: South Carolina's Medicaid Waiver for ABA: A Bold Initiative Explained (1.5 BCBA continuing education units available)

The South Carolina Department of Disabilities has embarked on a bold initiative to provide state of the art services to children with autism and pervasive developmental disorders at no cost to families. The agency worked with private agencies to try and make this new Medicaid Waiver program accessible and effective for families. In this presentation, we will give a background for this groundbreaking program and will explain the process involved in providing these services to children. Our presentation will attempt to help groups from other states learn how South Carolina started a Medicaid funded program to provide state of the art ABA services to families across the state at no expense to the family. Reference materials and discussion will be provided as well as contact information for use after the conference.

Topics

1. What is "ABA" and why do parents continue to ask for it? We will briefly define ABA and explain its popularity as a treatment option for young children with autism spectrum disorders.
2. Why South Carolina decided to fund ABA. We will discuss the motivation for the state's new Medicaid program to fully fund ABA treatment/therapy. We will include information related to the parent lead movement that eventually heralded many changes that will benefit children served. We will tell learners how the legislature was engaged and how the private insurance company angle moved from a roadblock to a synergistic component.
3. The How to: How a plan was developed and what it took to make it fair. We will credit agencies and states with similar programs and note which components we drew from and why. We will share the Medicaid documents that were submitted to the Federal Medicaid program to leverage federal dollars and make the best use of state dollars. This should simplify the process for other state advocacy groups hoping to access Medicaid to fund ABA programs.
4. The System: We will lay out the final product. This will include eligibility guidelines and methods for applying for the program. We will explain the tools used to assess children for funding levels, charting progress and oversight of contracted providers. Forms and tools will be shared as well as contact information for standardized assessment components such as the Vineland® or ABBLS®.
5. Results after one year: We will reveal the results of the first year "pilot project," the number of children served and initial reviews from parents and professionals. We will project numbers for the coming year. We will discuss the impact the program has had on providers of ABA services, including the magnetic effect it has had on bringing in providers from other states. The effect the program has had on the state university system, prompting a new curriculum for BCBA certification will be described.
6. What we would do differently and other challenges: There have been challenges and refinements to the system and the methods for delivering services. We will try to keep interested parties from making the same mistakes.

We will leave 10 minutes for questions and interactions with learners after the planned topics to better address the needs of those in attendance.