Do I dare say no to ST because we can't afford it?
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Anonymous
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Our 26mo DS has an expressive speech delay. We've had tests to rule out hearing issues and overarching issues such as autism. We have one speech therapy session a week through the county. Our developmental pediatrician recommends that we look into adding two additional ST sessions a week. We'll have to go private for this because we can only get one ST a week through the county. Anyway, I've gathered information through other threads that the average cost of ST is $100-$135/session for the area. Sadly, we cannot squeeze $1,000/month out of our budget for ST. I've tried for days now to find a ST within a reasonable distance that takes insurance, but no luck (our insurance does actually cover ST).
My family is very good at keeping costs down, so there isn't really anywhere we can cut to find the $1,000. We're working through some unrelated medical issues for DS and others...very costly. And I'm a SAHM until we get through all this medical stuff. Anyway, do I dare say no? Or do we just put it all on credit cards and hope for the best for the future? I will of course feel like a horrible person for not doing as much as possible. But seriously, what do you do when you can't afford to follow every recommendation? |
Anonymous
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This is a very important question that us special needs parents have to ask ourselves all the time. Its such a tough call, nobody can do everything, and only you can make the call on what you can and will spend money on.
There is no right answer, but I will repeat the mantra that people often tell me -- early intervention is so important, and the window for stimulating language narrows at a certain point (you're not there at 26 months) The point is you can make more gains if you attack this early. The other thing is, I've had lots of interventions recommended to my child over the years, but speech is a pretty basic one in the toolbox of interventions -- there is a reason why that's one of the few things covered by some insurances, and provided by school districts |
Anonymous
| What county are you in? I am in DC and was able to up my son's ST to 2x/week through Early Intervention by asking his service coordinator and getting his other EI therapists to back me up that it was a good idea. |
Anonymous
| What county do you live in? I think you might get more helpful responses if people knew your geographical location especially if you live near a university. |
Anonymous
| Our ST doesn't take insurance either. We submit her invoices to insurance and get paid back within about 2 months minus the $25 copay. The first couple of months were really rough but then the reimbursements started coming. |
Anonymous
| Op I was in your situation. Are you with the pie program (infants and toddlers)? I just talked to the program co-ordinator of our county and showed her paperwork from developmental ped. It took a couple of months, but we managed to get additional sessions of st from the county. We are in Arlington btw. Also what kind of insurance do you have? Check children's speech and language services, they take different insurance plans. Good luck |
Anonymous
| U of MD has reasonably priced speech therapy. Try some of the university's with speech clinics. I would probably wait 6 more months before I private payed. |
Anonymous
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If you're comfortable sharing your insurance provider, that may also help with figuring out what you might be able to get covered. It can be a hassle to submit paperwork, but even if you can get a portion of the costs covered, it might make things possible.
Would one extra session a week be a reasonable compromise? Do you have any family that might be able to help out? I know asking for help can be very humbling, but I know my parents would cover medical related expenses in a heartbeat if we needed it. Especially if it was a shorter term cost while you figure out the reimbursement process. |
Anonymous
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OP here. We're in Alexandria city so have EI through Alexandria PIES. From what I gather, MOCO and Fairfax County are able to offer more for EI, but no need to go into that.
We have FEP Blue (Care First) basic PPO insurance. It actually covers 52 ST, OT, PT or a combo thereof a year. But we can't find anyone who will take it! We did check out Children's Speech & Language, but they don't take our insurance. I've heard and read good things about the practice though; we were actually referred to them by our developmental pediatrician. We may end up going there in the end even though it will all be out of pocket. |
Anonymous
| Washington Speech in Fairfax takes insurance. |
Anonymous
| Not super close, but try The Language Experience in Chevy Chase/Rockville. They take your insurance. http://www.washingtonspeech.com/about.htm also takes insurance. And I second the suggestion for contacting universities with speech programs. |
Anonymous
| What were you told by Alex City about adding more sessions? At one point our therapist suggested possibly upping DD's speech therapy sessions and it sounded like all she needed to do was recommend it and it would happen. We opted not to at the time. But we were only moving from 2x month to 4x month, so not more than once/week. Did they tell you that once/week is the max? I've actually been really happy with the services that we've gotten through Alex City (compared with FFX, for example, which closed it's program for a while b/c it had run out of money). |
Anonymous
| Find a SLP that accepts insurance. Our OT bills $120-130 per session but we only pay $15 after the insurance payment. |
Anonymous
Can you switch to standard at the next open season? The premiums would be higher, of course, but you'd have much better out of network coverage. (Not that this helps you now, but maybe if you know that only 5 months has to be completely out of pocket it might make it easier to budget.) The BCBS FEP Provider Directory lists the following as accepting their insurance (my apologies if you've already ruled these out or the information is wrong): Chesapeake Children's Therapy Center (near the Springfield Mall, but has mixed reviews online) http://www.chesapeakecenter.com/ Chatterbox 306 N Patrick St Alexandria, VA 22314 Ph: (703) 477-0347 |
Anonymous
| Would grandparents be willing to foot some of this bill? EI is so important...you never get this time back. |