The Road to Boston

Getting into Intenstive Therapy was the easiest part. After filling about a 10 page application, which documented all of K’s needs, it only took about 2 weeks before they told us he would be a great candidate. Once he was accepted we needed to secure a session for him. We originally had hoped to go to the Los Angeles center, as we have family very close to there. As it turns out, the LA center was waitlist only for the entire year of 2021!

I couldn’t believe it, the whole year was booked solid. This just showed me how high demand and top notch this program is. I checked the Boston center and lucky for us they had an opening at the end of January, so I snatched our spot right up. I was not going to let this chance go, because they don’t hold spots very long.

After securing our spot I thought it would be easy sailing…wrong.

What I failed to realize is that this program is not in network with our insurance, and if we were going to get anything covered we were going to have to work for it. Typically I wouldn’t really think twice about paying for a medical service that my son needed, but this wasn’t just a little therapy.

3 weeks of intensive (4 hours of therapy a day) runs you about $7,500. Add to that transportation to Boston, transportation once you get to Boston and then 3 weeks of lodging and food…well I hope you can appreciate how that would add up. Oh and this would mean I had to take 3 weeks off of work.

But I was determined to get there so I went to work, and I mean work. I spent hours on the phone with our insurance company and case manager figuring out what we needed. I read our policy up, down, backwards and forwards to make sure I didn’t miss a thing.

In the end, it took about 3 prescription letters, 3 letters from our therapists, 1 letter from our orthopedic, 1 letter from our Spina Bifida (SB) doctor, and 3 separate referrals and authorizations…and hours of phone calls and e-mails later. But I had done it (with help from my husband of course). It looked like we were going to be able to go to Boston with at least partial coverage of the trip! From start to finish this took me about 4 months. But it was worth it and I would do it all over again.

Now that the insurance part was figured out the logistical planning could begin. I needed a hotel for 3 weeks, a car to get us to and from therapy and flights to get us to Boston. Oh, and trying to figure all this out plus researching every Covid restriction that goes along with it in these times. More clearance letters, a Covid test (my nose is still recovering) and travel forms to add to our ever growing list of paperwork.

Looking back I can’t believe myself how much work went into making this come to happen. But as we are just days away from traveling I am, honestly, proud of every second I put into making this happen, and ready to really start this journey (even if it started about 6 months ago).