Those who pay

[Covergaard]

Insurrance companies:

I have a friend scanning various court documents with lawsuit between parents against local school districts, where wwasp and aspen is involved. It had already got some results where ed-con are blaimed for a too close connection to the programs.

I have thought about another aspect. Insurrance companies pays a lot of the treatment. Do they visit the programs, so they can see if they pay for something real?

Over here they are a little moderate spending their money - some would call them greedy.

I can read about a lot of treatment that leads to nothing. Why are they not out there protecting their money by asking for proof and visit the programs?

[exhausted]

Suggestion

E mail as many insurance companies you can find on Google and ask them, link them to here, tell them what they're paying for

Ask them if they are happy to be exposed as paying out for child abuse, might make them look a little closer

[Anonymous]

Insurance generally pays very little of the treatment. It might pay for the part attributed to psychiatric care or psychological counseling, but there is usually a limit where the benefits cut off that is not very high. There is no insurance colleges for room, board etc at a therapeutic program unless it is a rehab or a psychiatric hospital stay ordered by an MD.

[try another castle]

My mom says that my dad got insurance to pay for almost all of my internment. I believe the price at that point was around $3K a month, and the place did not bill itself as a mental health facility. I have no idea how he did it, but I'm pretty sure his insurance was Aetna. I'm also not sure how accurate my mom's account is, but at this point, I have given up on asking my parents anything about the program, because it is an argument waiting to happen.

[Anonymous]

Years ago, starting perhaps in the early 70's and going on for I'm not sure how many years, there was some kind of operation involving schools, court systems, insurance companies and mental hospitals.  Generally targeting girls with somewhat of a discipline or drug problem, schools and social service organizations colluded with mental hospitals and these girls ended up getting locked up/sent away for seemingly very minor infractions... conveniently discharged just as their parents' insurance coverage ran out.

I don't believe the parents really understood the whole scenario beforehand, although I imagine their signatures were needed at some point.

This happened to me when I was 14.  I had run away from home because my parents were overly strict.  I wasn't allowed to attend any school social events without them; I wasn't even allowed to wear jeans.  I didn't smoke, drink, or do drugs.  I was probably one of the straightest kids in class.  When I ran away, I slept on friends couches, floors, and at the local crash spot for overly inebriated university students (college town).  I got caught as, not wishing to sacrifice "my education", I continued going to classes at my junior high as if nothing was wrong.

I was locked up in a juvenile detention facility for about a week, and then brought to a mental hospital (I was given the option of returning home at this point, but I refused, so off to the looney bin I was brought).  For reasons I have always been mystified over, I was "cured" 2 weeks before my father's insurance ran out.  I think it would have gone another two weeks except I had, by that time, become so uncooperative with all the psychotherapy sessions and group meetings, etc. that I had begun to publically question their worth, nothing ever happened in them, etc.  I refused to go to them, which was unheard of at the time.  I am not sure what else I did, maybe hunger strike?  I know it was getting a little hairy there for a while...

Years later, I saw a mainstream news program (like 20-20 but I'm not sure it was 20-20) profiling this phenomenum and some of the girls who had been extruded through this mill.  The girls were understandably upset, having lived most of their lives with the stigma of thinking they were mentally ill at least at one point in their lives, and now discovering that it had all been a SCAM (news program word).

Does anyone else know what I am talking about?  Could anyone point in the direction of mosr information?

[Anonymous]

Castle, beat the information out of them with a stick, in a small room with two uncomfortable chairs and a light shining in their faces.

[Deborah]

Just another way to get other citizens to help foot the bill for institutionalized parenting.

Insurance- often paid for unlicensed counselors who facilitate the 'group therapy'.

IEP- tax payer dollars spent for these outrageous program fees in unlicensed programs. In some cases teachers aren't certified and there may not even be a special ed teacher.

IRS- tax cuts to parents for expenses incurred while traveling to visit their 'disabled' child, at an unlicensed facility with untrained or uncredentialed staff.

Uh, since when does insurance reimburse for and IRS give tax credit for expenses incurred to visit your child at their PRIVATE boarding school, "Parent-Choice School"?

Impossible to reach, and warn, every insurance company, but, there are industry associations like this one:

America?s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the voice of America's health insurers, represents nearly 1,300 member companies providing health insurance coverage to more than 200 million Americans.  Our member companies offer medical expense coverage, long-term care insurance, disability income insurance, dental insurance, supplemental insurance, stop-loss insurance and reinsurance to consumers, employers, and public purchasers.
http://www.ahip.org/content/default.aspx?bc=36

A professionally written letter, explaining in detail how some programs are perpetrating insurance fraud sh0uld get someone's attention. They may be willing to send a warning to their member companies and/or put it in their newsletter.

[Anonymous]

This happened to me years ago, I think even before Seed really got going.  I am sure this thing still goes on in isolated instances, but during "my time" it was much more organized, blatant?  Precursor to TBS's?  Perhaps I really don't know this industry very well, I just experienced it (no pun or disrespect intended).

