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Every Value-Based ABA Model Bets on Fewer Hours

September 2, 2026 · 9:08 AM

Three companies have built different payment structures with California, Massachusetts, and employer-plan payers. Strip away the mechanics, and each rests on the same wager: that ABA can deliver less treatment and hold…

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ABA’s Value-Based Care Experiment Is Showing Results—and Raising Questions

September 1, 2026 · 11:00 AM

One California partnership has run on capitated payments and adaptive-behavior scores for more than three years, and roughly 80% of its patients progressed while their therapy hours fell. It is the field’s…

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The Measurement Problem at the Heart of Value-Based ABA

August 31, 2026 · 11:00 AM

In one study of 154 children, the share making meaningful gains on their individual treatment goals rose between 12 and 24 months while the share gaining on a standardized adaptive-behavior scale fell.…

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BACB Board President Logs First Few Months with PE-Backed ABA Provider Behavior Frontiers

August 28, 2026 · 9:00 AM

Dr. Breanne Hartley will lead clinical strategy at Behavior Frontiers, which is owned by NexPhase, while also serving as president of the board that certifies behavior analysts nationwide.

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Graham Holdings Is the Only NYSE-Listed Owner of an ABA Chain

August 24, 2026 · 9:00 AM

The former Washington Post Company now provides autism therapy as its only recurring quarterly public disclosure, making Graham Holdings the only NYSE-listed owner of a dedicated ABA chain. The latest filing shows…

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Aveanna Occupational Therapist Charged in Abuse of Autistic Patient

August 18, 2026 · 3:30 PM

An arrest affidavit reported by KSAT alleges the San Antonio occupational therapist abused a child he had treated since she was four. Twenty-three months passed between her disclosure to a doctor and…

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The Year ABA Providers Started Walking Off Medicaid Panels

August 9, 2026 · 9:00 AM

Three-quarters of New York’s Medicaid ABA providers told their state association they would leave the program if a second rate cut went through. It went through on April 1.

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Where Behavior Analysts Are Licensed, and Where They Aren’t

August 7, 2026 · 3:30 PM

Forty states and Washington, D.C. now regulate the profession, up from zero in 2009. Ten states still rely on national certification alone. The distinction increasingly decides who can practice, supervise, and bill,…

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BCBA Pass Rate Hits Record Low as Demand Doubles

August 7, 2026 · 9:30 AM

First-attempt pass rates hit 51 percent in 2025, the lowest the credentialing board has recorded, even as candidate volume grew by half. The fix the field chose does not fully arrive until…

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Three Families Lost Care to a System That Is Not Working

August 5, 2026 · 3:00 PM

Behavior analysis accounted for 64 percent of every provider the state refused to enroll or reenroll last fiscal year. In June, the governor stood in West Palm Beach and announced that every…

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Virginia’s ABA Diagnosis Rule Outweighs Its 20-Hour Limit

August 3, 2026 · 2:00 PM

The word autism appears nowhere in Virginia’s current ABA eligibility criteria, and the new weekly ceiling yields to a federal exception available to every child it touches. Lawmakers booked $58 million in…

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BACB Ends Ontario BCBA Applications as Global Exit Nears

August 3, 2026 · 9:00 AM

Ontario’s Transitional Route 1 ended on June 30, 2026. Australia’s opportunity will close on January 1, 2027. Soon, this credential will only be available in the US and most of Canada.

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Marcus Autism Center Study Finds 91% Drop in Severe Behavior

August 2, 2026 · 2:45 PM

Forty children and teens at immediate risk of harming themselves or others took part in Atlanta’s intensive outpatient program, attending five hours a day, five days a week. The study’s results come…

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RBT Training Pass Rates Range From 8% to 100%, BACB Data Show

July 31, 2026 · 1:30 PM

More than 109,000 candidates took the RBT exam for the first time in 2025—and roughly one in four did not pass. Four companies trained over half of all first-time exam candidates, but…

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Balance Autism Agrees to Pay Up to $290,000 Over Data Breach

July 30, 2026 · 4:30 PM

A mediated agreement, pending a judge’s approval, would end the Iowa nonprofit’s class action. The deal includes credit monitoring, estimated payments of $50, and a fee request of up to $125,000. Just…

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Utah Makes Automatic ABA Medicaid Rate Increases Permanent

July 30, 2026 · 9:00 AM

Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill that lifts autism-therapy reimbursement whenever forecast state revenue growth reaches at least 2 percent.

