New here, but ned reccs for BostonWe have seen Karen Levine she has practice in Lexingtion now, we saw her at Cambridge Health and we now see Dr Choueiri at Tufts New England Medical Ctr- she is a dev ped in the Center for Children with Special Needs. I have no idea what the wait list is like for either one of them, you may want to call to see. We were recommended to Karen Levine. I tried to call last night to her private practice (it looks like she is still ASSOCIATED with Cambridge but not working or something?) They have a voice mail instructing you to send them email, and they don't answer their email. I would call all of the places that you listed and see what waiting periods they give you. I dont know if you can make appointments with all of them and then go with whoever sees you first. I agree about it being hard to wait that long. If your son has EI services see if they can offer you more until you have his appointment to be evaluated. Our son was in a play group, had ST and OT all through EI before he got his evaluation and was diagnosed. I might have missed an earlier post from you and I apologize if I did, but what are your concerns with your son that makes you believe there is something wrong with him? Also, the people on this message board are wonderful and full of information. I'm still pretty new myself so I am sorry if I can not offer you more advice.We are at the start of our POSSIBLE journey, and we're not even sure yet what the journey might be. We are interested in getting a developmental eval done for our son, especially after rotten luck/no progress at all taking the neurology route recommended by our son's pediatrician. We have basically just been "threatened" with an autism diagnosis by this neuro who did no testing at all except blood work on our son, but he won't even give us the diagnosis yet for at LEAST another six months and won't address any of the alternative suggested by our son's SLP, etc. So basically we are in purgatory are are looking for quicker routes to getting our son help if he needs it before his EI qualifying time runs out, which the neuro doesn't seem to care about at all. Our son just turned 2 two weeks ago. I see there is the LADDERS program, the Children's Hospital of Boston, the National Autism Center in Randolph, and others like a specific doctor we heard about through Cambridge Health Alliance. Can any of you tell me where we're likely (in your experience) to find the fastest appt times but stilla quality team doing the evaluation? Where does the happy medium lie in the Boston area? The neuro said it's 8-12 months to get into the Children's Developmental Medicine evals. (Gee thanks neuro for wasting nine months of our time doing nothing before suggesting it. We could have been done by now.) How can any of these doctors in good conscience on one hand beat you over thed with the idea that birth to three is the vital time and then out of the other corner of their mouths tell you you can't have an appt for another year? :( Thanks for anything you can suggest Oh and I forgot to add that we haven't been wowed by this neuros bedside manner, but we were told by them that we aren't allowed to transfer who we see within the practice so we'll have to go elsewhere. Way to keep the kids' best interests front and center, people. We went through Childrens Hospital in Boston Developmental Medicine department. It was a 6 month waiting list, but they put us on a cancelation list and we were seen in 3 months. Their phone number is 617-355-7025. We love the doctor we see there. Start with them. I have heard good things about Boston Medical Center too. Good luck. I think you are going to find a waiting list wherever you try thanks. I will try. I just don't know if I feel like we can wait that long and I feel trapped right now.My son deserves better than wait and see. [QUOTE=Benjamins_mom]We are at the start of our POSSIBLE journey, and we're not even sure yet what the journey might be. ladders is aswome i call them my second family they help me so much i ewent for spl there my neroulisgt is there an it a wonderfull place me an my parents go to there connfernce every year i have my own booth were i sell my art .this year i was ask to be on the adult gust speaker pannel .good luck I would look into Devlopmental Peds in your area, or even travel to see one. Call each one you find and ask them if they are a developmental ped, and do they see children with autism everyday? They usually see you within weeks, take insurance and give you an answer that day. Listen, for a doctor who deals with autism daily, giving a diagnosis is not that hard. They usually know within minutes of meeting your child if they are going to need to give a diagnosis. I would tell them you want to be seen asap and call daily to see if there are cancellations. Politely persistent. We drove over an hour for our appt, and was supposed to take two visits, but I begged the doc to give us an answer that day, as at the time, my girl did nothing but screech in the car. He spent nearly three hours with us, but told us what we already knew: our girl had severe autism. (She is high functioning now though Did you e:mail Karen directly? She opened Helping Children with Challenges, I don't think she is with the Alliance anymore. I don't know if she is in today because I had e:mailed her a question this morning and have not heard back and she is usually very speedy with her e:mails. She is the only person Liam has ever seen except for Naomi Chedd from Building Blocks. If you live North of Boston, I would look into the Northshore/Northeast Arc and Building Blocks. Your EI people can help you with it. They can evaluate and provide services even before you speak to an MD. If they decide you need it then they provide, and its covered by EI. I did finally hear from her. She doesn't accept insurance at her new place and apparently requires people to pay out of pocket and seek their own reimbursement.Sorry to sounds like a sourpuss, but to me that stinks to high heaven. I don't think it's