Applied ABC — Local services in New York

Started the process of trying to get services for my 3 year old son in July 2022. The initial contact was great, good communication and he was able to have his evaluation with Crystal by the end of August. Crystal tells us the evaluation writeups take about a week and once done she will forward to our case worker. Ester was our case worker and she informed us it takes 7-10 business days to hear back from the insurance once everything is submitted. During this time Ester goes on a two and a half week long vacation and someone by the name of Kelley is managing her work in the meantime. I work full time so I know we need vacation and we were already waiting on insurance anyway so I didn’t fuss. End of September rolls around and we hear nothing. So we email Ester, Kelley and Crystal for an update. Ester gets back saying she’s still waiting on the evaluation, Crystal responds says she submitted back in August. Ester attempts to fix her mess and assures us she is working on it. More time goes by and I email Ester again. I get an out of office reply that she’s on another 3 week long vacation and Kelley is once again taking over her cases. By now it’s mid October, we contact Kelley several times and she tells us the case was submitted and she blames the insurance company for taking so long to approve services. I asked for the date it was submitted and never received a response. In the meantime I get a statement in the mail for over $2000 for the evaluation that was done in August and being told Applied ABC is out of network when we were told it was in network. Now we are back and forth with Kelley who tells us she gonna reach out to someone regarding the bill and again tells us that they submitted his evaluation and the insurance is taking forever to approve. In the mean time Ester comes back from vacation around October 22. Frustrated with this bill we contact the insurance company who informs us that Applied ABC is in fact in network and the bill was submitted wrong. Great one problem solved. She then goes on to inform us the evaluation for services was only just submitted on October 24th and is in review. This is about 5 weeks AFTER we were told multiple times that it was already submitted. Insurance approved his service within 5 days after getting the evaluation. We contacted a supervisor, Chevy, to voice our concerns. Chevy was going to “look into it” and told us my sons case is a “high priority “. We never heard back from Chevy. Ester reaches out to advise insurance approved services and we are now essentially on a wait list for a therapist with no date as to when he will get services. November 4th, Ester calls to inform us that Applied ABC will no longer be servicing Pennsylvania and we have 90 days to find another company to work with. This company has waisted so much of my time, time that could have been used for services to my nonverbal autistic son - in the end he’s the one who suffers....

They don't pay you for being on work-related calls, they don't offer training prior/during home visits, and say they pay for mileage but don't cover a 50-minute drive with tolls?

On the surface they are "nice" but nice doesn't pay my bills, and the amount of work required for a start pay of $18 OR $22 is not worth it.

I was at first told diapering would be a part of my responsibilities, but then they don't tell you how they will legally protect you if something goes bad? Especially when doing home visits with parents. I was set up to fail or bend at the will of being a maide for the family.

Somehow they also don't explain or put limits on what a behavior technician is, and suddenly you get put in a situation where a parent expects you to be OK with being bitten and then gets upset you want to protect their dog from being abused?

This was clearly a mistake. I am still waiting to hear about being paid for the time I...

Applied Behavioral Mental Health Counseling is my top choice for a company to work with. They are attentive, quick, caring and really go above and beyond. Everyone I’ve had the pleasure speaking with has been incredibly helpful through this very confusing time in our lives. From Hindy the intake coordinator, to Megan and Ashley B our case managers, to our BCBA and therapists, everyone has listened to our concerns, worked with us, and have been incredibly friendly. I couldn’t ask for a better company to work with during a difficult time in our life. Applied ABC is informative and always willing to step up. I would give this company 10/5 stars if I could. They’ve truly made a positive impact...