You CAN Change Your Child's Life This Summer
At Wellspring, we know that the most common reason families don't seek help for their overweight or obese child is the cost.Like any successful healthcare program, Wellspring requires a variety of talented professionals as well as sophisticated systems, processes and administrators in order to achieve remarkable outcomes each and every year. This is particularly true for a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary treatment program like Wellspring. Of course, such a program isn't inexpensive.
But our mission is to reach every child and family in need of our services, and, as a result, we go to great lengths to make the program as affordable as possible.
We do this in eight distinct ways, each of which is unique to Wellspring among weight loss camps:
- Awards of up to $1,000 for attending Family Workshop and completing Continuing Care
- Providing a full year of continuing care
- Health insurance reimbursement
- Loans to spread the cost into easy monthly payments
- Tax deductions to reduce your taxable income
- Flexible Spending Account or Health Savings Account
- Wellspring Community Assistance Program - Helping families find the necessary resources to help their child
- Supporting creativity to pay for camp
Wellspring's tuition varies by program length and location. Please visit Wellspring's Dates & Rates to find current dates and prices. You can also contact us at 866.364.0808 or chat now for immediate answers to your questions.
1. Awards of up to $1,000 for attending Family Workshop and completing Continuing Care
Wellspring knows that long-term outcomes are the most important measure of a weight loss program's success. Therefore, we offer awards of up to $1,000 for following the parts of the Wellspring Plan shown in our scientific studies to have the greatest effect on long-term weight loss success-participation in our Family Workshops and the year-long Continuing Care Program.
Family Workshop
$300 award for every family that sends at least one family member to participate in a free weekend-long workshop while their child is at camp.
Continuing Care
$700 award for successful completion of Wellspring's Continuing Care Program by meeting these requirements:
- Camper completes 70 out of 90 days of self-monitoring on www.wellspringweightloss.com (at least 3 food items with fat and calories recorded per day).
- Parent (or camper) obtains a medically verified height and weight measurement and provides this form back to Wellspring via mail, fax or email.
2. Providing a full year of continuing care
While Wellspring represents a significant investment for families, it's important to remember that tuition includes a full year of our Continuing Care Program.
Wellspring wants your investment in your child to be truly life-changing, and your child's time at camp is just the beginning of a substantial lifestyle change. Our campers will be closer to a healthy weight when camp ends, but many will need ongoing support and guidance in the months following camp to reach their goal weight.
Once your child returns home, he or she will have the benefit of a full year of ongoing contact and support from our trained Behavioral Coaches, and online tools to help internalize the skills learned at camp.
Many families think about the cost of tuition in terms of a weekly or monthly cost for the child's time at camp. However, it's more accurate to consider a weekly or monthly cost based on the duration of camp plus the months of Continuing Care.
The result is that Wellspring may cost as little as a few hundred dollars per month - less than some personal trainers.
3. Health insurance reimbursement
Many Wellspring families successfully receive health insurance reimbursement for a significant portion of their tuition fees because individual and group cognitive-behavioral therapy sessions are central to the Wellspring program. The clinical component of Wellspring includes a psychological assessment and four cognitive-behavioral counseling sessions per week-twice individually and twice in a group therapeutic setting. These services can be categorized as either "mental health" or "health" ("medical") treatments and vary depending upon provider, plan, and benefits.
Typically, families with PPO plans are more likely to receive reimbursement for a portion of the clinical component of the program (an estimated $2,000 for the first four weeks, and $1,500 for the second four weeks). Families with HMOs generally should not expect to receive reimbursement, although we encourage families to advocate for their children's health whenever possible.
It is also important to note that, regardless of possible insurance reimbursement, payment is required in full to Wellspring prior to the start of the Wellspring program.*
Wellspring provides families with a statement that you can submit to your health insurance for reimbursement. While most families are successful in recouping a significant portion of the cost of the program from their health insurance, Wellspring cannot guarantee that your policy will reimburse these costs.* Please contact Wellspring Admissions at 866-364-0808 before contacting your health insurance.
Questions to Consider in Determining Likely Reimbursement from Health Insurance: Question |
Understanding the Answer |
Question #1: Does my health insurance plan reimburse for out-of-network behavioral therapy? |
If yes, go to Question #2. |
Question #2: Is there a deductible required for out-of-network behavioral therapy? |
If no, go to Question #3. |
Question #3: At what rate will I be reimbursed? |
Please note: |
4. Loans to spread the cost into easy monthly payments
Understanding how critical weight loss is to their child's health, many families seek financing in order to split the cost of a Wellspring program into manageable monthly payments. While some families choose to refinance their home or borrow money from family members, many others take advantage of a special loan program arranged through our lending partner.
