联邦调查局（FBI）正在调查自闭症治疗服务提供商“Perfect Child”的账单做法，据文件和知情人士透露，联邦调查局特工近几周已联系了该公司的一些客户。
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the billing practices of autism-therapy provider the Perfect Child, according to documents and people familiar with the probe, and agents have contacted some of the company’s clients in recent weeks.
此次调查是在《华尔街日报》发表文章后展开的，该文章详细披露了Perfect Child的做法：其收费标准可能高达每天3万美元以上，向患者保证他们几乎不需要或完全不需要自付费用，随后又向家庭追讨所谓的债务，包括通过诉讼。在一起案例中，新泽西州一名女子在其保险公司Highmark拒付账单后，被开出91.1万美元的账单。
The investigation follows a Wall Street Journal article that detailed the Perfect Child’s practices of charging rates that could soar beyond $30,000 a day for therapy services, assuring patients they would face little or no out-of-pocket costs, and then collecting alleged debts from families, including through lawsuits. In one case, a New Jersey woman was billed $911,000 after her insurer, Highmark, balked at the bills.
据《华尔街日报》查阅的一封电子邮件和知情人士透露，7月下旬，联邦调查局特工与总部位于匹兹堡的保险公司Highmark的代表进行了会面。该邮件称，Highmark的调查人员向联邦调查局团队通报了关于Perfect Child做法的详细信息。知情人士称，包括Elevance Health和Aetna在内的其他保险公司也在调查这家总部位于纽约布鲁克林的自闭症治疗服务提供商。
FBI agents met with representatives of Highmark, a Pittsburgh-based insurer, in late July, according to an email viewed by the Journal and the people familiar with the probe. The insurer’s investigators relayed detailed information about the Perfect Child’s practices to the FBI team, the email said. Other insurers including Elevance Health and Aetna have also been investigating the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based autism-therapy provider, people familiar with the matter said.
据一封电子邮件和知情人士透露，9月，联邦调查局特工询问了收到91.1万美元账单的女子Carolina Lopez；10月，联邦调查局获取了包括Perfect Child部分账单在内的文件和其他记录。
In September, FBI agents interviewed the woman who received the $911,000 bill, Carolina Lopez, and in October, the FBI obtained documents including some of the Perfect Child’s bills and other records, according to an email and people familiar with the matter.
克利夫兰律师Alan Schabes表示他代表Perfect Child，他拒绝置评，称其客户未授权他公开发言。Perfect Child的所有者Simcha Bendet未回应置评请求。该公司继续运营并向客户开具账单。上周，该公司在纽约一家法院起诉了至少五个患者家庭。
Alan Schabes, a Cleveland lawyer who said he represents the Perfect Child, declined to comment, saying his client wouldn’t authorize him to speak on the record. The Perfect Child’s owner, Simcha Bendet, didn’t respond to requests for comment. The company continues to operate and bill clients. It sued at least five patients’ families last week in a New York court.
负责此次调查的联邦调查局匹兹堡分局发言人拒绝置评。已搬至另一州的Lopez表示，联邦调查局人员曾要求她不要公开讨论此事。
A spokesman for the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, which is conducting the investigation, declined to comment. Lopez, who since moved to another state, said FBI personnel had asked her not to publicly discuss the matter.
此外，一个国会委员会于7月向Perfect Child发送了一封信，要求提供有关其账单和催收做法的文件。信中称，众议院教育和劳动力委员会正在“调查自闭症治疗行业内的某些报销安排是否导致了过高的医疗成本”。该委员会的工作人员在最近几周采访了前Perfect Child患者的家长。
Separately, a congressional committee sent a letter to Perfect Child seeking documents about its billing and collection practices in July. The letter said the House Committee on Education and Workforce is “investigating whether certain reimbursement arrangements within the autism therapy industry have contributed to excessive health care costs.”Staff for the committee have interviewed parents of former Perfect Child patients in recent weeks.
应用行为分析（Applied Behavior Analysis，简称ABA）即自闭症治疗，近年来相关支出激增。联邦医疗保险和医疗补助服务中心（Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services）8月发布的一份报告显示，州和联邦纳税人在2025年为这些服务支出了100亿美元，高于2021年的20亿美元。该机构负责人Mehmet Oz在一段宣布该报告的视频中，引用了Lopez与Perfect Child的经历，作为行业滥用行为的一个例子。
Spending on applied behavior analysis, or ABA as the autism therapy is called, has soared in recent years. An August report by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, showed state and federal taxpayers spent $10 billion on the services in 2025, up from $2 billion in 2021. In a video announcing the report, Mehmet Oz, the agency’s administrator, cited Lopez’s experience with the Perfect Child as an example of abuse in the industry.
