I took a xanax, hiked up my huevos and called the administrators of my insurance company. My doctor warned me that typically insurance does not cover speech therapy until a child is two years old. However, my insurance company covers speech therapy only when….
IT DOES NOT INVOLVE A DEVELOPMENTAL DELAY.
So now I get to call the actual insurance company to get the name of an in network audiologist, which will be covered at 90%. Who will then say, “Your child can hear just fine, so so the speech is due to a developmental delay.” Which will then not be covered. AT FUCKING ALL. Because apparently children don’t need to talk. Yes, I am aware that probably everything is fine. BUT!! What if it isn’t? What if speech therapy would help? Thanks insurance that we pay out the ass for, thanks for only covering $500 annually of well baby care. You fucking suck. And not in the good way. You suck with jagged hillbilly teeth and a dry mouth infested with oozing herpes sores. That’s how I feel about you motherfuckers.
Ugg. That sucks.
This is what I suggoost. See if you can have a speech therapist give an initial evaluation for free. Many times during this evaluation they’ll just hand over shitloads of exercises and games you can do without realizing they’re giving away their secrets. After the evaluation, THEN decide how to move forward. If the therapist is like, “meh” then just stop worrying about it! If the therapist is like “it could help” then decide if you’d like to go forward now or later. If the therapist is like “he really needs this” then you can have the panic attack. Just start writing down all the questions you have so that you can make the most of that one appointment.
In Minnesota we have ECFE – Early Childhood Family Education that will cover speech therapy. Maybe you have something similar in your state.
My son has received speech therapy since he was 18 months old. He hears just fine, has no other delay what so ever. Just a miscue when it comes to talking. It was recognized really early because he did not even babble like other babies.
My son, Nicholas is now 4 1/2 and still is in therapy. HE can talk with the best of them, but most people outside his ineer circle cannot understand him. So now he stops talking to people he does not know well. The “experts” say that this is a sign that he now knows that he does not talk well and will probably become more introverted without more help.
That is why it is important to start the therapy as soon as you notice that things are not right.
I hope that you find something in your area that will help. It is a hard thing to have to go through. I found it even harder since I had an older son who talked circles around everyone.
ugh.
My daughter’s in an early intervention program through our state because she was born a preemie and with multiple congenital heart defects, but anyone can get evaluated for free with a referral from their pediatrician. I bet your area has something similar. Ours is called First Steps. With ours, as long as you get them in before they’re three, they’ll be evaluated for free and, if its determined that they need services, a case manager and therapy team will be assembled. They try to bill your insurance (ours doesn’t pay for therapies either), but if your insurance doesn’t pay, then you pay on a sliding scale– with no parent ever being responsible for paying more than $40/month for all services no matter what your income level. My daughter is seeing a dietician once/month (low weight for adjusted dates and continues to be under 3rd percentile no matter what I feed her), an occupational therapist for feeding issues, and a physical therapist (just started walking at 18 months).
Sammy Darling…
Do you really want to get on the “What If” train? I’ve been reading in stealth lately and you are hitting some serious shit on up in here. I wonder what triggered this insanity? Take a breath, hold it, now let it go.
One day at a time. One issue at a time. Egg came on his own time, and I think he will develop on his own time. I don’t know if rushing a baby into development is wise? Have him checked out, do your homework like you have done, and RELAX Girl…
It seems that EGG has not picked up on chickens development track. I am sure there is an explanation for all of this. And if you loose your mind wondering “what if” you sure as hell won’t be paying enough attention to WHAT IS or What may be. Get off the rat wheel.
There are always more than one way to skin a cat with insurance companies. And sometimes we have to get on our bitch mobile and shake the trees a bit. If you don’t get what you need from one person you talk to, start climbing the chain of command until you get the answer you need. And the answer may not be what you want, but it may be what you need. It’s all about perception.
I encourage you not to loose your mind on the way. Keep us posted. If you need help from out here then ask for it. I am sure that one of your glorious readers has something good to offer. I didn’t read back the comments.
