Independent BCBA

[Anonymous]

We have some childcare gaps to fill this summer so I'm exploring whether a BCBA that could work on specific skills would be better than having a babysitter. We have Kaiser insurance and have a limited pool of agencies we can work with through insurance, and they all seem very private equity driven and have months long wait lists. I question whether they can meet our daughter's needs, given that she leans more towards a PDA profile and a BCBA will need to make adjustments to make it work.

I'm curious to know - have you ever hired an independent BCBA to work with your child without going through an agency or use insurance? How did you find them? How much did they charge? Did they also work with RBTs or did they carry out the services themselves directly? Did they also come with long waits? How flexible was the timing? Anyone you would recommend?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

We've used a private BCBA that was recommended by our child's developmental pediatrician. Rate was $185 per hour. We filed the claims with our insurance company and were able to get some of that back. She did not work with RBTs (most privately practicing BCBAs do not). Ours was able to fit us in within about a month of us contacting her. We needed a morning appointment before school and she was able to fit us in since she had someone she was discharging.

You are not going to find a BCBA to be a babysitter that will fill in childcare gaps. They are going to expect your child to see them regularly, just like any other type of therapist would.

We have tried ABA through companies and it is basically awful. When insurance companies started covering ABA, the model of a BCBA who supervises an RBT was introduced. RBTs receive little training and are hourly minimum wage (or not much higher) employees. There is usually high turnover among RBTs, and so it's difficult for a child to receive the consistency that's required in order for ABA to actually work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've used a private BCBA that was recommended by our child's developmental pediatrician. Rate was $185 per hour. We filed the claims with our insurance company and were able to get some of that back. She did not work with RBTs (most privately practicing BCBAs do not). Ours was able to fit us in within about a month of us contacting her. We needed a morning appointment before school and she was able to fit us in since she had someone she was discharging.

You are not going to find a BCBA to be a babysitter that will fill in childcare gaps. They are going to expect your child to see them regularly, just like any other type of therapist would.

We have tried ABA through companies and it is basically awful. When insurance companies started covering ABA, the model of a BCBA who supervises an RBT was introduced. RBTs receive little training and are hourly minimum wage (or not much higher) employees. There is usually high turnover among RBTs, and so it's difficult for a child to receive the consistency that's required in order for ABA to actually work.

Thanks - to be clear, we’re not looking for babysitting. We’re looking for a BCBA to provide therapeutic services, hopefully scheduled at a time when we won’t otherwise have childcare.

[Anonymous]

Try Hello ABA - https://helloaba.com/