That is frustrating. Will check out your blog. I hope you can shared evidence-based articles with Kaiser that explain why it is necessary. Here is one posted by national institute of health https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC31...

Forgot to add- we got the official diagnosis Feb 1. So that has taken three months to get ABA set up. However, we first went to regional center in Oct. So it's really been six months without ABA. I often wonder if they delayed the diagnosis so they didn't have to pay for ABA for us, and I wonder what my son would be like now had we started ABA in November. I am grumpy too- interested in whatever your thoughts are on improving the current system. Other conundrum is - if I set up services all through my insurance, they make me drive my kid to clinics for anything other than ABA. They classify speech and OT as "medical" services but ABA as "behavioral" services. None of the "medical" service providers work on weekends and rarely in evenings, including doctors. So I go during work hours and hope I keep my job.

Hi Steven, I have ABC insurance- also in California. Child turns 3 in May with autism diagnosis from regional center. There are great laws here requiring insurance to pay for in-home ABA. The holdup is not with the insurance company (except that they require a full report which takes a month, which I do think slows the process). Anthem has a dedicated ABA line that you can call. They told me they take less than 48 hours to authorize the report once it is submitted. I have them in my phone contacts. The problem I have is finding an ABA provider. My ABA provider submitted and told me they were waiting on authorization, but when I called the insurance they told me they had approved it same day. That was a week ago. I am still waiting on a schedule from my ABA company. He will have 30 hours a week. I had a terrible time finding an ABA company- I called and talked with 10 of them before finding one we liked. Many refused to provide at school and in home- some told us they only do in home therapy. The major concern I have with my insurance is they refuse to pay for in-home or at school OT and speech. They will make us drive to a clinic. I don't know how this will get sorted out. In one month, the regional center will cut us off and we have our first IEP where school might cover some. We are already driving twice a week to speech. I strongly believe that some kids on spectrum can be diagnosed before one years old if our community can push past the medical community and society's expectations of "all young kids are like this." My son broke his leg before he was one years old and it's so unusual, that was a clear sign on sensory seeking, there needs to be more focus on catching these kinds of signs way before 3 to give them best chance for services.

How long did it take you to get ABA from when it was authorized? (in months)

Georgia- No ABA available except for a few private insurers. This has changed a little since 2015.
Texas- I believe my daughter started in 4 months because we already had a DX for 3 years.
Blue Cross-Blue Shield

Age of your child?

3 at DX, now 7

"I'm grumpy. The process seems unnecessarily slow."

Yeah, you'll get the feeling your kid is the first kid they've seen with autism or that your kid is just another number. We've already been warned that there's a 10 years long waiting list in Texas for group homes for adults with autism. We don't plan on doing that but it's sad to hear that's the longest waiting list I've ever heard of. Doesn't matter as we are moving again for a better quality of life in my job and better education for my daughter.

@A MyAutismTeam Member - we're in CA and our son was diagnosed (by our health insurer) right before he turned 3, so we (mostly) missed out on the regional center services. At this point, we are getting a bit of parent education (which I'm a huge fan of) and... once I get the paperwork done, respite care and maybe MediCal.

Our school system seems pretty good. I'm happy with the IEP process. If nothing else, you get a break for a couple of hours.

It is hard to separate out what is working as we've changed so much at home and started so many services in the past 6 months, but things have changed a lot for the better... but so, so far to go.

We have Kaiser ... which we love for general healthcare, OK on speech, we don't have OT right now, and we're slogging through getting ABA started.

Since everyone talks as if ABA is so useful, it is frustrating.

OK,******ing frustrating.

You might find my blog: https://autismnutsandbolts.wordpress.com/ interesting.

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