In-home ABA therapy in Colorado with Health First Colorado (Colorado Medicaid)

What to ask a home-based provider

Ask how far the therapist will drive, how many hours a week they can staff in your area, and whether the same technician comes each week. Ask who supervises and how often. Ask whether sessions can happen at daycare or at a grandparent's house when the plan calls for it.

Then ask the only question the state list can't answer: do you have an opening for a child this age, in this town, now.

How Colorado Medicaid covers home-based therapy

Health First Colorado, run by the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, pays for pediatric behavioral therapies that are medically necessary. The provider's BCBA assesses your child and sends a prior authorization request to the state's utilization management vendor; an approved request covers up to six months of therapy sessions. Nothing in the state's rules prices a home session differently from a center session.

A diagnosis of autism isn't required by the state. Children with a developmental delay, ADHD or a behavior concern can be assessed too, and the reviewer decides on medical necessity. Families with private insurance as well give the provider both cards; the commercial plan pays first.

What the treatment plan covers at home

A home plan usually has a handful of goals written in plain words: asking for things, following a two-step direction, getting through a bath or a meal, fewer meltdowns at transitions. A registered behavior technician (RBT) works on them in your rooms, with your toys, at the times of day the problems actually happen. The BCBA supervises on a schedule the plan sets and adjusts goals as your child moves.

Parent training is written into the plan, not added on. Ask how many hours a week of it you get and who runs it. That's the part that keeps working after the technician's car pulls away.

How to start ABA therapy in Colorado with Health First Colorado

Call a provider from the cards above. It assesses your child, writes the treatment plan and files the prior authorization request with Colorado Medicaid; an approved request covers up to six months of therapy sessions. You don't file anything, and no autism diagnosis is required when the therapy is medically necessary. The three steps, with who to call.

Pick your city

Every city page has the full state list for that place and the local facts: Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora, Fort Collins, Lakewood, Boulder, Pueblo, Greeley, Longmont, Thornton.