Incidentally, I was shocked many years later to learn what PsychoDrama was intended to be.  My personal experience of it was of everyone taking their shoes off and sitting in a circle and talking about their feelings.  I refused to take my shoes off and crawled behind a file cabinet and cried.

[Troll Control]

Insurrance companies:

I have a friend scanning various court documents with lawsuit between parents against local school districts, where wwasp and aspen is involved. It had already got some results where ed-con are blaimed for a too close connection to the programs.

I have thought about another aspect. Insurrance companies pays a lot of the treatment. Do they visit the programs, so they can see if they pay for something real?

Over here they are a little moderate spending their money - some would call them greedy.

I can read about a lot of treatment that leads to nothing. Why are they not out there protecting their money by asking for proof and visit the programs?

It's generally the school districts that pay for "care" that they are unable to provide locally.  

In my experience, the districts are very open to investigating how their money was spent.  I've been contacted a few times by people from school districts looking into the education and treatment provided by Hidden Lake Academy.  One, I believe (didn't get recent follow-up), was successful in getting the kid pulled (over parents objections) based on the fact that the advertised services were not delivered.

FWIW, very few insurance companies will pay for TBS's, as TBS's only advertise therapy but when confronted directly, most admit that they do not provide therapy per se, but rather a therapeutic curriculum, for which insurance companies will not pay.

[AtomicAnt]

Fair Oaks in NJ immediately came to mind. They locked up teens in their addiction center. Eventually, they got caught doing this (keeping kids until insurance ran out). Google found this book:

Title: Bedlam: Greed, Profiteering,
and Fraud in a Mental Health System Gone Crazy
Author: Joe Sharkey
Publisher: St. Martin's 1994
ISBN: 0312104219
   


Based on the award-winning "Profitable Addictions" series of investigative reports by the Houston Chronicle, this book explains the classic psychiatric insurance scam by focusing on one institution, Fair Oaks Hospital in Summit, New Jersey. Amazon says: "Many in the psychiatric profession have abandoned the severely mentally ill while private, investor-owned hospitals offer bounties of up to $1500 to clergy, teachers, police and "crisis counselors" for recruiting -- one Texas legislator uses the term "body-snatching" -- troubled adults, adolescents and children covered by insurance policies that pay up to $30,000 for inpatient care. In 1993, the fraud practiced by Medicare- and Medicaid-subsidized hospital chains such as National Medical Enterprises, with 86 psychiatric hospitals and revenues of $1.74 billion in 1991, was revealed by the FBI. The psychiatric industry, Sharkey warns in this chilling, well-documented account, is lobbying for a large slice of the health reform pie and continues to "create mental illness with advertising."

http://www.astraeasweb.net/politics/badpsych.shtml

[Karass]

For what it's worth, in this age of "managed health care" and obsessively cost-concious insurance companies, the chances of insurance companies being scammed by quack therapy programs are a lot less than in years past.

I suspect the same may be true for budget-strapped school districts that are asked to fund "boarding school" placements under IEP rules. Before they just hand over thousands of dollars a month to a quack TBS, their natural inclination is to get their lawyers to push back and ask a lot of questions -- and to try to find cheaper options to meet the "special needs" of the student.

[Anonymous]

Fair Oaks in NJ immediately came to mind. They locked up teens in their addiction center. Eventually, they got caught doing this (keeping kids until insurance ran out). Google found this book:

Title: Bedlam: Greed, Profiteering,
and Fraud in a Mental Health System Gone Crazy
Author: Joe Sharkey
Publisher: St. Martin's 1994
ISBN: 0312104219
   


Based on the award-winning "Profitable Addictions" series of investigative reports by the Houston Chronicle, this book explains the classic psychiatric insurance scam by focusing on one institution, Fair Oaks Hospital in Summit, New Jersey. Amazon says: "Many in the psychiatric profession have abandoned the severely mentally ill while private, investor-owned hospitals offer bounties of up to $1500 to clergy, teachers, police and "crisis counselors" for recruiting -- one Texas legislator uses the term "body-snatching" -- troubled adults, adolescents and children covered by insurance policies that pay up to $30,000 for inpatient care. In 1993, the fraud practiced by Medicare- and Medicaid-subsidized hospital chains such as National Medical Enterprises, with 86 psychiatric hospitals and revenues of $1.74 billion in 1991, was revealed by the FBI. The psychiatric industry, Sharkey warns in this chilling, well-documented account, is lobbying for a large slice of the health reform pie and continues to "create mental illness with advertising."

http://www.astraeasweb.net/politics/badpsych.shtml

Thank you, AtomicAnt, this is exactly what I was inquiring about!

[exhausted]

On a brighter note, it does mean the programs will probably be reluctant to come to the UK, not many have Insurance here seeing as our medica care is free.....and I can't see companies like BUPA paying out for this shit, they'll pay for a psychiatrist, counseling etc but not for an actual program, it won't happen.