ABA therapy industry news, trends, and growth strategy
Plain-English analysis of what is happening in the ABA therapy industry, and what it means for how your clinic markets, hires, and grows. No jargon, no hype.
1,000 Children. One Queue. What Minnesota's ABA Approval Backlog Means for Clinic Intake.
Minnesota providers said about 1,000 children were waiting on treatment-plan approvals. The lesson for clinic owners is not to chase a headline. It is to make availability, intake expectations, and payer information clear before families have to guess.
How ABA Payer Changes Affect Clinic Intake Volume
When a payer changes a contract, lowers rates, or leaves a market, the first problem is not marketing language. It is knowing which part of your intake pipeline changed and how to replace demand you no longer control.
ABA SEO Agency vs. General Healthcare Marketing Agency: Which Should You Hire?
The right agency is not the one with the longest service list. It is the one that can connect your clinic's capacity, local search visibility, parent decision process, and intake data into a plan your team can use.
BCBA and RBT Salary in 2026: What the Data Actually Says, and What Clinics Can Afford to Pay
There are 260,174 certified RBTs in America. The entire BLS occupation that salary sites map them onto contains 156,960 people. The category is smaller than the workforce it claims to describe. So we rebuilt the picture from sources that do exist, down to what a clinic collects for an hour of technician-delivered therapy.
Congress Is Reading ABA Billing Records. What Every Clinic Owner Should Check First.
The House committee that oversees employer health plans just demanded twelve categories of billing records from an autism therapy provider, going back to 2020. The letter is public, and it doubles as a checklist. If a payer, an employer plan, or a reporter asked you the same twelve questions tomorrow, could you answer them?
ABA Therapy Statistics 2026: 40 Numbers, Traced to Their Primary Sources
Most ABA statistics you'll find online trace back to another blog, which traces back to a third blog, which cites nobody. We went to the primary sources (BACB, CDC, JAMA Pediatrics, federal Medicaid data) for 40 numbers on the state of the field. Three widely-repeated stats did not survive contact with their sources.
ABA Billing and CPT Codes in 2026: The Complete Sourced Reference (and What Changes January 1, 2027)
On January 1, 2027, the entire ABA code set changes: six new Category I codes, every code from 97151 to 97158 revised, and 0362T and 0373T deleted. The AMA approved it in September 2025 and the details are still confidential. This reference separates what is confirmed from what isn't, and lists every current code with its official descriptor.
ABA Lead Generation in 2026: Why Referrals Alone Won't Fill Your Schedule
Pediatricians still send 42% of ABA referrals, so a single retiring doctor or a payer exit can gut your caseload. Meanwhile ~75% of families spend months on a waitlist and quietly vanish before intake. Lead generation means owning demand you control and converting the families already raising their hands.
Best ABA Practice Management Software (2026): An Honest Comparison for Clinic Owners
The software you run your clinic on decides how much time your BCBAs lose to admin, how fast you get paid, and how hard it is to leave. We compared the seven platforms ABA owners shortlist most in 2026 on published pricing, review scores, and where each one falls short.
A Rate Cut Is a Volume Problem
Nebraska cut direct ABA therapy 48%. New York drove the technician rate to $14.45. When the rate falls but the payer stays, you need more clients just to hold revenue flat. That turns a reimbursement crisis into a marketing problem, and marketing is the part you can control.
ABA's 403% Reckoning: Why Proving Outcomes Is Now Your Best Marketing Asset
The data that ended ABA's growth era is the same data that hands independent clinics an opening. When payers and parents reward proof over volume, the clinic that can show progress wins.
The ABA Payer Shakeout Has Started: What the Optum Exit Means for Your Clinic
Optum cut ties with a national ABA provider in June 2026, triggering layoffs and a scramble for families. If one payer can sink your caseload, your growth plan and your risk plan are the same plan.
How to Build a Referral Network for Your ABA Clinic
Referrals from pediatricians, diagnosticians, and school teams are still how most families find an ABA clinic. The clinics that fill their caseloads fastest are not waiting for those calls to come in.
The Private-Pay ABA Opportunity: How to Reach Families Medicaid Left Behind
Medicaid cuts and contract terminations are displacing thousands of ABA families. The clinics that reach them first are the ones already marketing to private-pay clients, starting with answering the cost question on the page.
Parents Are Arriving Skeptical: How ABA Clinics Win Trust in 2026
Families now research you with their guard up, shaped by fraud headlines and a louder debate over ABA itself. What cautious parents look for, and how to earn their trust before they pick up the phone.
The ABA Industry's 2026 Reckoning: What It Means for Your Clinic
Fraud audits, Medicaid cuts, the Arizona layoffs, and a 5x BCBA shortage are reshaping the field. What changed in 2026, and why trust became the thing families weigh first.