Parent Guidelines and Policies
Your cooperation on the following is greatly appreciated to assist us in working with your child at an optimal level:
A parent or responsible adult must be in the home when therapy is being provided.
The therapist must wait 15 minutes if the child is not there at the therapy time and then is allowed to leave. You may be charged for the session and this is not billable to insurance.
The telephone numbers of all therapists will be given to parents so they can contact their therapist directly. Please do not call the therapists before 8 am and not after 9 pm.
Parents should contact a therapist 24 hours prior to the appointment if the parent knows they are going to cancel a session. If more than 25% of sessions are cancelled in a 3-month period, your child may lose their therapy slot.
Sickness. Please notify the therapist, as much in advance as possible, at least the night, before the scheduled session if you know that your child will not be able to participate in therapy the next day. Sickness includes, but not limited to the following:
Temperature above 100
Mumps
Ringworm
Communicable Disease
Chicken Pox
Strep Throat
Foot/Mouth Disease
Measles
Lice
Vomit
Diarrhea
Rash
Pink Eye
Parents are asked to use the same guidelines used in a school - if a child is too sick to attend school, he or she is too sick to participate in his/her therapy session. Therapy will resume as soon as the child's doctor clears him/her of being contagious or the remedy is completed. If a therapist arrives at the home and the child is sick, the therapist will not be able to work with your child.
The therapist will call/text the family if they are going to be arriving more than 5 minutes late.
If parents cancel a session, these hours are not made up unless the therapist agrees to do so.
If a therapist cancels a session, these hours may be made up as soon as possible depending on the therapist availability.
Therapy schedules should be consistent to reduce scheduling errors. Clearly there will be occasions like a doctor's visit where a session may be moved, but that should be a rarity rather than the norm.
A therapist cannot change appointment times without agreement with the family.
In the case of snow or inclement weather:
Please listen to the radio for announcements of school closing for the district in which you reside. If the district schools are closed it is an indication that driving in that area presents danger Eclipse Therapy therapist should not report to work that day.
Since schools in the district are closed on inclement weather days, the time missed on those days can be made up at the discretion of the therapist and the family.
In case of an accident or unusual incident, the therapist should complete a form and inform the family and their supervisor within 1 business day.
Parents and therapists should be respectful and courteous to each other. Open communication between parents and therapists is essential to the establishment of a successful program for the child. All communication must be done in a courteous and respectful manner. If there are any problems or concerns, please contact the BCBA or BCaBA Supervisor immediately.
Parents are encouraged to share with therapists any information that may be helpful in getting to know their child and will enable them to work successfully with the child.
Periodic videotaping of sessions may be helpful in assessing the progress of the child. Prior to a videotaping session, permission must be obtained by all parties involved and can be terminated at any time. Additionally, parents may request a copy of the taped session on a medium provided by them.
Eclipse Therapy feels that it is important to include all family members in therapy.
Siblings are welcome to participate in therapy as long as they are a helpful addition to the session.
Parents are welcome and should participate in therapy sessions.
Cheat sheets specific to your child will be created. Therapists and supervisors will go over these in detail and provide modeling and coaching for you on these strategies.
Information Related to Scheduling and Sessions
Contacting us
Given their many professional commitments, our technicians are often not immediately available by telephone or email. If you need to leave a message, we will make every effort to return your call or email promptly (within 24 hours with the exception of holidays and weekends.). If you are difficult to reach, please leave some times when you will be available. Because of the nature of the services we provide, we do not provide on-call coverage 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. In emergency or crisis situations, please contact your physician, or call 911 and/or go to the nearest hospital emergency room.
Services Offered
We will provide services specifically designed to help your child, or if we cannot help we will provide you with referrals to other professionals who may be able to serve your child and his/her needs. Our behavioral services consist primarily of assessments, in home/school behavioral services, parent training, and on going collaboration with other professionals.
Your child will have an ABA technician or team of ABA technicians from Eclipse Therapy assigned to his/her case. Each technician has at least a high school diploma and has completed a 40-hour training in Applied Behavior Analysis and varying experience providing services to children with Autism and other behavioral/developmental difficulties. A Board Certified Behavior Analyst or Board Certified assistant Behavior Analyst oversees all cases.
