How much is it worth for the cure?

 How much is it worth to cure your child of autism?

How about $436 a minute or $30,500 a day?  Chances are your insurance isn’t going to cover it. Families with children on the autism spectrum are looking for help.  Many times, the places or services that can help have long waiting lists.

There are some national organizations that can provide service right away. You might want to take a second or third look before you buy.  The service is costly and the providers will come right into your home.  Usually, the providers offer immediate service and promise that the service will be at no cost to you because your insurance will cover the cost.  These services are almost always out of network so there is no cap or oversight of the costs. 

One such organization is Perfect Child.  It provides in-home service with a promise that your insurance will cover the service.  The therapy is usually offered by people called behavior technicians.  In many states, these people have little more than a high school diploma.  Their wages are low, roughly around $20 an hour.  And, of course, they need to be supervised by someone with an actual license and whose fees are much higher.  The family pays the hourly rate for both.  One example of the service, a behavioral technician spent 70 minutes with a child working on a puzzle and playing with educational toys.  The insurance company was billed $15,200 for the technician and another $15,300 for the supervision.  A total of $436 a minute.  The insurance company denied the claim.  Ultimately the family was billed $911,400 for services denied by their medical insurance provider.   Perfect Child, the company doing the billing, kept encouraging the family to appeal to their insurance company.  

Insurers ask for proof of service.  Providers say they have sent the proof but nothing arrives.  In some instances, families have been sued by the fraudulent providers for bills for the fraudulent services.

Promising families the sky who are looking to provide the very best for their children are ripe for picking. These fraudulent services make promises that are very appealing. The "cure rate" of these organizations is very low and when the insurance isn't paid, no plan of care is offered. How much is it worth to cure your child of autism?