September 1, 2023 – Families will find more Medicaid Providers for ABA therapy coming soon.
Advocates passed state legislation that will now require Illinois Medicaid (HFS) to allow Behavior Analysts (BCBA or Board Certified Behavior Analysts) to practice ABA therapy without a licensed supervisor to oversee their work. This supervision requirement was the biggest barrier families faced when trying to access ABA because there were not enough supervisors to meet the demand. Our Coalition is working to support ABA providers to enroll in the Medicaid system and we hope families will be able to access ABA services by early to mid November 2023. Learn more of the challenges families and providers have faced over the past few years. Please reach out to us on our contact page if you have any questions.
I am very happy to hear that. While the supervision requirement was a barrier, it’s not the biggest barrier. We actually were able to get over that by hiring one social worker to supervise all of our BCBAs. Alternatively, we could gotten around this barrier by becoming a BHC. But the biggest barrier is the RBT requirement.. in ILLINOIS, here is only 1 RBT for every 27 children with autism. A child is a person under the age of 18. Other states got over this obstacle by allowing agencies a 3 or 6 months grace period. This grace period will allow agencies to hire staff, train them, and make them RBTs. It is impossible to service all kids with medicaid without the grace period.