Getting started
Every stage between your first call and your first session — what happens, who controls it, and how long it really takes.
6 to 14 weeksfrom your first call to your first session
assuming your documents arrive promptly — that is the one part of the timeline your family controls
Complete the questionnaire on this site and a BH Field representative will contact you within 24 hours. From there it is nine stages: you send your documents, we verify your insurance benefits and build your intake package, your insurer approves an assessment, your BCBA assesses your child and writes a report, and after treatment is authorized we match you with a therapist.
Intake is the stage where we turn your documents into an authorization request. We verify your insurance benefits and coverage, confirm your diagnosis paperwork will be accepted by your plan, check that every form is signed and current, and introduce you to the Case Manager who becomes your named contact. It takes one to three business days once your file is complete.
Typically 6 to 14 weeks from your first call to your first session, assuming your documents arrive promptly. Two insurance waits account for most of that time: approval to assess takes 1 to 4 weeks, and approval to treat takes a further 2 to 4 weeks. Both run on your plan’s clock rather than ours.
Three groups. Identity and insurance: photo ID, your insurance card front and back, and any secondary plan. Medical and diagnostic: the autism diagnostic evaluation and a referral or prescription for ABA, plus recent medical records, school evaluations and discharge letters from previous providers if you have them. Forms from us: the signed intake packet, consent and release forms, the financial responsibility form, and your preferred schedule and location. Your exact list varies by plan, so your coordinator sends the one for your family.
Most plans cover ABA, and it is the most widely researched therapy for autism. Coverage still has to be confirmed for your specific plan, which is what benefits verification does during intake. Your insurer authorizes a set number of hours, and that authorization expires and is resubmitted every few months to continue services.
Ask how long their process takes and where the waits actually fall; whether you get a named contact or a general inbox; whether the BCBA who assesses your child is the one who treats them; what happens if your insurer approves fewer hours than recommended; and how they handle a request for a specific language or provider gender. A provider who cannot answer these plainly is telling you something.
Watch it instead
If you would rather be told than read, this covers stages 3 to 9 — everything that happens once your file is open. The full text is below either way.
Nine stages. Two of them are insurance waits, and together they account for most of the time.
Getting in touch
You tell us about your child through the questionnaire on this site.
The questionnaire asks about your child, your concerns and what you are hoping therapy will change. It is the fastest way to reach us and it is what opens your file.
A BH Field representative reaches out within 24 hours to talk through next steps.
We call to understand what you need, answer your questions, and tell you exactly which documents to send. From this point you have a named contact rather than a general inbox.
From your documents to your first session
This stage is entirely yours, and it sets the pace of everything after it.
We cannot start until your file is complete, because insurance rejects an incomplete submission and that sends us back to the beginning.
Four things make this fast: send everything at once rather than piece by piece; photographs are fine as long as all four corners are readable; ask us if you are unsure whether something counts; and tell us early if a document is hard to get, because we will gladly help.
Our intake team verifies your benefits and prepares the authorization request.
We verify your insurance benefits and coverage, confirm your diagnosis paperwork will be accepted, check that every form is signed and current, and prepare the authorization request.
You are also introduced to your Case Manager, who becomes your named contact from that point forward.
The first of two insurance waits. Plans have up to thirty days to respond.
Your insurer reviews the request and confirms medical necessity, verifies that your plan covers ABA and checks your benefit limits, then issues an authorization number with a set number of assessment hours.
We follow up on a schedule rather than waiting passively. Once a request is submitted the timeline belongs to your plan, and calling daily does not move it faster.
You meet your intake BCBA, usually across one or two visits.
They observe and play with your child, interview you about your priorities, run standardized assessment tools, and write a full report with proposed goals.
Your treatment BCBA may turn out to be a different person from the one who assesses your child.
Every report gets an internal review before your insurer sees it.
A rejected plan costs weeks, so we would rather spend these days here than lose that time later.
The last major wait, and the decision that sets your hours.
Your insurer decides whether ongoing ABA is approved, how many therapy hours per week they will authorize, how long the authorization lasts before renewal, and how many parent support hours are included.
Approved hours sometimes differ from what your BCBA recommended. If that happens we will explain what it means, and we can appeal.
Authorizations expire, so every few months we resubmit to continue services.
Approval is not the same as a start date — we still need the right therapist for your family.
Once your hours are approved we look for an RBT whose availability, location and skills fit your family. Your schedule has to overlap with a therapist’s, so flexible availability is matched faster. In-home services depend on a provider who covers your area.
Language and provider gender requests are honored where we can, though some take longer to fill. If we cannot staff your case quickly, we will tell you honestly rather than leave you wondering.
Before therapy begins there is a short virtual kick-off call with you, your BCBA, your Case Manager and your RBT, to confirm the schedule and go through your child’s routines, sensitivities and safety notes.
Gathering paperwork? Work through the intake checklistFor what therapy itself looks like once it begins, see our services
Complete the questionnaire and a BH Field representative will contact you within 24 hours.
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