Copy the text below and click on one (or more!) of the links to send to legislators.
You may add a personal testimony of the benefits a loved one has experienced from ABA therapy if you wish.
---
Without input from families or providers, Medicaid recently announced three major changes for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatment:
30-hour weekly limit on ABA services per child.
Three-year maximum for ABA services per child.
Credentialing for all RBTs - which will drive extensive delays in providing services and extend waitlists further.
These changes will be extremely harmful to some of our most vulnerable Indiana children. ABA is a critical, evidence based treatment for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Loss of access to such a life-changing treatment would be devastating to their future and would have negative ripple effects throughout our whole community for years to come.
The newly proposed weekly time caps, lifetime limits, and other requirements are not based on medical data or best practices and would undermine the effectiveness of this treatment. Children should not be penalized or denied service because their disability prevented them from developing these skills faster.
Medicaid's proposals are in direct violation of established policies: the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and the CMS requirements for Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT). CMS recognizes that a treatment does not need to "cure" a condition in order to be considered successful or medically necessary.
ABA is helping children to flourish by providing them with the skills and tools they need to navigate life. But learning to use tools takes time, often more that 3 years and 30-hours per week of services. I find it horrifying that a child might lose access to this treatment because they not progressing as quickly as the Medicaid budget would like. I find it appalling that Medicaid wants to enact rigid limits on a service that treats such an incredibly wide spectrum of symptoms.
I am appealing to you to help prevent these harmful and unjust Medicaid limits from being enacted. Thank you for your time and attention.
---
Copy the text above and click on one (or more!) of the links to send to legislators. Enter a topic of "Family and Children Services," "Health," or "Insurance."
Senators:
House:
For districts outside of the Fort Wayne area, find contact links through https://iga.in.gov/information/find-legislators