Chico Speech and Language Center

I originally called this place because I heard they take Medi-Cal Health and Wellness. I called and I explained that my son's primary insurance does not cover speech(I had previously used full circle and that is when I became aware of my insurance not covering speech...I paid full circle what they owed as they billed correctly) I heard that they took Medi-Cal Health and Wellness, I was told yes buy only a certain one, they would check his to see...they did and it was the one they took. I was told they would need a referral from my pediatrician, I called my pedtrician and they 1st sent me a referral to full circle, I called them and told them I needed it for Chico speech and Language because as I had told the Dr. my primary does not cover speech for Autism. When I sent my insurance cards over I reminded them again that my son's primary insurance does not cover speech. We had his evaluation September 2019 and started speech weekly October 2019-mid January 2020. Sarah was the person who actually did the speech and she was great with my son. Mid January I was told that they will not see him till they start getting payments. Monica informed me that they never got a authorization from Medi-cal which they needed to be able to bill the services. I was also informed on a later date that they now have authorization but starting in December, so they were going to change the dates of service so they could get paid. I called medi-Cal in June when I was sent a bill for all the services, I was informed that the dates on the primary EOB (which was a denial but had to be billed in order to bill 2ndry) do not match the dates being billed to them. I wrote a letter and left a voice mail telling Chico speech if they were going to change the dates of service they would have to re bill the primary so the dates would match (which is illegal to change dates of service)They did this, and are now billing me again, and trying to get me to pay because they are a small bushiness and "its the right thing to do". I called Paula the owner who left that message on my phone, I did yell at her when she tried to cut me off, when I wasn't done speaking. I told her how I choose them specifically because they took medi-cal and how I informed them my primary wouldn't cover services twice, she told me "No, we would have seen you if that was the case" I called Medi-Cal again in hopes that maybe I could just send the primary EOBs for them and get them paid, but when I called it was discovered that the billed amounts also don't match the primary EOB( everything has to perfectly matched in order for the claim to be processed and paid). I would gladly pay the bill if the insurance had been billed correctly and they would do their job correctly in regards to billing. It isn't the right thing to do, to pay a bill that isn't my responsibility....in fact doing the right thing is them actually taking the time to bill it correctly or see exactly where the error is. FYI, I did hospital billing for 8 years before I decided to stay at home with my son, so I know a thing or two about billing and what needs to be done and what is legal and illegal. My suggestion to Paula is to have Monica trained better, or fire her and get someone who is trained better (the 1st option I feel would be the best)

Love this place. My son went there when he was little who is now 19 and my little one who is 7 has been been going there since he was a baby. The speech pathologist came to our house and now my son sees her in her office. She is great and sees him in the summer when he has no speech during the summer at school. The receptionist is great as well. Would recommend this place to anyone. The only not ok thing is they don't take medi- cal anyone so my insurance/cash pay covers it now. They stopped about a year ago taking medi-cal.