For referring providers
This page is written for the pediatrician, the developmental evaluator, the school based professional and the care coordinator who is about to refer a family for ABA Therapy and wants to know what iCare Therapy needs in order to accept that referral cleanly, what will happen to the family in the first week, and what the referring practice will hear back. It is deliberately not written for parents. There is a parent site around it, and this page exists so that a clinician does not have to navigate it to find a fax number.
None of the three should be guessed at.
Tell us about your family
We check your benefits free. No commitment.
Who we serve
Children and young adults with an autism spectrum diagnosis, across thirty two zip codes in Mecklenburg, Iredell and Gaston counties. Therapy is delivered in the family home by a Registered Behavior Technician and supervised by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst who writes and adjusts the plan. A virtual option exists for families who prefer it and for parts of the plan such as caregiver coaching.
iCare Therapy accepts North Carolina Medicaid and most major insurers. Families in Mecklenburg on Medicaid with behavioral health needs are typically managed by Alliance Health, and families in Iredell and Gaston by Vaya Partners, formed on 1 October 2026 from Vaya Health and Partners Health Management. iCare Therapy works both authorization routes and requests prior authorization on the family’s behalf; the referring practice does not need to.
Where we deliver care
Thirty two zip codes, from Statesville and Troutman in the north through Mooresville and Huntersville, across all of Charlotte, and west into Belmont. The service area page lists every zip code and carries a downloadable one page map that a practice can keep. If a family’s address is just outside the list, refer anyway and say so, because the boundary is a function of therapist travel time rather than a hard line, and it moves as the team grows.
iCare Therapy is, on the July 2026 competitive analysis, the only provider serving Iredell County at all. A practice in Statesville, Troutman or Mooresville that has been telling families the nearest provider is in Charlotte can now refer locally.
Not sure what your plan covers?
We check it for free
Why refer to an in-home provider
Most ABA Therapy providers in the Charlotte area are clinic based, and clinic based care works well for many families. It fails predictably for others: the family without reliable transport, the family with two working parents and no room in the week for a drive across town three times, the family whose child does not transfer skills from a clinic room to the kitchen table. Those are the families who start therapy and quietly stop, and they are the families a referring practice sees again six months later with nothing changed.
In-home care removes the drive and delivers the skill in the place it is used. That is not a claim of superiority over clinics. It is a description of which families it serves best, and a referring practice is usually the person best placed to know which family is in front of them.
What we need to accept a referral
Three things. The diagnostic report that established the autism spectrum diagnosis. The family’s insurance information, ideally an image of the card. And a contact for the family, with their consent to be contacted. Anything beyond that iCare Therapy will obtain itself. If the diagnostic report is not yet complete, refer anyway and say so; iCare Therapy can begin the insurance verification and the family conversation while the report is finalized, and that overlap shortens the wait.
A referral does not need to be on any particular form. A letter, a fax cover, a secure message or a phone call all work. What matters is that it reaches the provider route rather than the parent intake queue, and that route is stated below.
How to refer
By fax, by phone, or by the referral form. A referring practice should not have to hunt. The direct line must not sit behind the parent intake queue; a clinician calling on behalf of a family should reach a person who handles referrals, not a voicemail asking about a diagnosis.
A downloadable one page referral guide is linked below, designed to be printed and kept by the phone. It carries the same three requirements and the same two contact routes, and nothing else.
What happens in the first week
Within one business day of a referral arriving, iCare Therapy contacts the family. Benefits are verified before anything else, so that the family knows what is covered and what their share is before they commit to a single thing. The authorization request is assembled from the diagnostic report and submitted to the plan. If the plan needs anything further, iCare Therapy obtains it directly rather than sending the family or the practice to chase it.
The referring practice hears back at three points, without having to ask: confirmation that the referral was received, confirmation that the family was reached, and notification when therapy begins. If a family cannot be reached, or declines, the practice hears that too. Practices tell us that this is the part most providers omit and the part a practice manager actually cares about, and it is the reason this section is here.
Who leads care
Quentin Palmer, Director of Clinical Services, and the Board Certified Behavior Analysts who write and supervise plans. Referring clinicians reasonably want to know who will be responsible for a family they send, and two of the largest providers in this market name their clinicians on service pages for exactly that reason. iCare Therapy should too, and this is the page to do it on.
Every plan is written by a BCBA and delivered by a Registered Behavior Technician under that BCBA’s supervision. Data is collected every session. With the family’s written consent, iCare Therapy can share goals and progress data with the referring practice, and will do so on request rather than only on a schedule.
What we will never do with a family you send us
iCare Therapy will not promise a start date, a timeline or an outcome, because nobody honest can. It will not name a medication, a school, a district or a program, or advise a family which to choose. It will not share anything about a family with anyone, including the referring practice, without the family’s written consent. And it will not send a family in circles: if a plan will not authorize, or the service area does not reach an address, or the fit is wrong, iCare Therapy will say so plainly and, where it can, point the family somewhere useful.
What a referring practice can expect from us
A referral is a professional courtesy and it carries the referring clinician’s name with it, which is why the way a provider treats a referred family reflects on the practice that sent them. iCare Therapy treats that seriously. A family you refer is contacted quickly, told the truth about what is covered and what it will cost, and never given a start date that cannot be kept.
If iCare Therapy is not the right fit, for reasons of geography, plan coverage or clinical need, the practice hears that promptly and plainly rather than a referral disappearing into silence. A practice should be able to refer without wondering what happened, and the notification points described above exist for exactly that reason.
