Short report: Disparities in hours of applied behavior analysis services for Medicaid-enrolled autistic youth

To date, no studies have investigated whether disparities in hours of applied behavior analysis (ABA) exist in the Medicaid system. We used multilevel modeling to analyze Medicaid billing claims for 1,028 autistic youth under the age of 21 years to examine the extent to which there were disparities in hours of ABA services for Medicaid-enrolled youth based on race/ethnicity and rurality. Although younger children received more hours of ABA, F(1, 964.63) = 118.28, p < .001, there were no statistically significant differences in hours of ABA based on minoritized race/ethnicity status or sex. On average, youth served in rural areas received significantly less hours of ABA per month than those in non-rural areas, F(1, 122.13) = 7.89, p = .006; youth in rural areas received 10.86 less hours per month than those in non-rural areas. Results suggest that publicly funded service systems like Medicaid may reduce ABA service disparities by race/ethnicity. Policymakers should focus on improving service provision for youth in rural areas.Lay AbstractWe used Medicaid billing claims from 1,028 autistic youth to see if there were differences in hours of applied behavior analysis (ABA) services per month for youth from different racial/ethnic groups, different service settings (rural or non-rural), different sexes, and different ages. We found that younger autistic youth received more hours of ABA per month compared to older youth, and and youth served in rural areas received about 11 hours less per month compared to youth in non-rural areas. There were no differences among different race/ethnic groups or sexes. Policymakers should focus on improving service availability for autistic youth served in rural areas.