ABA sessions are usually scheduled in two-three hour blocks. The research is clear that longer sessions result in greater retention and this makes scheduling more convenient for all parties. If this is not convenient for your family, please bring this up during the intake meeting.
Except in cases of emergency, 24 hours notice is required for all cancelled appointments. Payment for the appointment is required for all missed appointments not cancelled according to this policy. Insurance carriers are not responsible for miss-appointment fees.
We request that families give us at least two weeks notice on significant changes in their plans for in-home ABA sessions scheduling in order to facilitate consistency in service delivery.
The standard of care outlined in the ABA International's Revised Guidelines for Consumers of Applied Behavior Analysis Services to Individuals with Autism includes supervision of therapists on an ongoing basis, program consultation, program review, and program revision as services performed by a BCBA. These services are necessary for a program to meet minimum professional standards and are not optional.
Appointments
Except for rare emergencies, we will see your child at the time scheduled. We understand that circumstances (such as an illness or family emergency) may arise which necessitates the occasional cancellation of appointments. In these cases, in order to avoid any misunderstanding, we ask that you speak to your therapist personally and give as much notice as possible to cancel or reschedule. This will allow us to best plan for the situation.
You may be charged the standard hourly rate (see fee schedule) for appointments missed or cancelled with less than 24 hours advance notice. Please note that insurance companies will not reimburse you for missed appointments and you remain responsible for these charges.
Cancellation and Session Attendance Policy
Cancellations must be done no less than 24 hours prior to the scheduled session. If the client cancels more than two times without 24-hour notice, Eclipse Therapy can reduce or discontinue services.
Clients will participate in 80% of scheduled sessions per month. Otherwise, the client will have one month to reach 80% participation criteria, or Eclipse Therapy can reduce or discontinuation of services. Exceptions may be made if there are extreme medical conditions that require hospitalization, and a doctor’s note.
Clients will provide a minimum of 2 weeks notice for vacations lasting more than 3 days. If the client does not provide 2 weeks notice more than once, Eclipse can reduce or discontinue services.
Confidentiality, Records, and Release of Information
Services are best provided in an atmosphere of trust. Because trust is so important, all services are confidential except to the extent that you provide us with written authorization to release specified information to specific individuals, or under other conditions and as mandated by Colorado and Federal law and our professional codes of conduct/ethics. These exceptions are discussed below.
To protect the client or others from harm
If we have reason to suspect that a minor, elderly, or disabled person is being abused, we are required to report this (and any additional information upon request) to the appropriate state agency. If we believe that a client is threatening serious harm to him/herself or others, we are required to take protective actions which could include notifying the police, and intended victim, a minor's parents, or others who could provide protection, or seeking appropriate hospitalization.
Professional Consultations
Behavior Analysts routinely consult about cases with other professionals. In so doing, we make every effort to avoid revealing the identity of our clients, and any consulting professionals are also required to refrain from disclosing any information we reveal to them. We will tell clients about these consultations. If you want us to talk with or release specific information to other professionals with whom you are working, you will first need to sign an Authorization that specifies what information can be released and with whom it can be shared.
Health Insurance
If we file your insurance claims, you are responsible for co-payment. You are also responsible for all or any portion of the bill that your insurance does not cover or denies.
Professional Records
You should be aware that, pursuant to HIPAA, we keep clients' Protected Health Information in one set of professional records. The Clinical Record includes information about reasons for seeking our professional services; the impact of any current or ongoing problems or concerns; assessment, consultative, or therapeutic goals; progress towards those goals, a medical, developmental, educational, and social history; treatment history; any treatment records that we receive from other providers; reports of any professional consultations; billing records; releases; and any reports that have been sent to anyone, including statements for your insurance carrier.
Patients Rights
HIPAA provides you with several new or expanded rights with regard to your Clinical Record and disclosures of protected health information. These rights include requesting that we amend your record; requesting restrictions on what information from your Clinical Record is disclosed to others; requesting an accounting of most disclosures of protected health information that you have neither consented to nor authorized; determining the location to which protected information disclosures are sent; having any complaints you make about our policies and procedures recorded in your records; and the right to a paper copy of this Agreement, the attached Notice form, and our privacy policies and procedures. We are happy to discuss any of these rights with you.
Please sign stating you received the parent guidelines and policies.