Melissa Stone, Director of DDS, is in charge of the new rules for therapy, and she has agreed to meet with the Medicaid Saves Lives founder. We are still setting up the date and time, but please comment with your concerns and comments so that she can be sure to relay them!

Here are some concerns listed by other parents and concerned citizens:

M. Johnson:
1. Who will be deciding what services my child is qualified for and how much time she needs to achieve her goals?
2. What type of time delay will there be with determining the above?
3. What tools will these individuals be using to determine if she is qualified? To what lengths will they go to, to see she gets the services she needs??
4. If extra time is requested beyond the cap of 90 minutes, what is the process to get that extension, on the parents, the therapist, and the school where she attends?
5. I do feel that many services are abused and that something does need to be done, but with that said, what amount will truly be saved by going through this process and possibly contracting out to a third party?

K. Brunen:
In addition there is already what seems to be an eternity for 1) evaluations to be done, 2) then get sent to Ped, 3) referral to be sent back to facility and then 4) scheduled for therapy. This past summer we had a speech eval done and it was over a month for all of that to happen prior to beginning treatment. That’s extremely valuable time. I’m also very concerned on how and who will be determining who gets the extension. As a PT in an Ortho clinic most of my life when pre-autos we’re required for additional therapy, most of the time it was an administrator with very little medical knowledge of specific conditions or functions deciding if further therapy was warranted and justified. This also puts tremendous stress and work on the already over-worked therapists. Their time needs to be spent in therapy with our kids not doing more paperwork fighting to get additional therapy that many of our children desperately need.

Comment below to list your concerns!