Hugs and Kisses
Jeremy
Do they realize that that doesn’t make any damn sense? It seems like a developmental delay would be the perfect reason for seeing a speech therapist?
I just caught up w/your last few posts and I am so with you. We are struggling a lot right now with things about Jackson’s development- 25 mos and still not saying a damn word…and now they are sending him to a developmental pediatrician to see if he has autism, but the waiting list to see her is 3 fucking months and the worry is fucking burying me.
I think most places have Early Intervention of some sort, so look into that – from what I’ve seen, it generally appears to be a county program. It sounds like they provide help for any and all delays.
Also, insurance sucks (I generally love my insurance company, but realize that I’m extremely lucky). But hurray for you for calling!
fuck that sucks!!!! sorry to hear it.
i had to see a speech therapist as a child i developed a serious stutter.
Okay, looks like it might be called Early Start.
our youngest one was getting Speech Therapy at his future elementary school, before he even entered Kindergarten. I guess it was funded by the school district (Encinitas/Carlsbad). he now is enrolled in a special program thru San Diego County Mental Health which is run by Rady’s chilren’s Hospital, in cooperation with the San Marcos/(San Diego)North County School District. It took a bunch of phone calls, IEP meetings and so on, to get him placed in this special program (For kids with behavioral issues, in his case adhd/Asperger)
It has been a wonderful program for him/us. There is a therapist on site, psych meeting on site as well (via Rady)
His previous school had no idea how to deal with my son, basically just endured him but hardly taught him anything. The behavior issues made it too hard for them to teach him anything. Now he’s thriving.
Not sure what Riverside County has to offer, but I would start calling around until you get some clear answers.
In my experience school district people tend to be quite friendly. You just need to know who to speak to, to make things happen.
We first had to take our son to a speech therapist who worked at the hospital, which our insurance covered as specialist/evaluation appointment. Once she’d diagnosed the speech problem and our insurance said they wouldn’t cover it, our pediatrician had us contact what in our area is called Early Intervention (I’ve also heard it called things such as Early Supports & Services, Early Support, etc.). They work with the school system, I think, so you could also call the local elementary school and stumble through it (“My baby? I think might have a speech delay? And I’ve heard of this thing? Where they test children before they get to school? And my friend’s state calls it Early Intervention? But I don’t know what it is here?”) until they understand what you mean and tell you who to call. Or you can ask any doctor, I’ll bet, or more likely the nurse will know. It’s completely free (or rather, you’ve already paid for it through your taxes). The pediatrician gave us a number to call, but I’ve also seen fliers up on school bulletin boards, grocery store bulletin boards, etc. Or, wait, maybe not every state has this? But I’ll bet they do, because I think it might be federal? Oh, like I know anything about it.
They sent a team to our house: a speech therapist, an occupational therapist, and an…educational therapist or something, I forget, and they put our firstborn through a series of tests (he was about 2 at the time), and he qualified for speech therapy but didn’t need either OT or educational therapy. So then he had speech therapy once or twice a week for the next 3 years, until he was 5. (Until he was 3, a therapist came to our house. When he turned 3, we brought him to the local elementary school to see the school’s speech therapist.) At age 5 he no longer qualified for the Early Intervention program unless it was causing academic problems, but it wasn’t causing academic problems so he was out. We could have chosen to pay for a speech therapist on our own at that point, but he seemed fine to us so we didn’t.
It seemed REALLY OVERWHELMING when I was talking to the pediatrician about it, because I was COMPLETELY unfamiliar with the program—but they made it really easy for us. It was like, I made one phone call (ack!) and they completely took over, and everyone in the program was SUPER NICE. And then of course I was all worried he’d be “tracked” into “special services” for his entire educational career, but no, they dumped him before he even started first grade, so it hasn’t been an issue.
Fuck. I’m sorry.
It’s disgusting. I hate those fuckers.
So does this mean that your insurance company is trying to make early intervention take over the coverage? Ridiculous because EI will make you try to get your insurance company to cover it. Ugh! I am so sorry that they are being such shit heads.
I agree with you that insurance companies “suck with jagged hillbilly teeth and a dry mouth infested with oozing herpes sores.”