ABA Advocates is Kentucky’s only membership and policy association for organizations that provide ABA services.
ABA Advocates is a 501(c)(6) non-profit trade association that provides a variety of services to its members. It offers networking opportunities with fellow ABA providers, fostering a community of collaboration and support. The organization also actively lobbies, educates, and advocates on behalf of its members to influence policy and promote the interests of the ABA community. Additionally, ABA Advocates assists its members with business strategy and development, helping to enhance their professional practices and effectiveness in the field.
Our purpose is to impact public policy decisions, payment rates and contracting methods, (Commercial Plans and Medicaid Managed Care Organizations), state regulations, state law and state funding to benefit the members of ABA Advocates and the children and families they serve. Also, to promote the ABA profession to government and community stakeholders.
Member Benefits Include
Advocacy in achieving appropriate rates and contracts with:
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Commercial Insurance Plans
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Medicaid for BHSOs, Provider Groups (MSG), School Based Funding
Direct Lobbying to Key Decision Makers with:
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Commercial Insurance Plans and their Government Relations Teams
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Medicaid Managed Care Organizations
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Cabinet for Health and Family Services
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Department for Medicaid Services
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Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities
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Department of Education
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Department of Insurance
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KY ABA Licensing Board
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Governor’s Office
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KY State Legislature
Consultation with Government Affairs for:
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Political strategy
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Public policy priority development
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Policy/Contracting research and analysis
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Grassroots advocacy development
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Training on effective advocacy and lobbying
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Work with media
Coordination with other professional associations
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The national trade association for ABA, CASP (the Council for Autism Service Providers)
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Kentucky Association for Behavior Analysts
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Kentucky ABA Licensing Board
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PT/OT/SLP Associations
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Kentucky Psychological Association
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Aligned licensing requirements with BACB requirements (2011)
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Reversal of Anthem Commercial proposed rate cut (2018)
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Implementation of Value-Based Pilot for Anthem Commercial (2019)
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Revisions to the BHSO and Provider Group (MSG) Medicaid regulations to include ABA provision of services (2019)
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Impacted revisions of LBA licensing regulations specifically regarding temporary license (2022)
How Are Kentucky Families Affected by Autism?
Autism remains the fastest-growing developmental disorder in the United States, with one in 36 eight-year-old children identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)1. In Kentucky today, tens of thousands of children have ASD diagnoses and far too many languish on waiting lists for medically necessary services, causing irreparable delays in their development, limiting their lifetime potential, and impacting their families’ stability. Kentucky Medicaid’s
steep underfunding of ASD treatment–called Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)--drives this severe restriction on access to care.
What Is Applied Behavior Analysis?
ABA is a highly structured and evidence-based therapydesigned to improve specific behaviors in individualswith ASD and related intellectual and developmentaldisabilities. ABA has proven effective in enhancingcommunication abilities, social capabilities, andessential life skills and is the widely acknowledgedstandard of care for treating ASD, recognized bythe American Academy of Pediatrics, the AmericanAcademy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, theNational Institute of Mental health, and others.
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ABA provides early intervention, allowing childrento reach their full potential and reducing the needfor more intensive, often more expensive, serviceslater on.
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ABA teaches skills that allow individuals with ASDto lead more independent, self-sufficient lives.
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ABA services provide vital wellbeing lifelines thatengage and strengthen families and ease the strainon the school system.
What’s Limiting Kentucky Access to
ABA Services?
Kentucky is legally required to provide an adequate network of ABA providers–meaning children should not be placed on a waiting list for services. However, the demand for ABA services is skyrocketing while increasingly fewer ABA providers are able to accept Medicaid’s low rates and others are at risk of closing due to operating with insufficient rates.
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Kentucky’s most utilized ABA Medicaid rates are up to 26% lower than other states with similar demographic profiles, including our seven adjacent states, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.
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Additional states with recently updated ABA Medicaid rates include Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, and North Carolina.
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These disparities create a significant disadvantage when competing for employees with out-of-state providers offering higher wages and stifle our ability to offer the same network adequacy.
How can we help Kentucky children and
families with ASD?
As the Kentucky General Assembly considers vital Medicaid rebasing measures, we urge legislative leaders to prioritize increasing the ABA rates within the behavioral health fee schedule by at least 25%, which will create closer parity with adjacent states, allow providers to compete with surrounding states for our critical workforce, and most importantly, create
greater access to care for hundreds of Kentuckians struggling on waitlists today.
Interested in joining? Contact us!
