office visit every 6-9 months or so. We're 2 years in and are considering a school observation.

[Anonymous]

Don't dismiss Polly Panitz. She was on target about my DD's Asperger's before Children's Hospital got on board.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Conlon went to Kaiser in 2012 and is no longer taking patients except through Kaiser. We had great experience with him with our two ADHD kids and are now looking for a new doctor since we can't see him anymore.

[Anonymous]

Dr. Farber with ALL pediatrics Va

[Anonymous]

Also worth noting that, at least as of a few months ago, Shapiro was not accepting patients from VA.

[Anonymous]

What about Dr Beverly Powell in Springfield?

[Anonymous]

Dr. Beverly A. Powell, M.D., FAAP,
Developmental Pediatrics,
7389 Hidden Knolls Court,
Springfield, VA 22153, 703-866-0662

Children's National Medical Center,
Dr. Susan Pratt, M.D.
8501 Arlington Blvd., Fairfax, VA 22031,
571-226-8380, www.dcchildrens.com

Dr. Eduardo Fox
Sleepy Hollow Pediatric Assoc.,
2946 Sleepy Hollow Rd., Ste. 3B,
Falls Church, VA, 703-534-1000

[Anonymous]

It is nearly impossible to get a hold of any Children's National pediatricians. Dr. Powell is old school but she was right on the money with our DS.

[Anonymous]

Dr Powell is a joke.

[Anonymous]

15:57 pp, can you elaborate? We have been referred to her by our primary pediatrician to evaluate DS for ADHD/ADD and are to see her in 2 weeks. Is she worth our time?

[Anonymous]

Shapiro is totally worth it! We drive from Virginia to see him. We met with Polly Panitz who I feel did an incomplete job/evaluation. She summarized my daughter after 20 minutes of interaction with her. She never talked to the school/teachers (preschool) and didn't observe her at all. Shapiro, although he costs more and doesn't take insurance, went to both is preschool and elementary school. He is just amazing... sad that we wasted so much money and precious precious time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dr Powell is a joke.

We went to see her b/c she was literally the only doctor who accepted insurance we could find who was even taking appointments. Saw our son for three appts, then produced a half-assed evaluation report that was full of cut-and-pastes referencing some other child and her dx was inconclusive. Basically along the lines of could be this, could be that, maybe this, maybe that. It was a total waste of time.

She tried to over bill us, also (Billed us for her fee that our insurance didn't cover, even though she was in-network and can't do that).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shapiro is totally worth it! We drive from Virginia to see him. We met with Polly Panitz who I feel did an incomplete job/evaluation. She summarized my daughter after 20 minutes of interaction with her. She never talked to the school/teachers (preschool) and didn't observe her at all. Shapiro, although he costs more and doesn't take insurance, went to both is preschool and elementary school. He is just amazing... sad that we wasted so much money and precious precious time.

Another plug for Shapiro. He is the doctor who diagnosed DS and helped with forming the IEP. A wonderful, caring doctor - worth his weight in gold for our family. DS is doing amazingly great due to him. Can't thank Dr Dan enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP-thanks. Does anyone know if Conlon or Belsito take insurance? (And if not, how much an initial evaluation costs?)

This is the answer to your original question of why there are so few developmental pediatricians. They, like many other doctors, get shafted by insurance companies. I look at our regular pediatrician bills and our insurance company pays something like 25-30% of the bill and then the pediatrician's office has to eat the rest of the costs. It gets to the point where for certain types of patients, they can't make enough to cover the basic costs of running a small business. They often can only make up enough by either limiting which insurances they take (which limits the clientele) or by doing high volume, less time consuming practice and unfortunately developmental pediatrics is neither of those. So, many practitioners don't go into that field unless they work for a larger medical group like Johns Hopkins.

Really, the health insurance industry is very unkind to doctors (says someone whose spouse has long-term and high medical expenses and whose children have an above average amount of medical expenses).

[Anonymous]

11:46 we had the same exact experience with Dr. Powell, too.