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Insurance vent :(

I have been a teacher for 11 years now and have enjoyed great coverage for DS for his vision checks, his SLP and OT.

We just got a district email saying how we could join this group and save significantly.  FTR, we get about $800/month for a plan of our choice and then pay out of pocket any difference.  Two years ago my plan was an additional $140 a month and it jumped to $280 last year.  BUT, my plan is amazing.  Unlimited PT and 45 speech visits.  Now the best plans on these new companies cap at 60 combined of all therapies. 

I know many of you guys are used to these lower caps, but I am so upset because I have enjoyed not having to limit how much my son gets.  I just pay the co-pays everytime.  I hope I do not sound like a whiner (please do not flame me I know many of you can relate to spending a lot of money on your child's care), but I think these so-called lower rates are probably due to cutting some of these perks that teachers had bargained for in the past. 

No point to the post other than needing a place to get it off my chest.  The second crappy thing is that my OT does not like to work with Group Health and does not work with the other company they are offering.  Any of you guys heard of UMP?  Anyway, I am afraid to even begin asking DS's other health care providers if they take these insurance companies.  They are offering an informational school district meeting to give the details of the new companies in July, but I think its just a formality to a decision they are already making :( 

I seriously want to throat punch the person that thought this was a good idea.  I get it though, my situation is very different than most people and they are not worrying about if their plan covers speech therapy visits or not.  Everyone just wants to pay less.  {SAD FACE}

 

Re: Insurance vent :(

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    I went through something similar this Year. Our insurance covered all the therapy for Autism with no limits (just a co-pay), and then in January the insurance company said we could only get a combined 135 days of therapy a year (only 2.5 days a week), which sounds like a lot, but DD had been getting 5 days a week and really needed it.

    Luckily, the state I live in passed a new law and enough people fought it that things have changed again.

    Just wanted to say I am sorry. I know how much it sucks.
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    it seems all insurance companies have gone this route lately.  In order to supposedly lower the cost of coverage they've lowered the amount of coverage they're offering.

    I'm sorry, it does stink. We're capped at 30 of each type of therapy, I was super happy that they covered it at all.
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    That all sucks.  :(  My insurance company has decide to handle all physical and occupational therapy through a separate company making its contacts with providers.  They have slashed pay rates to -- wait for it -- TWENTY PERCENT of what my place used to get.  Of COURSE no one is going to accept that.  No one will make a new contract with them, so now everyone becomes out of network?  How is that supposed to work?  I'm waiting until August (when mine falls out of network) to see if anyone is left, and how far away they are.  We won't switch, it would be very detrimental to my son's progress.  But I'm hoping I can make a case against their insanity.  Or I won't if I'm too afraid of losing ABA coverage that I don't want to draw attention to myself.  So I just pay more out of fear.  What if they decide to pull the same crap with ABA?  That would be so much worse.

     
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    Ehhh....I'm so angry with insurance companies right now. My husband had DD on his insurance and when we started speech therapy we learned it's only covered if DD was diagnosed with autism, cancer, some rare genetic disorder or had a stroke, wth. So we took her for awhile and just paid out of pocket since it was only $40 but that therapist was pretty far away and we both work full time and were not able to bring her more than a couple times a month. Then we find a place closer to home and they assure that all we have to do is fill out a request to get coverage and we will get covered, so we do this and go to three visits then they cancel our standing appointments because United Healthcare denied our request. 

    So at this point I'm super pissed and take DD off his insurance and put her on mine which is an HMO. Problem with my plan now is that her primary is not in this plan so I had to switch which wasn't a huge deal since like the original speech therapist he was far away. So I schedule an appointment with a new therapist (confirmed speech therapy, under any circumstance, would all be covered) and they need a referral. I have our old pedi send it because he's been her primary since forever and they can't use it because he's not in the same group as the new pedi. Now I have to wait close to a month for DD to get in for a well visit at the new  doctor for a damn referral. Yeah, I'm super pissy about insurance right now 
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    Well at least there is some coverage.

    For us, without a "covered" DX (ASD, etc.), nothing is covered. We knew DS needed therapy though, so we've been paying out of pocket...we've dropped a pretty penny in the last 2 years and nothing will be reimbursed.
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    -auntie- said:
    Insurance is a constant battle. Ours has been all over the place from amazing to mediocre. Most years I've elected coverage that offers OON benefits because none of DFS's specialists take insurance. I pay OOP for his psychologist, psychiatrist and previously for his dev pedi.

