This is the WORST speech therapy place, and I believe the only reason that it's still open is because the majority of patients with Medi-cal are referred here, even though there are much better speech therapy options on the Peninsula that accept Medi-cal. My son was referred to Francine and her staff for a speech evaluation and speech therapy (if deemed necessary). The speech evaluation was done by Francine, herself, in her Salinas office. Once the evaluation was done, Francine noted that my son had a moderate speech delay (obviously) and informed me that he would be eligible for speech therapy twice a month, for a total of 1 hour each month (so, two thirty-minute sessions a month). She stated that that was all my son's insurance would cover, so I believed her. I asked when she would contact me to schedule the speech therapy appointments, and she told me she would have someone call me ASAP, once she finalized my son's paper work.
FAST FORWARD A FEW MONTHS, and I finally receive a call from her receptionist, a very helpful lady, to schedule my son's appointments in the Monterey office, which didn't take much time to do because they had told me my son was only eligible for 2 sessions a month, anyways. When we finally had our first appointment with Ryan's speech therapist (one of Francine's employees) I realized that she took no time to get to know my son or his case. She asked no questions regarding the words or phrases he already knew, and spent no time discussing what goals she wants my son to meet. She jumped into the session, and my son was left feeling lost, shy, and confused. This routine lasted a few months, until I decided to take my son out of here. Francine also made no effort at all to explain my son's case to the speech therapist, so the therapist had no idea that my son already knew a few phrases and words himself, that she could have used to help him understand and learn better. On top of that, she would continually bombard him with too many words and phrases all at once, which is not a helpful way to teach a child, that suffers from speech delay, language.
The best part of the story comes when I receive a call from my son's insurance asking me how my son's speech therapy is going. As I explain to them that my son has a moderate speech delay and that he only receives 2 sessions a month, my insurance tells me that they would gladly cover more speech therapy sessions for my son, as long as Francine and his speech therapist send in a request for more visits. Never ONCE in the months that my son received speech services from Francine did she, or any of her other employees, let me know that this was an option. They made it seem as if my son would only be able to get two sessions a month because his insurance wouldn't cover anymore than that, when that is a complete and utter lie.
IF YOU HAVE MEDI-CAL, DO NOT COME HERE! If you must, then tell Francine and her staff that you want them to send in a request for more sessions, and let your insurance know that they should be expecting a request from Francine's staff. read more
