Minnesota Autism Mom

MCHA or Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association sounds basically like secondary insurance. It is an option for a child with a disability, including ASD. I do not use MCHA or work for them, so I am no expert, but I wanted to pass on some information to help others.

MCHA has a deductible, maybe a co-pay…I know it’s not free. But, it may be a great option if you want your child to get therapy thru a provider who does not take MA or your private insurance.

At first, I thought I could just quit MA and do this. It sounds cheaper than our parental fee, but I am not going to be quick to make that decision. MA provides some benefits that can’t be forgotten. MA pays for diapers after age 4, medical transportation, and private insurance reimbursement. I also believe you can qualify for waivers and grants that require MA enrollment.

Personally, I could see us adding MCHA if I wanted to send my son to a therapy that is not covered by MA or private. I have met a handful of families that use all 3 to send their child to special programs. I hope this information can help you or others you know, but again…I am just learning about this option and easily could be wrong about any of this. Please comment if you know more or correct me if I have something wrong here.

Just finished applying for an elem. job in Mpls.

Just finished emailing a provider about an eval. My son is at the top of the list for a program that I am wishy-washy about. Well, I am wishy-washy about all of them. I am so tired of not knowing where our son should go to “school”. We decided to move forward with one and keep the one he goes to to make a full time program. It sucks for 2 reasons. 1 – medical transportation…but, I would get over it. 2 – 2 totally different approaches to ASD not sure if this will confuse him or me more. oh! And 3 – now they are telling me they don’t think MA will cover both programs as they bill similarly.

Which is so confusing! They just told me over a week ago that they are pretty sure that it will be fine. A part of me just wants to be like F@# it. It’s probably going to be a problem because you can’t figure it out. It’s like the real answer is, we need to find out before we’ll know for sure. Bottom line – not my problem. I learned that if an MA provider doesn’t want to do the leg work, then they are out the money – not me. They have to figure it out because they cannot send you a bill if they are an MA provider. So, hm?

Maybe we just need to send him to MAC? I want to send him to Autism Matters, but they don’t take MA yet for ABA services. I hope they will sooner than later. I just don’t know if I am comfortable with DT/ABA. I think VB just makes more sense to me and that is what he gets now.

This month my son is being evaluated for 3 year old services. I am not concerned about his eligibility since I will most likely not be sending him to a public preschool, but if insurance or whatever comes up, I wanted it in our back pocket.

In my search to find medical transportation, I ran across these links. Hope they might help.

A preschool check-list (more aimed at special needs children)

Transportation check list

Find a speech therapist

You don’t have to be wrong for me to be right

If you know or have any personal experience with MAC or St Davids ADT…I would LOVE to talk to you. Please leave me  a comment as we are in heavy decision making mode and do not want to move forward with any new therapies without some feedback.

We are also considering sending our son to OT, speech, PT privately again. Just trying to find availability and a good location to make this all work together smoothly. It’s a non-stop search…