ISO Autism Assessment Covered by Insurance
Hello families - We are looking for a center or neuropsych to conduct an autism assessment with our kiddo. We are hoping to find one with availability that also takes insurance. UCSF was recommended to us but they are currently full incl their waitlist. Most of the recommendations we've found are for private-pay only. Thanks very much for your suggestions!
Jul 7, 2021
Parent Replies
Unfortunately our experience was that centers or providers taking UHC insurance in network were next to impossible to see. Re UCSF We were on waiting lists for 9 months to see a behavioral pediatrician then were told we had to get on another wait list for a psychiatrist. We have been on our journey for about 2 years . Depending on the age of your child you may want to do the cash pay out of network option. I wished we had done sooner as with autism early intervention is key and we have lost years between the negotiations between my spouse and I as to potential autism then the impossible in network provider search. We gave in after 1 year of in network search - Cash pay provider we used was Dr. Gerard Chambers(just Google his name) - $4500 to 5000 cash for the assessment. It is unclear if uhc will pay for any of this but I was happy we finally completed and now know whether or not our child has autism. Also note that even with the cash pay providers we heard there are now waiting lists given pent up demand post pandemic.
We ended up paying for a private neuropsych assessment because it was important to get the assessment within a certain timeframe. At that point the wait list at UCSF was a year and because of covid we couldn't do it through the school district. You could look into whether the school district can do it and how long it will take. I did find someone who would do it covered by insurance (we have Anthem) at Spectrum in Berkeley but decide that person wasn't a good fit for our child. I would also reach out to the regional center and see if they can either do the assessment or point you in the right direction. I found and still find the process of accessing services for ASD kids to be incredibly opaque in terms of the process and the costs. The public supports are often not publicized by the private sector folks, in my experience, perhaps because my kid was already a teenager when diagnosed. You don't mention the age of your child but even getting the diagnosis so late it has been extremely helpful. Good luck to you.
If your kid is under 3, you should also contact the Regional Center East Bay; they do their own quick assessment (wasn't as thorough as the one we got through Kaiser) and will set up needed services for free until 3. I think they're often overloaded too though.