The Best Places to Live for Autism Services
When needs simply aren't met
Max was diagnosed with autism at the age of two. Despite having “good insurance” through the state, their health insurance would not cover Max’s ABA treatments. By the time he reached the age of four, Radcliff and Finn were spending up to $1,000 per week on Max’s treatment. Even though they were paying these extremely high out-of-pocket costs for the treatment, it was still difficult to find high quality care. Because ABA is not covered by insurance in West Virginia, it was difficult to find therapists in the state who were trained and certified to practice ABA.
The family managed to find people to administer a few hours of ABA a week with Max, though sometimes the therapists were uncertified or inexperienced in the specific therapy. At one point, Radcliff resorted to having her brother certified in ABA so that he could help out with Max’s therapy for a few hours a week. The few certified ABA therapists in the area were overworked, and simply “didn’t have enough hours in the day” to meet the needs of the community.
