Families often ask "can I use my insurance for intensive aphasia therapy?". Unfortunately, the answer is 'no', and there's a reason for that. It may be helpful to have an overview of how your insurance works.
Insurance can be very frustrating. In a typical day:
- The provider does a lot of background work to get your insurance company to pay for your treatment
- It takes several people to pull this off
- Medical fees increase because they have to go back and forth with the insurance company several times before the payment is resolved
- It may be months before the provider gets paid for services you've already had
As the patient, you have to:
- Wait for authorization
- Fill out forms or
- Prove that you need the treatment
In the end, your insurance decides what's best. And cheaper.
- They may only pay for loved one's short-term rehabilitation
- They set how much therapy you get and for how long
- They don't care that you can't speak with your grandchildren or your doctor
Your speech therapist has to work within these restrictions, which often doesn't produce the best results. Then you end up with the "plateau" diagnosis and you're on your own.
So, why is it a good thing that we don't take insurance?
- You get the treatment you need to make a big difference in your aphasia
- If an approach doesn't work, it gets changed immediately
- Your therapy is done with intensive therapy experts who only treat aphasia
- You work on what's most important to you
- You get access to education, counseling, and problem-solving, even after you leave
- You make significant progress!
You must decide what is most important to you. Do you want to achieve your goals or get stuck in a system defined by an insurance company?
Some clients say that they aren't happy with their current therapy or progress, but they want to use their insurance because it's "free". My advice is to use your insurance, of course, but use it after you've done an intensive program–you'll get a lot more out of your insurance dollars.
We create >detailed plan for you to continue your recovery and experience success. If you aren't making good progress with your current therapy 2 hours a week, maybe it's time to give intensive therapy a try.
