A Year of ABA, Then a $1.48 Million Demand From The Perfect Child

PROSPECT, TENNESSEE – Kiersten Messier’s daughter, Sophia, now 15, began in-home ABA therapy with The Perfect Child in July 2025. Sophia has autism and Down syndrome and does not speak. About a year later, a legal letter from the Brooklyn, New York, provider demanded $1.48 million, WSMV4 Investigates reported Nov. 4.

WSMV reported that the letter gave the family a choice: grant the company a limited power of attorney to pursue Sophia’s insurer directly on her behalf, or face its demand for the full amount. Messier told WSMV that her insurer had begun denying claims for the therapy. The station reported that records in Sophia’s case showed charges of about $10,000 per three-hour session and, on multiple occasions, what it called double billing on the same date, reaching $20,000 in a day. WSMV also reported that claims in Sophia’s case appeared under the names Growing Scholars, Simply Stars, and Precision ABA Group.

“I almost had a heart attack,” Messier told the station. The Wall Street Journal, which also reported on her case, put the demand at about $1.5 million.

A second Tennessee family tells a similar story. Jason Elkins of Clarksville enrolled his daughter with The Perfect Child for three years. Initial emails told the family it would pay about $102 a month out of pocket after insurance, WSMV reported. When the family’s insurer began denying claims, the company billed the family more than $364,000. “We were angry. We were very upset, very sad,” Elkins said.

The Perfect Child did not participate in most insurers’ networks, meaning no contracts governed its rates, according to the Journal.

The company is already under federal scrutiny. The House Committee on Education and Workforce asked founder Simcha Bendet for billing records on July 6 and again on Aug. 21, warning the second time that missing a Sept. 4 deadline could lead to a subpoena. On Nov. 3, the Journal reported that the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office is investigating the company’s billing and that insurers Elevance Health and Aetna are also investigating. Neither WSMV nor the Journal reported any criminal charges.

Bendet and The Perfect Child had not responded to WSMV’s requests for comment as of its Nov. 4 report. Alan Schabes, a Cleveland lawyer who says he represents the company, declined to comment to the Journal. WSMV reported that the Brooklyn address on the company’s corporate filings and on payment instructions sent to Tennessee families is a residence that public records show Bendet owns.

The day WSMV visited the Messiers, a company representative left a voicemail ending Sophia’s therapy immediately, the station reported. “We were really getting somewhere,” her mother said.

In its Nov. 4 report, WSMV said the Elkins family is part of a planned class action with a New York City law firm, expected to be filed that week. The station said it would share its findings with congressional investigators.

AT A GLANCE

SOURCES & REFERENCES