My son received speech and OT at his preschool - free of charge. His tuition is also free of charge now that he has an IEP. Does your son get any services from his school district?

Well, both my boys are in school now and they get all the OT, PT, Speech, music therapy,and yoga therapy there. I do private special needs gymnastics and that is very expensive. I do apply for grants and get help financially through the ARC. Is your son in Early Intervention or is he school age? It is almost impossible to get insurance to cover therapy. Hugs Denise

tell me about it.....my daughter gets her speech, and ot at her school and we recently started behavior therapy..insurance only covers 8 of those sessions.
I read alot and try to do some on my own....my brother is an attorney for a firm that helps get insurance to pay what they owe....you can guess he stays pretty busy with workmans comp cases and such....havent asked him for help as of yet....he practices in pensacola florida.......

Because Nick is so young - 20 months - he receives Early Intervention which is free for me - some families pay $50 a month but never more than that - they cover the combined PT, OT and ST and they also contract in the ABA provider - they have to do this until he's 3 it's state mandated then they transfer him to the public school system at 3 and I have to have an IEP written for him at that time.

Depending on your childs age give your school district a call and try to find out what services you can get covered for treatment - I believe the schools will cover ST, OT, PT and ABA therapy.

You can also find your local Autism Resource center and they may be able to help you hook up with some services and may be able to get you financial aid. I know that around here I can apply for financial aide to get him Hippotherapy - I think that is what it's called - it's the horseback riding but I don't think he can get it until he's 3. I know that there are other things I can look into but I'm still learning my way around and am focused right now on interviewing ABA providers. :-)

Good luck!

well, sam gets speech, ot, handwriting therapy, in school
he also gets social stories there.
I just started him in occupational therapy outside of school. he goes every other week for an hour and that is for six months. We have insurance and though it doesn't pay for all of it, it does pay for most of it. what we get at school is free. we also work with him at home. he has weakness in both hands so we have him pick up rice with a pair of tweasers ( suggestion from ot) he also stretches silly putty.
You might want to check with your pediatrician to see if there is an early intervention place that could help you. You could also email your local autism society to see what they advise.

I would also look into TEFRA, which here in the states will cover a lot of things. My wife and I are going through the process of getting it through, but the carrot of actual help in paying for ABA, and all of the other assorted therapies, makes chasing the stick worth it.

We has 1 1/2 hours per week of ST free through Early Intervention. Now he has 4 hours of Special PreK 3 times per week at local Elementary School, ST included. Everything else is just me.

YOU MIGHT QUALIFY FOR SUPPLUMENTAL SECURITY INCOM (SSI) CONTACT YOUR LOCAL SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICE AND ASK TO APPLY. YOU NEED A DIAGNOSIS-ITS A PHONE INTERVIEW THEY SEND YOU A PACKET. SOMETIMES THEY DENY YOU THE FIRST TIME SO JUST REAPLY. YOU ALSO MIGHT QUALIFY FOR KATIE-BECKETT. YOU CAN CONTACT A SERVICE COORDINATOR AGENCY TO HELP CALL YOUR LOCAL INFANT TODDLER PROGRAM AND ASK FOR A LISTING. FROM WHAT MY SERVICE COORDINATIOR SAID YOU COULD HAVE A MILLION DOLLARS AND STILL QUALIFY FOR KATE BECKETT. THERE ARE ALSO SOME AGENCIES THAT HAVE FREE SERVICES. IF YOU HAVE FAMILY MAGAZINE OR ONE OF THOSE LOCAL THIN PAPER MAGAZINES THEY OFTEN HAVE AT THE DOCTORS OFFICE THEY OFTEN HAVE ADDS FOR FREE DEVELOPMENTAL AND OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIES AND OTHERS AS WELL.SERVICE COORDINATORS ARE GREAT AND THEY KNOW THE ROPES REAL WELL YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO GET SOME GRANTS TO. GOOD LUCK. OH YEAH IF YOU QUALIFY FOR SSI YOU ALSO QUALIFY FOR MEDICADE. HERES HOPING. GOOD LUCK

we have bcbs of michigan and they have been great so far.
i thought the law was passed that if your insurance covered any other kind of neurological disorder then it must cover treatments for autism?
MEMINE: what is TEFRA?

My son gets the services paid for through the insurance, in addition to what he receives at school because I simply will not take no for an answer. Get a copy of your policy. I did, and after they had denied all of my claims, I took where it said they HAD to pay for it in their own policy and shoved it back up their butts. Of course they are going to try everything they can not to pay it. They are an insurance company. That is where you have to advocate. I am telling you, someone gave me this advice and I was insulted that they thought I wasn't a good mom or didn't do enough. Not so. I just had NO CLUE WHAT TO DO! If your family of 4 makes more than 3200 a month, that is the cutoff for SSI, so if you cannot get that, then you have GOT to make the insurance pay. Our insurance now pays for $2500 worth of therepy a month that I could NEVER afford on my own.

PS- You do not have to be divorced, just separated, but it was a little birdie that told you that, not me.

I never had treatment. I did finally get into the program that covers all which government funded if you wait for years like I did. If privately then you pay. We also get funding from the government for a disability benefit and a thing called special services at home which is used to hire respite or any other needs depending on income.

I know what you mean! If you don't work, break up your family and depend only on the government to support yourself than your child can get all the help he needs! But if you are a hard working middle class family who can barely put food on the table, you fall into that income bracket where you get no help. We just got denied for SSI for our son because we make too much money. I couldn't believe it because we don't make alot of money at all! We are researching other options in our state to get financial assistance with therapies and equipment. But for now we are screwed!

Tefra is medicaid based on disability. It pays for my sons private speech, OT and 33 hours of ABA therapy in my home. I'd say no you don't have to divorce or separate for sure. = )

TEFRA is a wonderful bit of legislation, that had quite an impact on the tax code, but really, one of the reasons I call it wonderful is that it allows for medicaid for children diagnosed with Autism, or other spectrum disorders, with a number of caveats.

South Carolina has a great site to explain it at http://tinyurl.com/2cqch8

Sadly, Medicaid is considerably better than the private health insurance available through a very large, and well known, employer which shall remain nameless for the time being.

Combined with Ryan's Law in SC, it is a wonderful, wonderful, thing.