What we can help your family with

The premium is not really the point — access is. Many clinics keep separate waitlists by insurance, and the wait for a diagnostic evaluation on Medicaid is often far longer than the same clinic’s wait for a child with commercial coverage. Some good providers take only a limited number of Medicaid families, or none. Commercial coverage can also widen who your child can see for speech, occupational and physical therapy, and for medical specialists outside your current network. Where the monthly premium is the only thing standing between your child and that access, we may be able to carry it.

Who it is for: Families whose child is waiting too long, or cannot get in to the providers they need, and who have access to a commercial plan they cannot afford to carry.

Commercial coverage is not automatically better — it can mean higher out-of-pocket costs, and for some families Medicaid or ATAP is the stronger route. We will tell you honestly if that is your situation. Funding is limited and every request is reviewed case by case.

The Autism Treatment Assistance Program is the main state funding source for autism treatment in Nevada. The application is not hard so much as unforgiving — the diagnostic report has to contain specific things, and proof of residency has to be in the right form.

Who it is for: Any Nevada family whose child has an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, or is waiting on one.

ATAP does not apply financial requirements to families already on Nevada Medicaid.

Desert Regional Center opens the door to supports that follow your child into adulthood — service coordination, respite, family training, and eventually job and residential supports. The packet is the obstacle: DRC will not accept an application with anything missing, and gaps can stop an eligibility determination outright.

Who it is for: Clark County families whose child has a disability that substantially limits everyday functioning in several areas.

Eligibility requires the condition to have begun before age 22 and to substantially limit at least three areas of adaptive functioning.

Katie Beckett lets a child under 19 qualify for Nevada Medicaid on their own medical need, setting parental income aside. It exists for children who would qualify in an institution but are cared for at home. It is the least understood of the three, and the one families most often start in the wrong place.

Who it is for: Children with significant medical or care needs who were denied Medicaid because the parents earn too much.

There is a monthly premium once approved, based on income and household size. Nevada Medicaid can also backdate coverage up to three months with proof of care in those months.

Therapy only works if your child gets there. Families driving across the valley several times a week, or in from a rural county for an evaluation, run into a cost nobody accounts for. We can help with fuel and travel.

Who it is for: Families for whom the cost or distance of travel is limiting their child’s access to care.

Reviewed case by case and limited by available funding.

ABA, speech, occupational therapy, feeding therapy — what each is for, how many hours is reasonable, what a good provider looks like, and what to do when a clinic is telling you something that does not sound right. We are not a provider, so we have nothing to sell you.

Who it is for: Any family trying to work out what to do next, at any stage — including before a diagnosis.