Tom Philpott writes at Military Update:
On April 1, TRICARE will cut ABA reimbursement rates as much as 15 percent, with a second rate cut planned in some locales next year. Some families are alarmed, some ABA businesses are enraged and some advocates for special needs children forecast an access-to-care crisis.
TRICARE officials see no such crisis in the offing, and hold firm to the rate cut plan. They do so despite receiving two complaint letters this month from members of Congress – one signed by four senators and another by 40 House members -- urging postponement of the rate drop until the autism care demonstration ends in December 2018 and results are assessed.
The letters echo arguments of family advocates and the growing ABA therapy industry that a pair of studies ordered by the Defense Health Agency, on which rate changes were to be based, failed to capture accurately how TRICARE reimbursements stack up against commercial insurance rates.
