By Pedro Rodriguez, The Daily Signal | July 06, 2026
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is investigating a Brooklyn-based autism therapy provider over allegations of excessive billing practices that may be driving up health care costs for workers and employers.
Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, R-Mich., and Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga., requested extensive records from The Perfect Child LLC, a company that provides autism therapy services nationwide. The inquiry follows reporting that raised concerns about unusually large insurance claims and aggressive billing tactics in the fast-growing autism therapy industry.
“Employer-sponsored health plans provide coverage to 154 million Americans and represent a significant component of employee compensation,” the letter reads. “Plan fiduciaries have a responsibility to ensure that plan assets are managed prudently and exclusively for the benefit of plan participants and beneficiaries.”
“Allegations that health care providers may be submitting excessive charges, engaging in abusive reimbursement practices, or exploiting gaps in oversight raise significant concerns regarding the stewardship of plan assets,” the letter continues.
The lawmakers cited a Wall Street Journal investigation that documented cases of providers charging steep fees, inflating service hours, and pursuing payment directly from families when insurers refused reimbursement.
One widely reported example involved a New Jersey mother who received a bill exceeding $900,000 for her child’s therapy after initially being told there would be no out-of-pocket costs.
Focus on Employer Health Plans
The committee’s probe centers on how such billing practices affect employer-sponsored health plans, which cover roughly 154 million Americans and represent a major component of employee compensation.
As the letter stated, under federal law, plan administrators have a fiduciary duty to ensure that funds are used prudently and for the benefit of workers and their families. Lawmakers warned that alleged abuses—such as excessive charges, inflated out-of-network reimbursement demands, and billing disputes—could undermine those responsibilities.
The letter seeks to determine whether reimbursement arrangements in the autism therapy sector have “distorted incentives” and contributed to rising health care costs that may ultimately be passed on to employers and employees.
Sweeping Document Request
Lawmakers have requested Simcha Bendet, the company’s founder, to turn over a wide range of records dating back to Jan. 1, 2020, before July 20, 2026.
Some of the records requested include revenue from employer-sponsored plans, as well as in-network and out-of-network claims, average amounts billed and collected for autism therapy services, and the 25 highest-reimbursed claims submitted by the company.
Other records inquired about by the committee include records showing the highest annual charges for individual patients and data on patients receiving more than 20 hours of therapy in a single week.
The committee also requested internal documents governing pricing, reimbursement practices, and collections, as well as any audits or compliance reviews related to billing.
In addition, lawmakers are seeking information about how often the company pursued payment directly from families after insurance disputes, along with any instances in which claims were denied or flagged for potential fraud or abuse.
Broader Industry Scrutiny
The inquiry reflects growing concern in Washington over the rapid expansion of the autism therapy industry, particularly applied behavior analysis, or ABA, services.
Once a niche field, autism therapy has become a multibillion-dollar business fueled by rising diagnoses and insurance mandates requiring coverage.
But that growth has also brought increased scrutiny. Insurers report a sharp rise in investigations into potential fraud or abusive billing practices, including claims for services that were never provided, duplicate billing, and charges far above market rates.
Some providers, particularly those operating outside insurer networks, have been able to charge significantly higher rates, with daily costs for a single patient reaching tens of thousands of dollars in some cases, according to reporting cited by the committee.
Possible Next Steps
Lawmakers emphasized that their goal is not to restrict access to autism services, which many families rely on, but to ensure that federal law adequately protects patients, workers, and employer-sponsored health plans.
The committee said the information it gathers will help determine whether legislative changes are needed to address waste, fraud, and rising healthcare costs tied to autism therapy billing practices.
The Perfect Child did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
Pedro Boccalato Rodriguez-Aparicio is a journalism fellow at the Daily Signal.
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