This is a difficult review to write but I think an important one so that others have some insight to consider when determining services for their kids. We were referred to the PDC by our pediatrician who recommended them based on the comprehensive services they provide (speech and OT in one place) as well as the quality of an assessment report another patient had showed her.
My son received a speech evaluation in the SS office in late February (Rockville had no appointments). To my surprise, the evaluation consisted mostly of the clinician completing the REEL-3 with me (questions about his abilities) and only about 15-20 minutes interacting with him (seeing what he could do). At the end, she recommended weekly therapy to strengthen some muscles, however when I went to schedule, I was told they could not accommodate him (I had specifically asked if this would be a problem when I scheduled the evaluation as I know they are quite busy as one of the few insurance based practices).
Later that afternoon, I received the invoice for the evaluation (unfortunately they don't take our insurance so I spent $350 to be told he needed services that they couldn't provide) and I was disappointed to see that it was a fraudulent bill. They had billed the services under the owner's license and NPI. I'm in the medical field myself and this (in addition to billing insurance for services that were not actually provided) is one of the largest forms of insurance fraud. In addition, the $350 fee was made up of two $175 portions of the assessment, each of which was billed as an hour long session*. I informed the director (as I had emailed her to express my concerns) and was told that the billing people were new.
After some (very nice) communication with the director, she stopped responding, I presume because she realized they simply didn't have room for us and realized there are some ethical implications surrounding not providing continuity of care.
In the end, PDC did not actually send the evaluation report until I inquired about it (which, when they did send it, they emailed and I am fairly sure I didn't sign anything allowing private health info to be sent via email). When I read it, they got my child's birthdate wrong (which is only a big deal because the results for the one assessment they did were based on his chronological age).
In short, I don't doubt that they are equipped to provide quality services at PDC, however, there seem to be some legal (insurance fraud) and ethical concerns that make me hesitant to recommend this center to others.
*Although we didn't receive either service alone (or even combined) for a total of an hour, the codes that they billed are technically untimed so this piece is not fraudulent. read more