Industry Analysis

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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HHS Extends Comment Period on Contested Autism Plan

August 6, 2026 · 2:30 PM

Seven advocacy groups forced federal officials to back off a four-day public review of the 336-page draft, the first from the committee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rebuilt in January. ABA providers now…

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Hidden Inadequacies in the ABA Provider Network

August 6, 2026 · 9:00 AM

Federal and state rules require insurers to maintain adequate provider networks. In applied behavior analysis, documented gaps show why the standard often fails to guarantee access.

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CareSource Partially Reverses Georgia Therapy Rate Cut, Leaving Access Uneven

August 5, 2026 · 9:00 AM

CareSource has restored full reimbursement for some Georgia therapy providers after lawmakers and families challenged a 20 percent cut. The relief is targeted, however, and clinics outside identified shortage areas may still…

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Meghan Edwards Built the Community for In-School BCBAs That She Needed

August 4, 2026 · 9:00 AM

Meghan Edwards, founder of The Behavior Lounge, a membership community for school-based BCBAs.

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NIH Backs Adaptive Telehealth Parent Training for Autism

August 2, 2026 · 9:00 AM

A newly funded study tests whether stepping families up from a self-directed online program to therapist coaching only when needed can broaden access without diluting results. The design tracks where the evidence…

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Autism Screening Via Gaze Tracking, Retina Imaging May Help Children Receive ABA Sooner

August 1, 2026 · 1:30 PM

An FDA-cleared eye-tracking device is already in clinics while retinal photographs, a flash of light, and the pupil race to catch up. What the science can do now, and what it still…

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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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ABA Workers Strike in Maryland. Union Fights Spread. Clinics Squeezed as Funders Slash Reimbursement

July 24, 2026 · 2:30 PM

A walkout at Verbal Beginnings puts a spotlight on the pay and support pressures facing behavior technicians and the BCBAs who supervise them.

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92507 Is Going Away. ABA Companies That Offer Speech Therapy Need to Prepare

July 23, 2026 · 2:45 PM

The AMA rejected a last rescue attempt in May, and the rule CMS proposed on July 14 starts the pricing process, with final rates due in November.

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North Carolina Is Tightening ABA Medicaid. Providers May Feel the Workforce Impact First

July 20, 2026 · 2:45 PM

House Bill 696 is now law, but the policy language that determines how it will work is still changing. The clearest effects will be on staffing, remote supervision, authorization workload, and the…

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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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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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ABA and Pediatric Therapy M&A: What the First Half of 2026 Tells Us About Today’s Buyers

July 15, 2026 · 12:15 PM

Twenty-two deals in six months signal a market that has stabilized, not stalled — but the buyers writing checks today look nothing like the growth-chasers of 2021. Operational discipline, multidisciplinary care models,…

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Unity Behavioral Services Designs Its Own Individualized ABA Model

July 11, 2026 · 9:30 AM

The family-owned Georgia- and Texas-based provider, led by founder Armon Aghaie, is pitching a purpose-driven model and a set of company-reported outcomes it says set it apart as it plans to grow.

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CHOP Forms 50-50 Autism Therapy Venture With Soar

July 10, 2026 · 8:00 AM

The nonprofit hospital is funding its half of the startup costs for a network that could grow to dozens of early-intervention centers. This gives SOAR a referral pipeline and the brand of…

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Freedom and Behavior Analysis on the Semiquincentennial

July 9, 2026 · 6:00 PM

Dr. Scott O’Donnell standing in front of Independence Hall during the Fourth of July.

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A Call to Action During Oregon’s BCBA Presses Board to Reform RBAI Licensing

July 8, 2026 · 12:15 PM

Christina Williams will use this Friday’s public Behavior Analysis Regulatory Board meeting to push five changes to how Oregon trains and licenses its entry-level analysts. She is asking the field to show…

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ABA Network Adequacy: Cracking the Math and Rules Behind the Metrics

July 8, 2026 · 8:00 AM

Regulators turn “enough providers” into formulas, from miles and minutes to a 10-business-day clock for visits. How those numbers are drawn decides who reaches an in-network BCBA and who only appears to…

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Virginia Caps Medicaid ABA Hours a Year After Raising Rates

July 2, 2026 · 11:00 AM

One year after the state raised ABA rates to address a workforce shortage, a budget provision that took effect July 1 limits Applied Behavior Analysis to 20 hours a week per Medicaid…

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CareSource Says Costs Justify 20% Cut, Lawmaker Disagrees and Explains How Capitation Works

June 29, 2026 · 3:45 PM

CareSource is paid a fixed sum to absorb the risk of rising demand. When demand rose, it cut provider pay instead, and a state hearing put the design of capitation on trial.

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Ohio Behavioral Health Crackdown Slows New Provider Licensing, Impacts ABA Providers

June 25, 2026 · 2:00 PM

Ohio revamps how it vets behavioral health providers. The slowdown in approving new applicants hit an ABA Medicaid network that is already short of providers.

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Medicaid Cuts Push Behavior Analysts to Look Beyond Autism

June 24, 2026 · 3:45 PM

Most of the country’s behavior analysts build their careers on a single diagnosis. As states slash autism reimbursement, an old argument is resurfacing: the science was never meant to treat just one.

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Connecticut BCBA Sentenced for $102K Medicaid Fraud

June 22, 2026 · 5:30 PM

Glenroy Patterson billed the state for ABA sessions that never happened.

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Adult Autism Ranks Among NIH’s Least-Funded Priorities

June 21, 2026 · 1:00 PM

A new Autism Speaks dashboard shows how little research money reaches autistic adults, even as the autism investment community calls them the sector’s most underserved, and most investable, frontier.

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Autistic Adults Age Out of ABA Coverage at 21 in Most States

June 21, 2026 · 8:00 AM

The adult segment is the fastest-growing corner of an $8 billion ABA market, projected to expand at more than double the industry’s overall rate through 2031. Outside a handful of states, such…

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Lawrence County Gets Its First ABA Clinic. Most Rural Counties Still Have None.

June 20, 2026 · 9:00 AM

A local behavior analyst is opening the first ABA clinic in a rural Arkansas county. The milestone doubles as a marker of how thin autism care stays across most of rural America.

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BACB Report: RBT Turnover a Pervasive and Intractable ABA Challenge

June 16, 2026 · 4:00 PM

The technicians who deliver nearly every hour of autism therapy earn about $20.50 an hour, churn at rates approaching one departure for every seat each year, and hold no occupation code of…

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What McGuireWoods 2026 Means for ABA Platform Exits

June 10, 2026 · 12:01 PM

Financing is back and behavioral health is in favor, dealmakers signaled in Chicago. The harder question for autism-therapy owners is the one the room kept asking, about who buys the boom-era roll-ups…

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