The therapy can be hard to get, because demand for it far outpaces the behavior analysts and therapists. Families can wait months to years to get their kids into treatment, depending on their location and type of insurance.
Following the assessment, Hope was supposed to be connected with a therapist for in-home therapy. But after eight weeks of waiting, Riley demanded answers and was told by the Elemy behavior analyst that the company couldn't find any therapists to treat her. It wanted to grow faster. So it came up with a strategy to grow"10x" more at a lower cost of acquiring customers by hiring dozens of business-development employees to forge informal partnerships with pediatrician offices, diagnostic specialists, hospitals, and schools, so they'd refer kids with autism to its services, according to a separate May 2021 presentation, seen by Insider, outlining the growth strategy.
Dell Children's, where Hope was diagnosed, referred roughly 150 to 200 kids to Elemy, many of them covered by Medicaid, three former employees said. Just one of those kids was in care as of at least May 2022, according to one of those employees; another confirmed that figure up to June. The waitlist stacked up. Kids waited anywhere from a month to a year for care, depending on their location and insurance, while some never got into care, nine current and former employees said. Four former employees said that out of hundreds of referrals they generated, they saw a small fraction of kids start therapy.
Each ABA company performs its own expensive, time-consuming behavior assessments, and some insurers pay for only one assessment every six months, he said. So if a family stuck on the waitlist wanted to look for faster care elsewhere, it may not be able to because insurance wouldn't pay, he said.