    If you're seeing an OT and SLP, chances are you have a developmental issue. As such, your child probably has "educational" needs that should be serviced by your school district/Childfind under IDEA.
    Well my DS just turned 4 two weeks ago.  We did EI and it was kinda a joke.  The district SLP canceled all the time and did not offer make up times (always some story as to why).  The other ladies in the rotation kind of phoned it in as far as how they did their job.  I know that sounds really judgey, but it was our experience.  When he aged out we decided to just stay doing private since my insurance was so good (no limits or referrals) and declined the district 3-5 year old services.  We had been doing both private and district.  Currently he just finished his first year of private preschool (two days a week for 3 hours), and is still doing one hour of SLP, and one hour of OT.  He responds really well to each of these people on his team and we are seeing really good progress.

    I know down the road, the district is going to be involved.  Since he has a summer birthday, our plan is to wait until age 6 anyway or he would be a very fresh age 5.  Truth be told, I am not sure if he would be mainstreamed by 6 anyway.  We may be looking at an ASD classroom or something similar.  His SLP believes that he may be ready to be in kinder by age 6, with the proper supports.  I guess no one will really know what that will look like since this is not for two more years. 

    He had his 4 year old well check visit and his regular pedi thinks this is a good plan for now.  He knows a dev pedi that can look at him about 6 months before kinder.  He told me not to worry I am getting DS great services right now. He is the type of doctor that waits to see how things present themselves and is not in a rush to get him DX just yet.  I know this can be a good or bad thing.

    Now if my insurance changes we may have to have a dx in order to get covered, again, something I won't know for quite some time.  I wrote an email to my union rep of the district and she said as a bargaining unit, we will be voting on this in September/October and the actual coverage would begin in January.  Sucks that i won't know for a while.  On a side note, I talked to my SLP today and she groaned at the possibility of me switching to Group Health.  She also said they are not easy to work with at all. 

    To everyone else responding to my whines, thanks. 
    :D

     
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    @tiffanyirene -- man that does suck!  Sorry you are dealing with all of that

     
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    DC2London said:
    Yeah we're 100% OOP.  We have no autism coverage at all, even with a diagnosis :(

    Buuuuut the fact that some people's plans suck more doesn't mean that yours doesn't still suck.  You're allowed to vent.  THANKS :)  That made me feel better!  It's really hard when you get used to a standard of care and then it is yanked out from underneath you.


     
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    -auntie- said:
    Micelle78 said:
    Well my DS just turned 4 two weeks ago.  We did EI and it was kinda a joke.  The district SLP canceled all the time and did not offer make up times (always some story as to why).  The other ladies in the rotation kind of phoned it in as far as how they did their job.  I know that sounds really judgey, but it was our experience. 

    That's a shame. Two of our 4 IU SLPs (in PA, SPED services are through county cooperatives) were better than anything we could find outside the system. And since they were embedded in the school, where he needed the skills to interact with peers, they were able to be more effective than someone off site in an office complex. The other two were duds, but that was more a function of choosing to have 3 kids in the 4 years of high school and having a model of ASD honed in a RTF.

    Did your IFSP include a total number of sessions? The way ours was set up was once a week in a rotation.  One week he saw the SLP and the next was OT.  etc.  So if someone did not show up to our home, we did not have a visit.   IEPs generally do and include significant wiggle room that allows a lot of cancellations. Were the team unable to give you strategies to work in speech. An IFSP is ideally supposed to be about helping a parent help their child. If I remember correctly, IEPs here start at age 3 when you age out.  I was supposed to sign an IEP to get him the 3-5 year old services but that is when we decided to pull him from the program.

     When he aged out we decided to just stay doing private since my insurance was so good (no limits or referrals) and declined the district 3-5 year old services.  We had been doing both private and district.  Currently he just finished his first year of private preschool (two days a week for 3 hours), and is still doing one hour of SLP, and one hour of OT.  He responds really well to each of these people on his team and we are seeing really good progress.

