Dd4 with autistic traits - not our first rodeo. Anyone used health insurance?

[Lyannaa]

I’m autistic and have two diagnosed girls already. And now it’s time to start the process again. Dd4 is in reception. She’s at a very small school which suits her really well. She’s happy and seems to be thriving and the teacher is happy with her progress but she has always shown signs of being on the spectrum. And I also think she has PDA.

School is saying they think an assessment may help us all meet her needs even better . Waiting times are ridiculous here and I don’t think they will see her for ages due to how academically able she is. She’s not behind in any area but her anxiety is extreme. For example, if someone says to her ‘You look tired today’ she bursts into tears and needs talking down from panicking about it. She has a lot of issues around food, rigid thinking and not coping with transitions. Plus, she still sleeps in my bed every night. We have to be really careful how we word things with her as it can trigger a meltdown.

School have suggested Caudwell Children and her father has private health insurance who offer autism assessments via a company called Lexxic - has anyone had an assessment with them?

I am aware that it will help if the company follows NICE guidelines etc.

Any advice please?

I’m not quite sure what you are asking? If you are intent on having her assessed for asd and have insurance that will allow you to access that assessment, why wouldn’t you go ahead?

We did ours through health insurance. It was great. Son diagnosed. On our health insurance, our child had to be over 7 for assessment, so check yours can be used. Report was extremely thorough and formed part of EHCP. SENCO said best report she'd ever read, as really specific guidance which was easily added in to EHCP. Different company to yours, but we took the approach that there's nothing to lose snd could do nhs referral after. But def not needed.

There was still a little wait for assessment through insurance, maybe 3-4 months. They made it shorter by assessing for ADHD first then referring on as it jumps queue apparently? No adhd was diagnosed although he met all areas as was felt these were autism stimming.

Ours was through AXA/ problemshared. The insurance covered support groups and educational navigator after diagnosis.

Because not all providers follow NICE criteria.

@Dyslexiateacherpost88 thank you for your reply. Of my other diagnosed children, one had a private assessment but this was back in 2003 and the other one had an NHS assessment and the private assessment is definitely much more thorough.

Caudwell Children’s assessments follow NICE guidelines. However, they are expensive if you are self funding rather than eligible for charity funding or commissioned services.

They're all expensive aren't they? Or do you mean more than most?

Self funding a Caudwell Children’s autism assessment is more expensive than self funding an ASD assessment via some other private providers.

Ok, thank you.

I wasn’t aware of Lexxic but I would imagine they could answer the question fairly quickly as to if they follow NICE guidelines. It seems unusual that they haven’t highlighted that on their website, but they or indeed the insurers should be able to clarify. I think you are right to be wary.