top of page
waves (8)_edited.jpg

HELPFUL INFORMATION

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

I suspect my child may need speech therapy but am not certain. How do I find out?

We welcome parents to call the office for a phone consultation. Our practice owner and speech-language pathologist will ask you questions to determine your child’s needs and make recommendations. Speech and language evaluations are also administered to determine your child’s strengths and weaknesses and to reveal if their weaknesses warrant treatment.

Will my health insurance cover the cost of therapy?

We accept BCBS, HPHC (United and HPI joint venture), Allways/MassGeneral Brigham and Cigna. In general, these companies cover speech therapy when deemed necessary. However, we do come across some exceptions. Depending on your plan you may also be responsible for copayments and deductible costs. We will verify your benefits before starting treatment, but always recommend that our clients call to find out about their own coverage. We are happy to walk you through that conversation. For additional health insurance companies, we assist families in trying to get out of network reimbursement which means that the clients pay privately but uses documentation provided by our practice to submit to their health insurance for reimbursement.

Will you come to my home?

We do provide both in-home and daycare/school-based treatment. We try to accommodate families whenever possible. Some children do much better in the home environment while others excel in the office setting. We consider these factors when choosing the location of services. We do limit home/school-based therapy to within 10 miles of the office. More recently we have also limited these visits to before 3:30 pm so that we may see more children in the office during the popular after-school hours.

What happens in speech therapy?

Treatment may look very different from one session to the next, depending on the child’s age and targeted skills. For young children or children with minimal language, we use indirect language stimulation which involves the use of language stimulation techniques during child-directed free play. This may include modeling language on an augmented communication device. For older children working on higher-level skills, they will be asked to engage with specific stimuli (target sounds/words/structures) while playing a game or making a craft with the clinician. This is often done table-top but also includes movement activities such as playing basketball or searching for objects hidden around the room.

Do you treat adults?

Although we are a pediatric practice, some of our clinicians have experience working with adults. We see adults seeking to assist in the areas of speech clarity, stuttering, social skills, cognitive communicaiton, language formulation, and swallowing. We unfortunately do not treat voice disorders at this time.

Isn’t speech therapy just for people with lisps or who stutter?

Although we do treat stuttering and speech disorders, we also work with clients to overcome many additional obstacles. We work on such tasks as processing/understanding spoken content (following directions, comprehending stories), using augmentative communication, developing play skills, building foundational vocabulary, improving grammar, formulating thoughts, using higher level language skills such as predicting/inferring/summarizing, coordinating the oral mechanics of feeding and swallowing, overcoming sensory aversions to food, developing social skills and understanding others’ perspectives.

faq
BILLING

INSURANCE

and Referrals

We are currently in-network with Blue Cross Blue Shield, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare (United Healthcare & HPI joint venture), Cigna and Allways/MGB Health Partners. We also offer competitive private pay rates and provide support to families seeking out-of-network reimbursement.

We accept referrals from physicians as well as directly from parents. 

PRACTICE CLOSURES

Marshfield Speech and Language Therapy does not follow the school calendar and provides year round services. The office is closed on the following holidays:

 

New Year's Day                                      Labor Day  

     Memorial Day                                 Thanksgiving Day

Independence Day                                Christmas Day

bottom of page