    Does the school district operate EI where you live? YES it does.  This is another reason it was so difficult for me.  I work in this district and was actually pretty surprised at the lack of quality.  My husband was pretty upset right away but I convinced him to give it a try and not judge it so harshly right away.  We were also at the beginning of our journey and had a lot of emotions we were dealing with.  However, it did not get better.  In most places, these are completely independent of each other with completely different teams. I wish this was the case.   What did the district offer? basically, once he aged out of the EI portion, they were getting him ready to go into their preschool setting.  It would have been a different group of teachers, but I was so jaded by the system that I could not do it.  They also wanted him in a class of limited verbal kids only.  There would not have been any NT kids or kids with slightly better verbal skills.  When I asked if they would consider letting him try the slightly more verbal class, they looked at my almost condescendingly and said "This is the best fit for him."  I was upset by this and called anonomously and spoke with the director of the preschool site just very calmy asking about the other class of slightly more verbal kids and she said " Oh Mrs. M has worked with us for over 25 years and her opinion would obviuosly be the best placement.  She then went on to praise how great this lady was and I was and that she trusted her judgement.  This convo was very polite but there was an undertone of sorry you won't get me to budge at all.  This is when we talked with our SLP and got him enrolled into a private religious preschool she heard good things about.  It is centered around two things:play and God. I took it as a sign that he was supposed to be there when I talked to his teacher (they take one special needs kid per class) and she actually taught special ed for many years.  It was a good fit and they welcomed my DS.  My mother (an amazing support for me) went to every preschool class and made sure he was ok.  He obviously has a significant speech delay and was not potty trained.  This preschool happens to be a co-op, encouraging the minimum of parents helping at two classes a month.  So, my mom did not really stick out to other moms or the kids because it is the norm to be in the classroom.  It can be really useful to have IEP services delivered into a preschool setting. The OT or SLP could collaborate with the teacher and work on those areas where he needs help in the setting where the skills are needed.  This will be an issue, and I have already talked with friends and collegues about it.  I teach in the same district we live, so it has its good and bad points.  I have gotten a lot of advice from one of the district SLPs who works with the gets going from preschool to kinder.  She has been a great resource and of course confidential.

    A lot of families elect to keep private services to enhance the school's educational services. This was what we were trying to do until it just wasn't working. I know a few families who've done a traditional mainstream preschool class in addition to the ASD or integrated class where they get IEP services. 

    I know down the road, the district is going to be involved.  Since he has a summer birthday, our plan is to wait until age 6 anyway or he would be a very fresh age 5.  Truth be told, I am not sure if he would be mainstreamed by 6 anyway.  We may be looking at an ASD classroom or something similar.  His SLP believes that he may be ready to be in kinder by age 6, with the proper supports.  I guess no one will really know what that will look like since this is not for two more years.  

    We didn't have a dx going into kindie, but we did red shirt DS because he seemed emotionally immature. It was useful in kindie and again at the end of high school/college transition; but otherwise it didn't bring much to the party. 

    Two things to be aware of, since you've opted out of school district based services for now. 

    1) Be sure you live in a community where kindie is required. It is. If it's optional, you may end up in a situation where you show up with a kid old enough for first how is enrolled in first. This is riskier with kids who have IEPs since LRE can be interpreted as a classroom with same age peers.

    2) The burden for starting the CST and IEP will be on you. Since there won't be a smooth transition from district preschool IEP team to kindie, you'll want to make sure you ask for the MFE early enough that the district can send people out to observe him and interview his current teachers. We bridged DS to public school in 4th; getting an IEP in place took over 9 calendar months. Fortunately the district worked with me to put supports in place from the first day of school, but they didn't have to.


    He had his 4 year old well check visit and his regular pedi thinks this is a good plan for now.  He knows a dev pedi that can look at him about 6 months before kinder.  He told me not to worry I am getting DS great services right now. He is the type of doctor that waits to see how things present themselves and is not in a rush to get him DX just yet.  I know this can be a good or bad thing. 

    Have you not been seen by a dev pedi? Ever? No he has not.  I just was asking the regular pedi we have had since birth about it.  He said that he can arrange the appointment but thinks in order to have a clearer picture, this would be about a year from now.  He basically told me that between OT, speech, and the great experience at the preschool, he thinks the services he is getting are good and that the actual dx can wait.  I have mixed feelings but at the time (2 weeks ago) my insurance was not part of this equation. 

    If you are afraid that your insurance is about to go south, I'd start the ball rolling now. These can be really expensive appointments and many of the nest people don't take a lot of different kinds of insurance. DS's doesn't take any.  I know.  I need to research this now.

    Now if my insurance changes we may have to have a dx in order to get covered, again, something I won't know for quite some time.

    In some states, an ASD dx would get you mandated services.  Not sure if this is the case here in Washington State or not.