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CMS EPSDT Guide Undercuts ABA Hour Caps and Plateau Denials

July 29, 2026 · 3:00 PM

The first rewrite of Medicaid’s children’s coverage playbook since 2014 tells states that flat limits may not stand in for case-by-case decisions. Indiana began counting children’s therapy against a 4,000-hour lifetime allocation…

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Autism Clinic Owner Gets 36 Months for Wyoming Medicaid Fraud

July 28, 2026 · 1:30 PM

Prosecutors said The Olive Branch billed for appointments that did not occur, including days when the clinic was closed or when Tera Campbell was abroad. Campbell’s daughter, who handled medical billing, was…

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Indiana Fixed ABA Medicaid Billing, Now Access Is at Risk

July 27, 2026 · 3:30 PM

The state scrapped a formula that paid providers 40 percent of whatever they billed. The replacement, a fixed fee schedule with rate cuts, a 4,000-hour lifetime cap, and a freeze on new…

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When the Auditor Is an Algorithm: AI Comes for ABA Billing

July 27, 2026 · 11:00 AM

Indiana is piloting AI to flag Medicaid fraud just as it freezes new autism-therapy enrollment. For ABA providers, the era of algorithmic claims surveillance has arrived, and other states are watching.

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Federal Autism Panel Advances ‘Profound Autism’ Designation

July 22, 2026 · 3:00 PM

The newly restructured committee urged new federal Medicaid guidance for autism care, which could affect how high-need services, including applied behavior analysis, are prioritized. The panel meets again July 31.

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House Committee Opens Billing Probe Into ABA Provider The Perfect Child

July 22, 2026 · 11:30 AM

Chairman Tim Walberg and Rep. Rick Allen gave founder Simcha Bendet until July 20 to provide billing records going back to 2020. This move makes official a Wall Street Journal investigation into…

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Kentucky Medicaid Cuts ABA Rates 4% Starting August 1

July 21, 2026 · 9:00 AM

Licensed Behavior Analysts are one of 46 fee-for-service provider types facing this reduction. The state budget also plans a managed-care cut in 2028.

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Pediatrics Plus Buys Cynergy and Arkids in 12-Location Deal

July 20, 2026 · 11:00 AM

The Conway buyer emerges with about 2,100 employees in four states and expects to add ABA across the combined organization over time.

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Insurers Ask CMS to Set National ABA Credentialing Rules

July 17, 2026 · 3:30 PM

The Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness, representing major insurers, wants Medicaid to require licensure checks, background screenings, federal supervision ratios, and technician enrollment rules.

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Eleos ABA Files Chapter 11 as Provider Bankruptcies Spread

July 17, 2026 · 11:00 AM

This family-run Baltimore business filed for court protection in May, reporting over $820,000 in unsecured debt and just $242,595 in assets. The biggest claim comes from a short-term lender, and the payment…

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Oklahoma Medicaid Freeze of ABA Payments to Mirabelle Care Puts 500 Kids’ Therapy at Risk

July 16, 2026 · 1:15 PM

A fraud investigation targets the clinics’ former owner. The payment freeze lands on the new owner who bought the business in January, its 200 employees, and about 500 children in therapy.

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The Rural ABA Opportunity

July 16, 2026 · 10:00 AM

For many rural families, the nearest BCBA is a county or more away.

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Cathay Capital Launches Ascendia Autism Care ABA Platform

July 16, 2026 · 9:00 AM

The founding affiliate operates 20 centers across 8 states and has a clinical team of over 400, though the launch release does not name it. The plan calls for new centers in…

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Aetna to Build a Preferred Network for Autism Providers

July 15, 2026 · 4:03 PM

The insurer already runs a quality tier with published, exacting criteria, and the payer trade group Aetna shares with Optum, Centene, and Carelon is now drafting the standard that the rest of…

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Draft Medi-Cal Rule Would Cut ABA Parity Protections

July 13, 2026 · 12:30 PM

DHCS sent managed care plans a tracked-changes rewrite on June 22 and closed comments on July 3. It would expand utilization management for autism therapy and delete the operative order that plans…

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South Carolina Tightens Medicaid ABA Rules Effective July 1

July 9, 2026 · 8:00 AM

Providers lose telehealth for the 97151 assessment code and face stronger documentation and medical-necessity checks, with a comment window that closed June 1 and a fee schedule the state says it will…

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Senators Schmitt and Gillibrand Press TRICARE to Cover ABA Permanently

July 3, 2026 · 3:00 PM

A Republican father of a nonverbal autistic son and the Democrat who commissioned the Pentagon’s own study have made autism care a bipartisan cause. Now they want applied behavior analysis written into…

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Charles Chen

New CPT codes. Medicaid shifts. Clinics changing hands.

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