自闭症治疗由治疗师在家中或中心与患者一对一进行，可能涉及练习家务、沟通和社交互动。在许多州，ABA公司面临的监管很少，准入门槛也很低。
Autism therapy consists of therapists working one-on-one with patients at home or in centers and might involve practicing chores, communication and social interaction. In many states, ABA companies face little oversight and there are few barriers for entry.
据曾在该公司工作、并在2023年接受联邦调查局（FBI）特工采访的前员工透露，FBI此前曾调查过Perfect Child。
The FBI has investigated the Perfect Child before, according to former employees of the company who told the Journal they were interviewed by agents in 2023 about its business practices.
据Wu和法庭记录显示，2024年，FBI联系了Perfect Child患者家长Mike Wu，此前他的保险公司——UnitedHealth Group旗下的一个部门——认定该公司可能在被拒赔的上诉文件上伪造了他的签名。随后，Perfect Child起诉Wu，试图追讨约2万美元。Wu表示，他后来与该公司达成了和解。
In 2024, the FBI contacted Mike Wu, the parent of a Perfect Child patient, after his insurer, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, determined that the company might have forged his signature on an appeal of denied claims, according to Wu and court records. The Perfect Child subsequently sued Wu in an effort to collect about $20,000. Wu said he later settled with the company.
没有法律限制医疗服务提供者就许多门诊服务向保险公司和患者收取多少费用。Perfect Child未参加大多数保险公司的网络，意味着没有合同约束其收费标准。
There is no law limiting how much healthcare providers can bill insurers and patients for many outpatient services. The Perfect Child didn’t participate in most insurers’ networks, meaning no contracts governed its rates.
在某些情况下，该公司为家长声称从未提供的服务开具了账单。去年，它向 Marlene Rosario 的保险公司开具了 2 万美元的账单，声称于 2 月 27 日和 28 日为其儿子提供了治疗。短信记录和医疗记录显示，几天前，住在佛罗里达州莱克兰的 Rosario 曾从一家急诊诊所发短信给“完美儿童”，称自己被诊断出患有肺炎，取消那一整周的服务。“完美儿童”代表回复同意改期至 3 月初。
In some cases, the company billed for services parents say were never provided. Last year, it billed Marlene Rosario’s insurer for $20,000 worth of therapy it claimed to provide to her son on Feb. 27 and Feb. 28. A couple of days earlier, Rosario, who lives in Lakeland, Fla., had texted the Perfect Child from an urgent care where she was diagnosed with pneumonia to cancel services for that entire week, text messages and medical records show. A Perfect Child representative replied, agreeing to reschedule for early March.
尽管早前在邮件中告诉 Rosario，即使保险公司拒赔，她每年也最多只需支付 100 美元，“完美儿童”后来却为其两个儿子的治疗向她开具了超过 100 万美元的账单。
The Perfect Child later billed Rosario for more than $1 million for treatment provided to her two sons, despite telling her in earlier emails that she would pay no more than $100 a year, even if her insurer denied claims.
8 月，田纳西州的一名女子 Kirsten Messier 收到一张近 150 万美元的账单，涵盖“完美儿童”为其女儿提供的约一年治疗，并附带一项要求：将授权委托书签给公司，以便公司以她的名义起诉保险公司追讨这些费用，否则将面临法律追偿，向其家庭追讨全额款项。
In August, a Tennessee woman named Kirsten Messier received a bill for nearly $1.5 million for about a year of treatment from the Perfect Child for her daughter along with a demand: Sign over power of attorney to the company so it could sue her insurer for those costs in her name, or face legal action to collect the full amount from her family.
Messier 拒绝签署，但仍继续使用该公司服务数周。她表示之所以这样做，是因为在她所在的农村地区找不到其他服务提供商。“我心里清楚我需要停止，”Messier 在 9 月的一次采访中说道，那是她与公司分道扬镳之前，“但这是我的孩子，我该怎么办？”在催收做法上，“完美儿童”本身也挥舞起 FBI 的大棒。今年早些时候，“完美儿童”一名催收经理给一位患者家长发邮件，威胁如果她不在本周结束前支付近 2 万美元，就要举报她。
Messier declined to sign, but kept using the company’s services for weeks. She said she did so because she couldn’t find another provider in her rural area. “In my head, I know I need to stop,” Messier said in a September interview before parting with the company, “but it’s my kid, what am I supposed to do?”In its collection practices, the Perfect Child itself raised the specter of the FBI. Earlier this year, a Perfect Child collections manager emailed a patient’s parent threatening to report her if she didn’t pay nearly $20,000 by the end of that week.
“这涉及对你立 FBI 案件。我建议你自己查查后果，”该催收经理在邮件中写道。
“This involves opening an FBI case against you. I suggest you do your research on the consequences,” the email from the collections manager said.