an option for us at this stage. [QUOTE=liamsmummy] Did you e:mail Karen directly? She opened Helping Children with Challenges, I don't think she is with the Alliance anymore. I don't know if she is in today because I had e:mailed her a question this morning and have not heard back and she is usually very speedy with her e:mails. She is the only person Liam has ever seen except for Naomi Chedd from Building Blocks. If you live North of Boston, I would look into the Northshore/Northeast Arc and Building Blocks. Your EI people can help you with it. They can evaluate and provide services even before you speak to an MD. If they decide you need it then they provide, and its covered by EI. [/QUOTE]It does stink but it happens quite a bit. Lots of places near me don't take insurance, that is why insurance companies stink not the dr's who have a hard time with them. That is why I don't do things out of school except Karen because she is 100% worth the effort. She is one of the few people that actually "gets" Liam. She also works with people and does not chase you out the door with the bill. lol! No worries, one less person in my way when I need an appointment. j/k Oh and don't forget Building Blocks, it was created by Karen but she is not affiliated with them anymore and it si covered by EI.ThanksI am going to call Building Blocks,but their web site says they require an official diagnosis in order to participate, and that's what no one will give us. Not that we WANT it, but I think it's time to fish or cut bait, and I am just trying to get someone to give us an answer so we can do whatever it is we're going to need to do. I am so lost. Thanks :( I could well be talking about my proverbial rear end, but when the matter of insurance came up with our EI, we were told the following:
"We'll use your insurance, but if that runs out or they don't cover it, it's covered by the state. So don't even give it a thought"
So I find the whole insurance matter an odd thing to bring up.
Apart from a 2 co-pays associated with the assessments (about $50), we haven't paid a dime for treatment.
Our son starts pre-school next Thursday, just for a couple of hours a week to help with socialization and generally getting used to the format of school (he's still very young). All accompanied by an ABA therapist.
Again, not a penny. well you're lucky then because that's not the situation here in Massachusetts at all[QUOTE=Benjamins_mom]well you're lucky then because that's not the situation here in Massachusetts at all That's what I don't understand. I live in Andover, Massachusetts I've PM'd you Know exactly what you are going through with regard to everyone telling you time is critical, but no one is going to do an evaluation. Our son is now 2 1/2 years old. We live in the Boston area. We went with Dr Rafael Castro. He was great, and though it had a lot do with luck (a cancellation) we actually got in within a week of calling. Even without that, we were still going to see him within weeks. Not months. His e-mail is rcastro@iccdpartners.org Website with contact info here: http://www.iccdpartners.org/ Once you have the evaluation, I can provide tips on getting services quickly also. We went with Beacon and have seen tremendous progress. Tooting my own horn here, but here's the story of what we went through and how quickly we got services up and running. All in the Boston area. http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=34047&am p;PN=3 From thinking "something ain't right" to full ABA therapy, was about 8-weeks for us. Feel free to PM me any time I have to say, besides the copay when Karen was at the Alliance, I never paid anything either and I had some crazy services. But... I did just speak to my Building Blocks provider and she said yes to give them a call and make a "referral" for your son since he is under 3 and they will evaluate him. Naomi Chedd is still there and still the one who evaluates the under 3 kids. Good Luck! Thanks. Liamsmummy someone was asking about insurance issues.Look at this. They should be ashamed of themselves, honestly. https://secure.netsolhost.com/nesca-newton.com/intake.php I'm sorry this is getting hard. Please give them a call. They had a woman, Naomi Chedd who did the original get us in the door diagnosis for Liam. I didn't get a diagnosis from Karen for months later and he was in BB for that whole time. I don't 100% know if that is the way they still work but my BB provider is coming today at 3 and I will ask her. They do require it but they usually have someone on staff to give it to you... I have been meaning to join this board but have been very busy and only read it now and then but, as soon as I read about this poor mom struggling to get help for her son and hoping I could help, has it prompted me to join a few minutes ago. I have seen both Karen Levine and Rafael Castro with both of my boys. With Karen we had to self pay for the older one, but, it was free to see her for my then 20 month old through early intervention. I am not sure what catchment area you live in but, if it is a town that Thom Neponset Valley Early Intervention covers then you can have Karen see your child for free. I just missed out on that with my older son, but, my younger son saw her over the summer and is involved with Early intervention he is now a little over 2. He gets around 23 hours of ABA therapy at our house, and is in one of their weekly playgroups for socialization. My older son was only involved with Neponset Valley for a few months since we moved from out of state. When we went to Dr. Castro we had Blue Cross, I think the only insurance he takes. Unfortunately our insurance has changed so not sure what we'll do next. If you need a referal you can probably get one from your pediatrician. We live southwest of Boston and we have a peditrician here, but we did see a Developmental pediatrician in North Andover that was reccomended by Karen Levine. What area do you live in??? Maybe I can find some more info for you. |
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