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Therapy services in Israel



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amother


 

Post Wed, Feb 05 2014, 12:47 pm
How do services (speech, ot, etc) work in Israel? How are they paid for? Is bilingual help available? We want to make aliyah, but we live in NY, where one of our children receives excellent services, all covered by the state. I am concerned about navigating the Israeli system as well as receiving extra support for said child learning a new language.

Any advice would be appreciated.
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m in Israel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 05 2014, 1:05 pm
If your child is not eligible for a special ed setting, and you are talking about just therapies (what in NYC they would call "related services"), those are considered part of the health care system here. You would have to get your child evaluated through your Kuppat Cholim (health insurance), and if approved they will pay for one session per week in each area (speech, OT, PT, etc.) up to a certain number of sessions per year. (That number is generally higher if you buy the supplementary insurance upgrades). There is a co-pay per session, usually between 30 and 50 shekel per session. Bilingual help is available, but whether there is actually a bilingual therapist will depend a lot on your location. Also keep in mind there tends to be long waits here -- you can wait a few months for the actual evaluations to be completed, and even once you are approved, most of the therapists and therapy centers have long waiting lists. Of course you could always pay for private therapy.

If your child has more pervasive speech delays, it might be worth considering trying to get into a gan safah, which would mean the therapies would be provided in gan at no cost.
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amother


 

Post Wed, Feb 05 2014, 1:37 pm
Thanks. Does this mean we should assume we will be buying supplementary insurance knowing at least one of my kids needs services?
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m in Israel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 05 2014, 1:57 pm
amother wrote:
Thanks. Does this mean we should assume we will be buying supplementary insurance knowing at least one of my kids needs services?


yes. (I am talking about the upgrades offered through the kuppahs, not completely private insurance)
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Marion




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 06 2014, 12:04 am
How old is said child? Unless you get really lucky bilingual services are NOT available in gan safa/special ed. (We had an English speaker in DS' gan and she still did speech with him in Hebrew...)

Wait times with hitpatchut hayeled (the kupah) vary from area to area, as does availability of bilingual therapists.

By law the wait time for an evaluation is not supposed to exceed 6 weeks and if the wait list for actual services after that is more than 3 or 6 months (depends on age of child) you're entitled to go privately and get reimbursed by the kupah.
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willow




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 06 2014, 12:09 pm
Why is my child's therapist 170 per visit on Meuhedet not 50?
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m in Israel




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 06 2014, 12:13 pm
willow wrote:
Why is my child's therapist 170 per visit on Meuhedet not 50?


What type of therapist, and were you paying that from the beginning? It could be you exceeded the number of sessions that are covered and are now paying the entire cost of the session. I have Meuhedet "C" and I pay under 50 shekel per session for speech and OT, and I think it is 51 shekel for "tipul rigshi". But you are limited to a certain number of sessions per year, and if you don't have the "adif"/ "C", it is really not a lot of sessions. Once you hit the max you pay a lot more.
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m in Israel




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 06 2014, 12:17 pm
Marion wrote:
How old is said child? Unless you get really lucky bilingual services are NOT available in gan safa/special ed. (We had an English speaker in DS' gan and she still did speech with him in Hebrew...)

Wait times with hitpatchut hayeled (the kupah) vary from area to area, as does availability of bilingual therapists.

By law the wait time for an evaluation is not supposed to exceed 6 weeks and if the wait list for actual services after that is more than 3 or 6 months (depends on age of child) you're entitled to go privately and get reimbursed by the kupah.


Is the 6 weeks to complete ALL the evaluations, or only the initial "developmental evaluation"? When we first started, the appointment with the developmental pediatrician was relatively soon, but the evaluations for speech and OT were months away. (With my first son I opened his tik in September and had the developmental scheduled in October. But the OT evaluation was scheduled for the end of February! I ended up speaking to a supervisor and getting it rescheduled sooner, but I'm wondering if they were "out of compliance" or not. They made it seem like they were doing me a huge favor in rescheduling)
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Marion




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Feb 06 2014, 12:35 pm
m in Israel wrote:
Marion wrote:
How old is said child? Unless you get really lucky bilingual services are NOT available in gan safa/special ed. (We had an English speaker in DS' gan and she still did speech with him in Hebrew...)

Wait times with hitpatchut hayeled (the kupah) vary from area to area, as does availability of bilingual therapists.

By law the wait time for an evaluation is not supposed to exceed 6 weeks and if the wait list for actual services after that is more than 3 or 6 months (depends on age of child) you're entitled to go privately and get reimbursed by the kupah.


Is the 6 weeks to complete ALL the evaluations, or only the initial "developmental evaluation"? When we first started, the appointment with the developmental pediatrician was relatively soon, but the evaluations for speech and OT were months away. (With my first son I opened his tik in September and had the developmental scheduled in October. But the OT evaluation was scheduled for the end of February! I ended up speaking to a supervisor and getting it rescheduled sooner, but I'm wondering if they were "out of compliance" or not. They made it seem like they were doing me a huge favor in rescheduling)
The initial one.
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willow




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Feb 07 2014, 6:30 am
m in Israel that must be it/. We need to get on C obviously
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Marion




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Feb 07 2014, 7:45 am
On "C" it's 28NIS/session of speech/OT/physio. We haven't had rigshi so I don't know how much that is.
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Shuly




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Feb 08 2014, 2:44 pm
Be aware that the max that the kupah gives is 15 sessions for most therapies, so unless you get into Gan Safah, you may have to pay privately if you need more sessions.
You can get reevaluated, but you may have to wait 6 months before they will allow you to be reevaluated, depending on the age of your child.
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bambi75




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Mar 11 2014, 5:09 pm
not sure how old but you do need an evaluation through the kupah into order to even apply for gan safeh or a all around gan like gan hashekome( which deals with all kinds of therapies)?
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Marion




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Mar 13 2014, 7:04 am
Shuly wrote:
Be aware that the max that the kupah gives is 15 sessions for most therapies, so unless you get into Gan Safah, you may have to pay privately if you need more sessions.
You can get reevaluated, but you may have to wait 6 months before they will allow you to be reevaluated, depending on the age of your child.


For kids over 6 the max is 15/type (30 total) unless you have the supplemental insurance which buys you an extra 20-45 (depending on how many different types you're getting).
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Marion




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Mar 13 2014, 7:05 am
bambi75 wrote:
not sure how old but you do need an evaluation through the kupah into order to even apply for gan safeh or a all around gan like gan hashekome( which deals with all kinds of therapies)?

If you're already getting services you may not need additional testing to get them here, as long as all your paperwork is in order. They will want further testing if you don't have up-to-date treatment summaries or evaluations.
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