     I wrote an email to my union rep of the district and she said as a bargaining unit, we will be voting on this in September/October and the actual coverage would begin in January.  Sucks that i won't know for a while.  On a side note, I talked to my SLP today and she groaned at the possibility of me switching to Group Health.  She also said they are not easy to work with at all.  

    I hope it works out for you. If you will be getting a lesser policy, it might make sense to try to get the ASD workup before the end of the calendar year.  Thank you I hope so too.  I will keep everyone posted as things happen.

    To everyone else responding to my whines, thanks. 
    :D



     
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    I hate to say it, it's the healthcare law changes that are the driver in a lot of these changes you're experiencing.  Ours went up over $100/mo on the premiums and the services we now have covered are peanuts compared to what we used to have.  But rest assured, our deductible tripled..

    We used to have just under a "Cadillac" plan for insurance but since the law changes have taken effect, we can't even purchase that plan even on our own without the employer which covered FAR FAR more than what our current, and far more expensive plan does. I used to have unlimited visits to the Chiro and now they cap it at 10 per year. I used to be able to go to any doctor/specialist for a $40 copay, now they bill but we never know how much it's going to be and usually it's $100+ which adds up quickly when you've got a kiddo that needs more visits than the average well baby/child. Routine foot care (DH had a corn cut down at the doc's office) - not covered - to the tune of $250 for what amounted to a <3minute procedure - on top of the reason for the office visit which was another $120... I honestly have sat back many times and wondered if we showed up to the doc and paid out of pocket if it'd be cheaper than going through insurance... really...


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    -auntie- said:
    Micelle78 said:
    -auntie- said:
    Micelle78 said:
    Well my DS just turned 4 two weeks ago.  We did EI and it was kinda a joke.  The district SLP canceled all the time and did not offer make up times (always some story as to why).  The other ladies in the rotation kind of phoned it in as far as how they did their job.  I know that sounds really judgey, but it was our experience. 

    That's a shame. Two of our 4 IU SLPs (in PA, SPED services are through county cooperatives) were better than anything we could find outside the system. And since they were embedded in the school, where he needed the skills to interact with peers, they were able to be more effective than someone off site in an office complex. The other two were duds, but that was more a function of choosing to have 3 kids in the 4 years of high school and having a model of ASD honed in a RTF.

    Did your IFSP include a total number of sessions? The way ours was set up was once a week in a rotation.  One week he saw the SLP and the next was OT.  etc.  So if someone did not show up to our home, we did not have a visit.   IEPs generally do and include significant wiggle room that allows a lot of cancellations. Were the team unable to give you strategies to work in speech. An IFSP is ideally supposed to be about helping a parent help their child. If I remember correctly, IEPs here start at age 3 when you age out.  I was supposed to sign an IEP to get him the 3-5 year old services but that is when we decided to pull him from the program.

     When he aged out we decided to just stay doing private since my insurance was so good (no limits or referrals) and declined the district 3-5 year old services.  We had been doing both private and district.  Currently he just finished his first year of private preschool (two days a week for 3 hours), and is still doing one hour of SLP, and one hour of OT.  He responds really well to each of these people on his team and we are seeing really good progress.

    Does the school district operate EI where you live? YES it does.  This is another reason it was so difficult for me.  I work in this district and was actually pretty surprised at the lack of quality.  My husband was pretty upset right away but I convinced him to give it a try and not judge it so harshly right away.  We were also at the beginning of our journey and had a lot of emotions we were dealing with.  However, it did not get better. 

    That's a shame. It's very difficult to advocate as a teacher within the same district. I know parents who have moved to avoid this complication.  I can see why it may present a problem.  I guess we will see. We have talked about moving or declaring MIL as his daycare in order to switch districts.

    In most places, these are completely independent of each other with completely different teams. I wish this was the case. 

    Even when the district administers EI, often the actual service professionals specialize in different ages- sort of like elementary teachers have their preferred grades. So they might not have carried over. Or if they did, they may have been better with preschoolers rather than toddlers.  Maybe.  I hope so too because I have a feeling I am not the only one that had this experience.

      What did the district offer? basically, once he aged out of the EI portion, they were getting him ready to go into their preschool setting.  It would have been a different group of teachers, but I was so jaded by the system that I could not do it. 
    That's a shame that you were so wary of the very district you work for.  Seriously, I love this district but I was told by others later after our incident, that my story did not surprise them.  There are a lot of great things happening here that do very much outweigh this.  Its a fairly large district too, we have over 20 schools, 14 are elementary.

