Actually I live in Texas and if the employer's health insurance program is self-funded, which many large companies are, then they don't have to follow the state laws. They fall under federal guidelines which still do not require ABA coverage. I have heard there are reasonable private plans now, since our children can no longer be excluded due to their ASD, and I am looking at opting out of my employer's plan to replace it with one that must follow the Texas law.

I live in Dallas. We thought our insurance wouldn't cover ABA as well and it was usually because the provider was out of network. The ABA place we first went to figured out some codes after we had been there a year and I got to get 1/2 of our money returned. Then we found a full-day therapy program that had an insurance specialist on contract. Every kiddo there is covered by their insurance plan - 35 hours of ABA a week. It's worth a try to keep searching for ABA providers who know how to deal with insurance companies. What insurance are you on? The reason our old ABA provider figured out their patients could get some treatment covered is because one of the kid's dads had a great HR insurance person at their company. They fought for their employee and in turn, got him the benefits they need. We realized that most of our insurance does cover somewhat - it's just really hard to get them to admit it. You have to dig. My son is going into public school this fall (kindergarten), and he requires less services, but a group of parents are getting together to hire a BCBA on our own to lead a social group for our kids once a week. We have to pay out of pocket, but splitting it with other parents is very helpful. Finally, we also found a family friend who has worked with autistic children for 20 years, and she gave us some great overall recommendations to do with Evan on our own. If you could spend a little for a good evaluation and expert, you could try to implement some stuff yourself or hire a college student studying to be a BCBA to execute on the cheaper side. Good luck!

Texas passed Autism Health Insurance Reform in 2007 and removed the age cap recently. Insurance companies in your state have to pay for ABA therapy under the law. There is a $36,000.00 a year annual cap but they have to pay up to that cap. If they are refusing tell them that you will call your local state representative.

One option that we do and that might work for you is to find a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst)to do in office ABA guidance. The BCBA will most likely be a psychologist so check to see if your insurance will cover a psychologist. When you have an intensive, in home ABA therapist they can only use a few billing codes while the BCBA has a broader scope and thus a broader range of insurance friendly codes to use. While you won't be getting the intensive in home ABA I'm assuming you are looking for you will be getting excellent guidance from the expert on how you can set up your own ABA strategies at home. I'm not going to lie, it's a lot for a parent to take on but then again parenting in general is a lot to take on. Everyone involved with your child will need to be on the same page and consistent with which ever ABA strategies you are working on. You'll also need to regularly check in with your BCBA to talk about what's going right and why and what needs to be worked on and how. If you find the right BCBA they can be an excellent coach. Good luck (o:

The first thing I would do is check to make sure the school district is not responsive for it. Do not just ask them because they will most likely just tell you no, you have to look into it on your own. In our state the school district pays for it, and if they cannot provide enough at school they have to pay for it after school.