Ok all you VT alums I need some help.
Last month I posted an amazing success story about how much my DD10 has improved since starting VT in May. I got the results of the visual perception eval the other day. All in all not nearly as strong as DO had led me to believe. Still some areas measuring below the 1st percentile and in single digits, a few areas around 25th percentile and one, Spatial Organization, measuring 84th percentile (2 years above age level).
On Tuesday DD texted me from the school bus saying she was feeling nauseous. She has been saying this off and on recently and complaining of stomach aches. She made it to school without getting sick, barely, and I immediately picked her up. I had a phone conference scheduled with the VT that morning so I told her about this. She said that she believed it was related to the VT, that her brain was reacting to suddenly getting visual input from both eyes. "That all over body feeling is common at this point." She said we should expect it to last a couple of weeks. We discussed that the OT in school is going to incorporate some of the VT excercises and that we might drop to once per week in office so DD doesn't get overwhelmed. A couple of weeks ago we reached the point where DD was beginning to get less cooperative. One particular exercise seemed to precipitate this nausea so its been harder to get her to do the excercises daily.
Later that day we went to her appointment and the front desk person told me I had an outstanding balance for a "no show" appointment. I made it absolutely clear I had cancelled the appointment in question - pointing to the exact time and day that I had called. She made clear there was "no way to write off a missed appointment." Eventually they relented but I made clear we would not be back if this was not resolved. I left with a bad feeling...
Today, 10 minutes before her appointment as DH was driving her there, I got a phone call saying they had left me a voicemail "a few days ago". (No such message on home or cell phone.) Supposedly they had discussed with us that the visual perception eval was not likely to be covered by insurance. (Umm... No they didn't. In fact they assured me it would be, collected my copay and sent me both hard copy and digital versions of the report.) 10 minutes before the appointment they tell me it was declined and I have to pay $500 for it before DD can be seen today. First I've heard of any of this while DD is in the car 10 minutes before her appointment. And don't forget the no show policy meant I would have gotten charged for the cancelled appointment...
Obviously no chance to discuss with insurance. For speech eval this summer I got all the evaluation codes and confirmed coverage before eval because I was told it might be an issue. So far insurance has covered everything except materials fee and fee for written report, neither of which I was told about in advance. I had NO reason to believe this would be an issue. And it is compounded by their less than truthful actions earlier this week over the appointment I cancelled and their claims that they left a voicemail about this. I am infuriated over their business practices and am beginning to see why VT may have such a poor reputation.
So... DH cancelled all future appointments. We have done 18 weeks of 2x a week therapy. We can do the exercises at home and school OT will be working with her. Had we been given any indication this might not be covered we would have a) worked through our insurance in advance and b) requested a visual perception IEE which I am pretty confident district would have done. This sort of business practice makes me question if I've been sold a bill of goods or if the results the DO reported were real.
So... Oh wise members of the forum... am I right to feel concerned enough about their business practices and lack of forthright communication to pull her out? Has she made enough progress that I can justify ending the long drive for services and continuing at home and with school OT? Am I just being rash and making a poor decision to pull DD put of a service that seems to be helping?
When we started the DO said she expected DD to need 6-8 months if we came to the clinic 2x per week, a year if we went once per week. They have also said she has made *amazing* progress - apparently well ahead of what they expected. I know some people here don't get any insurance coverage for this at all and/ or have limited the VT commitment to 12 weeks or so.
Input please?