     They also wanted him in a class of limited verbal kids only.  There would not have been any NT kids or kids with slightly better verbal skills.  

    Where was he on the verbal skills continuum at the time. I know it hurts your heart to have your child included with kids who seem very different from NT peers. I remember sending DS to a reading lab school where the kids were noticeably different and where his teachers raved that he was the most socially appropriate child in the room. WTF? My kid shouldn't ever be the most socially appropriate kid in a room unless he's in there alone.  At the time he had one or two verbs.  He had lots of nouns.  Probably over 100 to 150.  So I know based off of that, he was pretty low.  Sounds like you have run into this too.  I just wish someone from the future could come and tell me that all these decisions are the best that I could make given my options.

    But sometimes the trade-off is worth it. Some of the young adults I know who have had the best outcomes have been kids who were placed in ASD/ABA and Speech classrooms. IME, integrated classes at this age can be more of a "feel good" strategy- in practice it can be hard to redirect the NT peer models to not always seek one another out as playmates.  I can see what you mean by "feel good".  I am not sure at this point if he would have done any different with kids that were not NT.

    When I asked if they would consider letting him try the slightly more verbal class, they looked at my almost condescendingly and said "This is the best fit for him." 

    Ouch. That must've been hard to hear. Maybe she felt the level of intervention would be preferable for him. Generally, schools are loath to move a kid "down" the LRE spectrum so often they start then out with more supports in a classroom and tweak "up" as they become more comfortable with his skill set. The other direction feels like failure.  Yeah, it was just like, this is what it is... not going to even entertain my questions/conerns

     I was upset by this and called anonomously and spoke with the director of the preschool site just very calmy asking about the other class of slightly more verbal kids and she said " Oh Mrs. M has worked with us for over 25 years and her opinion would obviuosly be the best placement.  She then went on to praise how great this lady was and I was and that she trusted her judgement.  This convo was very polite but there was an undertone of sorry you won't get me to budge at all

    Ugh. I hate when schools are so rigid. This is one of those situations where being an employee of the district makes it harder to advocate.  I think this may have played into it a bit.  Also, I teach NT kids all day with the exception of a few.  they come to me usually with aspergers or a delay that is still mainstream-able.  It feels very weird to be on the other side of this situation.  My heart has a softer spot than it did.  I look at some of these kids in my class now and wonder what heartache the parents have been through (My DS just turned 4 a couple weeks ago.  The kids I teach range in age from 10-14.)

     This is when we talked with our SLP and got him enrolled into a private religious preschool she heard good things about.  It is centered around two things:play and God. I took it as a sign that he was supposed to be there when I talked to his teacher (they take one special needs kid per class) and she actually taught special ed for many years.  It was a good fit and they welcomed my DS. 

    I'm glad he had a good preschool experience. DS attended a nice community coop successfully. Our school didn't have parents in the classrooms, we did support stuff.  YES!  We seriously loved it and felt like it was a place that accepted he was different in a more loving way.

     My mother (an amazing support for me) went to every preschool class and made sure he was ok.  He obviously has a significant speech delay and was not potty trained.  This preschool happens to be a co-op, encouraging the minimum of parents helping at two classes a month.  So, my mom did not really stick out to other moms or the kids because it is the norm to be in the classroom.  

    Wow, that's great. Schools here don't take kids who aren't fairly indepenedent in the bathroom.  I got seriously lucky between a great mom and great preschool.  I remember some of the staff was trying to give me PT tips when I mentioned *stupidly* that I was happy to find a preschool that was ok with a kid not potty trained.  Next thing i know they are scooping the advice onto me and I almost cried.  They have no idea about my son's struggles and I like it that way.  I almost dread him being in the district because everyone will know.  I don't want it to sound like I am embarassed of him, but I also don't want people in my business KWIM? 

    It can be really useful to have IEP services delivered into a preschool setting. The OT or SLP could collaborate with the teacher and work on those areas where he needs help in the setting where the skills are needed.  This will be an issue, and I have already talked with friends and collegues about it.  I teach in the same district we live, so it has its good and bad points.  I have gotten a lot of advice from one of the district SLPs who works with the gets going from preschool to kinder.  She has been a great resource and of course confidential.

