While we acknowledge that unforeseen circumstances happen, missing your appointment impacts 3 people: 1) your child loses the consistency of therapy and repetition of goals for that day, 2) you are taking away the opportunity for another child to use that time slot for therapy and 3) Your therapist now has a gap in their day. Therefore we kindly ask for 24 hour notice when canceling an appointment to give us the opportunity to adjust our schedules. On the flip side, we will address the unforeseen circumstances where you were unable to provide adequate notification on a case by case basis.
If you fail to provide notification and your therapist shows up for the appointment you will be charged a no show fee (see policy form). This is not a fee that is charged to your insurance company.
As a result of any missed appointment (no matter the reason) your therapist will work to make up the missed appointments on another day.
It is our commitment to each client to keep to the set # of sessions each month. Therefore when an appointment is canceled, the understanding is that it is made up to maintain the set # of sessions we have committed to for benefit of your child.
We accept all insurance companies (for the most part) it will just depend on what coverage you have (in and out of network) as to whether or not it may be covered.
We are in network for BCBS, Cigna, & UHC
We do accept Aetna, Humana and others as well
Medicaid and CareSource are accepted as well as PeachState and Amerigroup (not Wellcare).
**You are encouraged to call and inquire about your speech therapy coverage as well as providing us the documentation to verify your benefits. Please note that you need to ask not only if you have coverage but if a specific diagnosis (Autism, Down Syndrome, CP, Developmental Delay, Articulation, Apraxia, Expressive Language etc) is covered and if there are any stipulations to the coverage (ex. Is it restorative in nature - meaning did they have to have had speech, lost it and are trying to regain it back).
We see each child for 30 minutes. We feel that 30 minutes is a highly effective length of time for children to meet their goals twice a week. Your child can be considered for more sessions dependent on your payment situation (insurance coverage/private pay) and needs of your child.
We do encourage twice a week sessions to start until your child meets goals and then may need to go on a maintenance program at which time they will be reduced to 1x/week etc.
There is no way of telling how long your child will need therapy. However, what you do with the information and suggestions we provide you will make a big difference in the carryover of skills and will help your child reach their goals sooner. Consistency is key. The more caretakers of your child that you can get on board to address the goals, the better! (Ex. Grandparents, teachers, babysitters, older siblings etc.)
Bottom line, at a minimum, we say to anticipate at least 6 months or longer but that is not to say that if your child reaches their goals sooner that they have to finish out the 6 months. They can be discharged at any point.
This answer goes hand in hand with the previous question but also is impacted by the severity if your child. No two kids are alike but the more you adjust what you are doing to assist your child and the more you take the time to work on the goals and make it a lifestyle change the sooner you will see the fruits of your labor!
The turning point for kids is when they build AWARENESS - no matter what age - or what the goals are - once they become aware of what they need to do, what they have to do differently, how to say a sound, how they breathe while talking to create fluent speech, how to put words together and not point/grunt etc…then they will know how to fix it and its at THAT point you’ll notice the change. So - the more you can help BUILD THE AWARENESS for them and help make them tuned into what they are doing - whether its articulation, language, fluency etc….the better chance of seeing results. On the other hand, if you continue to do the same thing, not requiring anything of your child to get what they want or not correcting the errors or sitting down and working on their goals daily, it will take longer and will make our jobs harder.
Assuming your child is not negatively impacted, you can absolutely participate in therapy. Typically we have found that children do better without their parents sitting at the table with them. In a situation where the child wants the parent to be present, they may be used as the ‘reward and/or consequence’ meaning that as long as they are doing what is expected the parent can stay - but if the child starts to misbehave the parent will leave the room. When the child gets back on track they can work towards getting the parent back in the room with them.
Many times parents will be within reach or in a close room to hear what is going on in order to be ‘present’ but not literally in the same room.
If you are filing claims through your insurance company, we will invoice you when we have a full months worth of EOBs to send you one bill for the whole month. You will have 2 weeks to pay from the date of the invoice.
If you are a private pay client you will get an invoice on the last date/week of therapy for the month and will have 2 weeks to pay from the date of the invoice.
If you pay via the link in the Quickbooks invoice it is no cost to you to pay from your account to mine, however, if you choose to pay via credit card there will be a processing fee attached to the invoice.
Checks are also accepted as a form of payment made out to Advantage Speech Therapy Services.
We kindly ask for a 2 week notification unless we mutually agree to a different outcome. This provides your therapist the opportunity to wrap up with your child and provide you all the necessary information to move forward.