New song! It's starts like this: "Boom boom bump! Boom boom bump! Boom boom bump! Boom boom bump!  ABA's the thing science says it can bring kids forward from their aut-is-m. You need 20 hours a week. The cost makes us shriek. We can not provide for all who seek. Singing "We will, we will BANKRUPT YOU!" Ok, so I'm not a lyricist. But you get the point. Apologies to Freddie... Mercury (hey oh!)  ABA is the exalted "science based" treatment for autism. But it's pricey! From what I am seeing, a lot of mediocre colleges are churning out BCBAs at a quick pace. Students know they can make far more as a BCBA than social worker. Below, Anne Dachel highlights just two stories  of how the world is starting to go broke on autism. It's going to get much worse. It's no bed of roses.

By Anne Dachel

Two recent stories are a serious cause for alarm.

Aug 11, 2023, Fox 59, Indianapolis: Proposal could cut Indiana Medicaid reimbursement rates for autism therapy for kids   

While health officials, doctors and overwhelmingly the media tell us that all the autistic kids everywhere are nothing new, statistics prove them horribly wrong.

Here’s what’s happening in Indiana.

…Last year, Indiana Medicaid programs provided 6,200 kids with what’s known as “Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy,” or “ABA” for short.

Tuesday, the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) alerted ABA providers across the state it would propose a standard reimbursement rate for care administered by an RBT of $55 per hour. However, several providers say the average market rate is closer to $100 per hour, which means the proposal could cut funding by almost half across the board.

Our entire clinic is Medicaid families who depend on these services,” said Courtney Hodge, the owner of Shine Pediatric Therapy.

Hodge said since the clinic opened in October 2022, 38 of 40 families served have used Medicaid vouchers. Hodge said she fears proposed cuts to Medicaid reimbursement rates could mean decreased staffing, training and personalized care for kids.

ABA therapy, we’re told, costs $100 an hour. And funding would be cut by half. Medicaid pays for low income families. How would they afford the cost of ABA?

Here’s the sobering reality for Indiana and, I’m sure, everywhere else.

However, the FSSA [IN Family and Social Services Administration] argues that the current reimbursement rate is unsustainable. The agency said Medicaid programs spent $420M on ABA alone in 2022, and that over the last three years, ABA expenses increased by more than 50 percent each year.

Another story, this one from Fairfield, Texas, gives a chilling statistic about ABA therapy for autistic children.

On Aug 6, 2023, the Freestone County Times, in Fairfield, TX, published an op ed piece by a psychologist who’s worried about losing funding for ABA therapy. She notes, Between 2010 and 2020, demand for ABA services grew over 4,000%.

WHY? Why was there such a staggering increase in demand? We’re not told because the ABA provider wasn’t interest in where these kids are coming from.

I think we need to get used to the word unsustainable. We’re going to be hearing it a lot.

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