This past Friday our family received confirmation in writing via e-mail that Tony’s redetermination of eligibility for services under the Division of Developmental Disabilities in our state has finally been approved. While we are pleased this matter has been resolved, this has been a process I personally have found to be far too difficult and stressful to navigate. Like many families in our state, the cost of the therapies needed to help our son progress greatly exceeds our ability to pay for them and therefore I was fully committed to taking whatever steps the journey to successful redetermination entailed.

As part of the later steps in this journey, we discovered as per the Division’s Eligibility Policy Manual, that a test requested by the Division (the psychoeducational eval with IQ test), was not needed to establish eligibility for our son under his Autism diagnosis. Moreover, the current policy manual states that this particular test will not be accepted to establish diagnostic eligibility for services under the category of Autism. Perhaps it may be natural to think once this was brought to the Division’s attention they would have either offered or agreed to reimburse. At this time, our family has only received statements as to why they feel they have no obligation to do so.

I know some of my fantastic sisters-in-law work in areas where you encounter families like mine, many of them may have financial circumstances to where the cost of testing alone would discourage them from seeking a renewal of eligibility. We paid $800 out of pocket, and both providers we spoke to about scheduling the requested test for Tony only accepted cash for that particular examination. I am asking you to be my voice to these hypothetical families and share this piece of wisdom I wish I had known before I scheduled and paid for anything:

Read the current eligibility policy manual online before any tests are scheduled. For the Arizona Division, currently that information can be found here: https://des.az.gov/home/division-eligibility-manual. Know exactly what the law states can and cannot be asked for in establishing continued eligibility for their kiddo’s diagnosis. Know also exactly what the policy states about what needs to be present in diagnosis documentation to establish eligibility. Do not be afraid to reach out to non-profit advocacy groups if needed to help navigate the process, especially if you feel certain (as we did) that existing documentation met policy requirements. This past week, I myself became concerned enough about the direction our case was headed I reached out to the Arizona Center for Disability Law. There are other groups out there who may be able to help if need be.

Also, tell them not to be afraid to speak to a Supervisor if they are initially told (as we were) by their support services coordinator that they cannot guarantee eligibility to continue for the completion of testing requested. Many diagnostic services cannot be completed within the month allotted in the letter we received due to provider availability or the number of appointments needed to complete the process.

There is one more thing I would ask of you…put your arms around this hypothetical family whoever they are (if they are the hugging kind) and give them a hug from me.

* Please note that this is a special circumstances update post, and I still uploaded my usual weekly planned post yesterday.  So, if you are not on my personal e-mailing list for posts, keep scrolling down because there is another post for this week and thank you so very much for taking the time to visit our blog 🙂