As a division of CRC Health, the nation's largest provider of specialized behavioral health services, Wellspring is able to offer the loan program to families enrolling their child in Wellspring Camps.
| Low Potential Monthly Cost * | ||||||
 |
 |
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| 3-week session | 4-months w/ fee | |||||
| Tuition |
|
$26,000 | ||||
| Monthly Cost w/ Loan |
$26 | $151 | ||||
| * Families can earn $700 Continuing Care Award, $300 Family Workshop Award, as well as potential $1,500 Insurance Reimbursement for a 3-week enrollment. Monthly loan cost based on 50% down payment. | ||||||
Eligibility for the various loan options is based on a number of factors, including credit score and debt to income ratio. Unlike many other loan programs, applying for this loan will not negatively impact your credit rating.
Please call us at 866.364.0808 and we'll guide you through the loan qualification process.
5. Tax deductions to reduce your taxable income
The IRS implemented a new policy (IRS Ruling 2002-19) stating that "Obesity is medically accepted to be a disease in its own right." For taxpayers, this means that treatment specifically for obesity can now be claimed as a medical deduction following a referral from a physician.
The word "obese" carries a lot of significance socially and emotionally and may be difficult for parents to accept; in medical terms, however, it simply refers to a specific measure of body mass, called the Body Mass Index or BMI.
For more information about the IRS policy regarding obesity treatment, please visit
www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc502.html
6. Flexible Spending Account or Health Savings Account
For the same reason that the cost of Wellspring can be deducted for federal tax purposes, families may pay for Wellspring with a medical Flexible Spending Account (FSA) or Health Savings Account (HSA).
If you have a FSA or HSA, you are no doubt aware that it is extremely beneficial for you to use this account for all allowable expenses, as you will be spending pre-tax dollars, thereby significantly reducing the effective expense.
Despite the fact that lodging and food are essential components of the Wellspring program, our reading of the Internal Revenue Code leads us to believe that it would be prudent not to attempt to pay for these components of the Wellspring program with your FSA or HSA. However, the remaining tuition and fees can be paid for with your FSA or HSA.
Because each Wellspring camp has slightly different food and lodging expenses, following submission of your application, please contact Wellspring Start to receive an invoice that breaks out lodging and food from total tuition and fees.
7. Wellspring Community Assistance Program -
Helping families find the necessary resources to help their child
The Wellspring Community Assistance Program (WCAP) provides families with a Web site they can use to solicit contributions from members of their family, church or community, for the stated purpose of helping their child.
We do this by helping families create a site at http://pledgie.com, and then providing suggested communications to send to prospective contributors.
All contributions at your site will be applied to Wellspring tuition. Please call 866-364-0808 for more information on the Wellspring Community Assistance Program.
8. Supporting creativity to pay for camp
We recognize that for Wellspring families, nothing is more important than helping their child find a path to health and happiness.
This is why our Wellspring Start department is willing to work hand-in-hand with every family on creative arrangements for tuition payment.
Here are some of the creative solutions we've helped families put in place to ensure their children have received the help they need:
- A parent from Montclair, NJ set up automatic withdrawals from her paychecks twice per month.
- A student from San Francisco, CA was able to draw on her 401k to cover the cost of 4 months at Wellspring.
- A family from Denver, CO was able to pool tax returns to pay for Wellspring.
- A mother from San Francisco, CA was able to do an early draw on her yearly bonus and have her company wire funds directly to Wellspring.
- A mother from Dallas, TX had $2,500 in FSA that she had forgotten about. She used that as her down payment, had $2K in savings, and borrowed the rest from her parents.
- A family from NC sold their 4-wheeler and jet-ski to send their son to camp.
- One family from Peoria, IL paid for Wellspring by pooling money from Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents.
- A family from Scottsdale, AZ paid for Wellspring by asking church members for assistance.
- A family from San Francisco paid for Wellspring by refinancing their house. They were able to refinance at a lower interest rate and actually lowered their payment at the same time.
- A family from Fremont, CA paid for Wellspring by having their Employee Assistance Program pay for the treatment.
- A family from Miami, FL paid for Wellspring by borrowing on the equity in their home.
- Several families have paid for Wellspring by borrowing from their Credit Union, then repaying a large part of the loan through insurance reimbursement and the tax deduction for obesity treatment.
- Most families use multiple sources to pay for Wellspring: paying the deposit and pro-rated first month by credit card, then financing the remainder though their local bank. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and extended family members are often asked to contribute.
Whether you combine insurance reimbursement and our loan program, take advantage of your Flexible Spending Account, solicit contributions through the Wellspring Community Assistance Program, or simply support your child by attending the Family Workshop and supporting completion of the Continuing Care program (thereby earning a $1,000 reward), there is a path for you to help your child.
As we know from speaking with thousands of families each year, where there's a will, there's a way.
You CAN Change Your Child's Life This Summer!
