Insurance Coverage Basics

Insurance at our Colorado-based offices

Insurance coverage is the same for all four of our locations in Colorado. Here at Therapies of the Rockies, we work with a wide variety of insurance plans and will gladly assist you in making sure your needs are met. The following information is designed to help you navigate the strenuous process with ease and see what your coverage is with us. Please feel free to give us a call if you have any specific questions or if there is any confusion we can help clear. We will do everything in our power to get you the answers you need.

Insurance Plans We Accept

We currently accept the following forms of insurance:
Medicaid Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+), Kaiser Permanente, TRICARE, Cigna*, Rocky Mountain Health Plans*, Humana*, UnitedHealthcare*, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Medicare.

 

* These insurance companies cover speech therapy services in the event of a traumatic brain injury, accident, stroke, or with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder or other congenital disorders. To accommodate clients who have these forms of insurance and have a speech or language deficit but do not fall into one of those categories, we also accept private pay as well as flexible spending accounts.

Insurance information for parents: Speech language therapy

When a child presents with speech and language deficits, there are often several options available to parents when seeking services. Both early intervention agencies (services at reduced cost) and school systems (services free of charge) provide speech language therapy services to children who qualify under a set of federal regulations and state education laws. Many hospitals also provide outpatient speech language services to children, although each facility has its own regulations regarding service provision, which may be significantly restricted.

Many parents choose to pursue the services of a private speech and language therapist to either set up treatment or supplement their child’s existing therapy sessions. Many of them choose to do so because supplemental therapy can often reduce the time children spend in treatment.

However, when families seek supplemental services from their health plan, they often discover the majority of private health plans will not pay for the exact services that are provided in early intervention or school settings. That is because, unlike other therapies (e.g., physical therapy), which sessions may be completely covered by your insurance, speech therapy is a whole other ball game. Consequently, below are some explanations of what speech therapy services your insurance may actually cover
.

Assessment Coverage

Typically, parents don’t usually seek out speech language pathologists before consulting with other relevant professionals, such as pediatricians and child psychologists. In the majority of cases, it is usually the pediatrician who gives a referral for speech therapy services, or at least for a speech language assessment.

It is important to note that most insurance policies will cover (partially or completely) initial speech and language evaluations, even if the speech therapist is out of network. The first step is to call your insurance company and ask them what documentation is required to receive assessment coverage. Here, depending on your insurance company, responses might vary. Some insurance companies require a written prescription from the doctor coupled with the precertification interview with the treating speech therapist. Typically, the utilization management division of the insurance company deals with the precertification interview. After precertification takes place, make sure to ask your insurance representative about coverage for out-of-network therapists. Please note that many private practitioners don’t accept insurance. They will instead provide you with a letter for your insurance company containing the necessary diagnosis and treatment codes, incurred fees, as well as a brief description of services provided, and will expect you to apply for reimbursement on your own.

Note: Parents should not assume that if assessment is provided in an outpatient hospital setting, their health insurance will pay the bill. In many cases, insurance denials result in parents having to pay the full cost of the services provided.

The first step to insurance coverage for assessment is to speak to the insurance representative directly, even if your service provider had already done so for you. Parents are encouraged to take this extra step to avoid any misunderstanding and confusion, which may lead to costly errors. Just asking if you are covered for “speech” therapy is not enough to determine if you are covered for the specific treatment you need. Therefore, when asking about coverage, you want to ask which diagnostic and procedure codes your speech therapist should list to help ensure the codes used accurately reflect the coverage you have. It is always better to learn and clearly understand information firsthand rather than from a third party, especially because the same coverage that pays for assessment may not cover therapy services—a fact that baffles and outrages many of the parents.

To reduce confusion, take detailed notes during all conversations with the insurance company. You may get conflicting information from different people at the insurance company, so it will be important for you to write everything down as you move through this process. Always note the date and time of your phone calls, as well as the name, phone number, and department of the people you speak with and their exact responses to your question.

Therapy Coverage

The truth is that most commercial health insurance speech therapy coverage is very limited for pediatric speech-language pathology services. Many policies exclude children by age (e.g., all children under 6) from coverage; others refuse to cover school-aged children because they specify the child is expected to receive speech language services in school settings. Some policies exclude children with congenital conditions, regardless of the nature or severity. Other policies state that they will pay for treatment of problems related to medical conditions, but will not pay for autism spectrum disorder or developmental delays (e.g., late talkers, articulation deficits). Most policies do not cover developmental speech therapy services.

Aetna U.S. Healthcare covers: Speech therapy for non-chronic conditions, illnesses, and injuries. Limits: treatment for a 60-day period per incident of illness or injury. Requires referral of PCP and prior approval by Aetna.
CIGNA/Healthsource covers: Conditions that are expected to show significant improvement within a 60-day period, as determined by CHCNC. Coverage for correcting speech disorders that are the result of diagnosed medical illness, surgery, or accidents only.

Other insurance providers do not explicitly state what kind of conditions will be excluded from coverage. For instance, your benefit’s handbook may state that speech therapy is a covered service; however, your plan may deny reimbursement for services based on your child’s diagnosis. Diagnoses that may be excluded from coverage include:
    • Apraxia
    • Autism spectrum disorder
    • Central auditory processing
    • Congenital disorder (e.g., cleft lip and
    • cleft palate)
    • Developmental delay
    • Mental retardation
    • Language disorder
    • Stuttering (fluency)
When parents call the insurance company regarding coverage of therapy services, there are several important questions they need to ask:
    1. My child is ____ old. Does our policy cover his speech services?
    2. What conditions will insurance specifically cover?
    3. What ICD-9 (diagnosis) codes and CPT (treatment) codes are covered for reimbursement?
    4. Do I need to obtain a prescription for therapy services?
    5. Do I need to obtain precertification for therapy services?
    6. Which conditions are specifically excluded from treatment?
    7. How many sessions will insurance cover? Is there a time limit?
    8. Do I have a deductible or co-pay?
    9. Do I need to schedule all the visits by a certain date?
    10. Does insurance cover out-of-network therapy services?
    11. How do I get reimbursed for out-of-pocket therapy expenses? What do I need to provide the insurance company with?

Denials & Appeals

If you have the speech therapy benefits and the coverage for your child’s speech and language therapy is denied, always ask for the denial in writing and try to appeal the decision using the proper appeal procedure for your insurance company. Insurance companies count on consumers not appealing decisions, and the fact is that most people don’t appeal because it’s a time-consuming hassle. Along the way, document all conversations with insurance representatives. Documentation can be very helpful for an appeal. In some states, even if you have exhausted appeal procedures within your insurance company, you can appeal to your state’s insurance commission, some of which allow for the filing of complaints online.

Get in Touch

Aurora & Lakewood 

(720) 535-5671

 Fax: (303) 362-8986

Hours

Mon - Fri — 8:00am - 6:00pm
Saturday & Sunday — Closed

Therapy Locations:

2851 S. Parker Road Suite 570

Aurora, CO 80014
274 Union Blvd
Lakewood, CO 80228 Suite 220