Wolf Popper LLP has filed a class action lawsuit related to the billing practices of autism-treatment provider The Perfect Child. The lawsuit alleges that The Perfect Child promised families “no wait” access to therapy services for their autistic children, targeting parents who were desperate to obtain care. Although The Perfect Child assured families that they would face little or no out-of-pocket costs, the company allegedly charged rates that could soar beyond $30,000 a day and then pursued families to collect the alleged debts, including through lawsuits.
The Perfect Child has been the subject of two recent Wall Street Journal investigations and is reportedly being investigated by the House Committee on Education and Workforce and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to the complaint, The Perfect Child advertised that families could begin treatment quickly and that its services would be affordable through health insurance. The company allegedly told families that they would pay a low, set monthly amount, without clearly disclosing the actual prices it would later charge for therapy services.
The lawsuit alleges that when insurance companies denied certain claims, The Perfect Child began billing families directly at its much higher rates, leaving parents with bills they had not expected and could not reasonably have anticipated. In some cases, families were allegedly billed hundreds of thousands of dollars for their children's treatment.
The complaint describes the experience of the named plaintiff, whose family was allegedly told that therapy would cost $102 per month. After her child received services for more than two years, the family allegedly received a bill totaling more than $360,000 for several months of treatment.
The lawsuit seeks to represent families who received autism therapy through The Perfect Child or its affiliated providers and were later billed amounts exceeding the reasonable value of the services they received. It alleges that the company's billing practices violated consumer protection laws and seeks monetary damages and other relief for affected families.
The case is Elkins v. The Perfect Child LLC et al, No. 1:26-cv-07146, currently pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.