    I'm glad you found the SLP. Are there any parents support groups or SEPTAs? Sometimes parents who've navigated your district are the best resource for information.  Yes she is great and the first time I talked to her she gave me her personal email and said I can call her at home, go to lunch with her and chat--anytime.  Such a gracious offer.  Many years ago (like probably 10-12 years ago) her daughter and I both worked at the same crappy store in the mall.  She remembered that and I think being the same age as her daughter, she felt a closer bond to me because she immediately was offering to help any way I needed.-- even if I just needed to vent.

    A lot of families elect to keep private services to enhance the school's educational services. This was what we were trying to do until it just wasn't working. I know a few families who've done a traditional mainstream preschool class in addition to the ASD or integrated class where they get IEP services. 

    I know down the road, the district is going to be involved.  Since he has a summer birthday, our plan is to wait until age 6 anyway or he would be a very fresh age 5.  Truth be told, I am not sure if he would be mainstreamed by 6 anyway.  We may be looking at an ASD classroom or something similar.  His SLP believes that he may be ready to be in kinder by age 6, with the proper supports.  I guess no one will really know what that will look like since this is not for two more years.  

    We didn't have a dx going into kindie, but we did red shirt DS because he seemed emotionally immature. It was useful in kindie and again at the end of high school/college transition; but otherwise it didn't bring much to the party. 

    Two things to be aware of, since you've opted out of school district based services for now. 

    1) Be sure you live in a community where kindie is required. It is. Good. If it's optional, you may end up in a situation where you show up with a kid old enough for first how is enrolled in first. This is riskier with kids who have IEPs since LRE can be interpreted as a classroom with same age peers.

    2) The burden for starting the CST and IEP will be on you. Since there won't be a smooth transition from district preschool IEP team to kindie, you'll want to make sure you ask for the MFE early enough that the district can send people out to observe him and interview his current teachers. We bridged DS to public school in 4th; getting an IEP in place took over 9 calendar months. Fortunately the district worked with me to put supports in place from the first day of school, but they didn't have to.


    He had his 4 year old well check visit and his regular pedi thinks this is a good plan for now.  He knows a dev pedi that can look at him about 6 months before kinder.  He told me not to worry I am getting DS great services right now. He is the type of doctor that waits to see how things present themselves and is not in a rush to get him DX just yet.  I know this can be a good or bad thing. 

    Have you not been seen by a dev pedi? Ever? No he has not.  I just was asking the regular pedi we have had since birth about it.  He said that he can arrange the appointment but thinks in order to have a clearer picture, this would be about a year from now. 

    The longer you wait, the more information data you can collect. It will also make his differences compared to well developing peers more obvious. It could even allow some comorbids to reveal and be dxd which will give more clarity as well.  That is the idea.  I am scared of the co-morbids.  Bi-polar and anxiety run really heavy on DH's side of the family and the half sister has anxiety and schizophrenia. 

     He basically told me that between OT, speech, and the great experience at the preschool, he thinks the services he is getting are good and that the actual dx can wait.

    I would normally agree at 2-3, but approaching school age it might be useful to have a medical dx. While WA doesn't have an Autism Mandate for insurance, the do have limited parity around ASD/mental health issues. 


    And of course, without a medical dx, you can't apply for a Katie Becket Waiver which could provide supplemental insurance for therapies you primary doesn't cover. 

      I have mixed feelings but at the time (2 weeks ago) my insurance was not part of this equation. 

    If you are afraid that your insurance is about to go south, I'd start the ball rolling now. These can be really expensive appointments and many of the nest people don't take a lot of different kinds of insurance. DS's doesn't take any.  I know.  I need to research this now.

    Now if my insurance changes we may have to have a dx in order to get covered, again, something I won't know for quite some time.

    In some states, an ASD dx would get you mandated services.  Not sure if this is the case here in Washington State or not.

    Not a mandate yet, but there is some parity. See the link above.

     I wrote an email to my union rep of the district and she said as a bargaining unit, we will be voting on this in September/October and the actual coverage would begin in January.  Sucks that i won't know for a while.  On a side note, I talked to my SLP today and she groaned at the possibility of me switching to Group Health.  She also said they are not easy to work with at all.  

    I hope it works out for you. If you will be getting a lesser policy, it might make sense to try to get the ASD workup before the end of the calendar year.  Thank you I hope so too.  I will keep everyone posted as things happen.

    To everyone else responding to my whines, thanks. 

    Thanks Auntie, again, you were a very good help to me!
    :D





     
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    Not sure how to edit, but when I say staff-- I meant the teachers I work with at the middle school.  they had lots of advice as to how I should train him.  I smiled through it then and sobbed all the way home :(

     
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