Bayada Home Health Care is expanding its hybrid of facility-based and site-based applied behavior analysis (ABA) services to New Jersey with plans to increase services in other locations.
In August, the Philadelphia-based nonprofit home health care giant opened the Pennsauken Center for Applied Behavior Analysis Services in New Jersey.
The center is located in the company’s global support center and will serve adults and children in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties.
Founded in 1975, Bayada is a provider of home health care. Their services include nursing, therapeutic, custodial, housing, hospice, and behavioral health care. It employs about 29,000 people and operates from 390 offices in 24 US states and in Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
The move marks the first time the company has expanded ABA services to a new state. Bayada acquired the Hawaii assets of Lakewood, Colo.-based Trumpet Behavioral Health in 2014, just before the passage of the state law. mandatory minimum coverage of autism treatment services.
Bayada used Hawaii ABA services as a model and test case over the years. Today, the organization operates two centers and five offices in the state, Jessica Shea-Brown, regional director of behavioral health services for Bayada, told Behavioral Health Business.
“We’ve always had a vision of being able to serve more people,” Brown said, adding that the expansion effort resumed in April, the same month he joined the company. “The first driver for us is: Is there a need? … Even though there are other providers, there are still access problems.”
Families in the area have expressed concerns similar to those in other states with limited access to ABA services: long waiting lists after a diagnosis and insurance issues, Brown said.
The center will accept commercial and Medicaid insurance plans. It will also work with area schools to provide services to students.
New Jersey has a comparatively high rate of autism in children. A 2021 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that the rate of autism among 8-year-olds in New Jersey was be 1 in 35 in 2018.
The last autism rate estimates in the US suggest that between 1 in 32 and 1 in 29 children have the condition for life.
Bayada gives herself ample freedom to grow by offering on-site and in-center care.
The center currently employs about 10 people, but will likely have 80 to 100 employees as it takes on new clients, Brown said.
“At any one time, we can work with 50 to 60 people simultaneously in the center,” Brown said. “But whoever we’re working with in homes or in the community, that’s unlimited because we don’t have the problem of space.”
Bayada intends to expand ABA services throughout the rest of the US, but Brown declined to specify when or where the organization will go.
Bayada has also launched the Bayada RBT Academy, a training center that will pay new hires to become registered, board-certified behavioral technicians. This will help the company address workforce challenges. plaguing many autism treatment providers.
RBTs are the frontline providers of care in ABA settings and work. under the direction of board-certified behavior analysts (BCBA), providers with postgraduate education and training.
Bayada has partnered with community organizations and universities to also provide internship training providers.
“So far we’ve been successful with that,” Brown said. “There is a very strong clinical infrastructure and support.”
While Bayada and other home health care companies have services that address some behavioral health symptoms, it’s not common to see dedicated behavioral health services in the home.
Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX) veteran Kris Engskov revealed a home health startup which will focus on the care of the elderly with mental and brain health problems, starting with dementia. Aware Recovery Care provides addiction treatment at home and is the only provider at scale of such services.
Others in the space are looking to bring autism services into the home through virtual modalities. For example, Brightline, a digital pediatric behavioral health provider, has raised just under $220 million in funding. Additionally, Springtide, a technology-supported autism service provider, has raised $18.1 million to help bring virtual care to patients.
