Does Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Cover ABA Therapy?
iCare Therapy accepts North Carolina Medicaid and most major insurers, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is one of the plans we work with. Whether ABA Therapy is covered for your child, how many hours are approved and what your share of the cost is all depend on your specific plan and your child’s diagnosis. We verify all of that for you before anything begins, at no cost and with no commitment, and we tell you the answer in writing.
This page explains what Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is, what has to be in place before therapy can start, and what iCare Therapy handles on your behalf.
Tell us about your family
Fully insured or self funded, and why it matters
A fully insured plan is one where your employer pays Blue Cross NC a premium and Blue Cross NC takes the risk. Those plans are regulated by North Carolina, and North Carolina requires most state regulated plans to cover autism treatment including ABA Therapy. If your plan is fully insured, the answer is yes.
A self funded plan is one where a large employer pays the claims itself and uses Blue Cross NC only to administer them. Those plans are regulated federally rather than by the state, and the employer decides what is covered. Most large employers do cover ABA Therapy, because it is a common and well understood benefit, but they are not required to, and a small number exclude it. If your plan is self funded, the answer is almost always yes, but it has to be checked against your specific plan document rather than assumed.
The card does not tell you which kind of plan you have. Your employer’s benefits office does, and so does the plan when iCare Therapy calls to verify your benefits, which is the first thing we do. This is not a reason to worry. It is the reason we verify before we start.
State employees and teachers
Many families in the Charlotte area are on the State Health Plan, which is administered by Blue Cross NC for state employees, teachers and their dependents. The State Health Plan covers ABA Therapy for eligible members. If your card carries the State Health Plan mark, this page still applies, and iCare Therapy verifies your benefits the same way.
Not sure what your plan covers?
We will check it, free.
What it costs
Because this is not Medicaid, the money question comes first for most families, and it deserves a straight answer. A commercial or marketplace plan almost always carries a deductible, which is the amount you pay before the plan begins paying, and a copay or coinsurance on each session after that. Where your family sits against the annual deductible on the day therapy begins determines a great deal about the first few months of cost, and it resets each plan year.
iCare Therapy verifies all of this before the first session and tells you the numbers in writing: what the plan pays, what your share is, where you stand against the deductible and the out of pocket maximum, and whether the plan counts ABA Therapy toward that maximum. Nobody should discover their share on the first statement. If the numbers do not work for your family, we tell you that too, and we talk through the options rather than starting something that cannot continue.
What your family needs before therapy can start
Three things have to be in place before ABA Therapy can begin, and they arrive in a fixed order. First, a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder from a qualified evaluator, which in North Carolina is usually a developmental pediatrician, a child psychologist or a psychiatrist. Second, a referral, which most often comes from your child’s pediatrician and simply says that ABA Therapy is medically indicated. Third, prior authorization, which is the plan agreeing in writing to cover a specific number of therapy hours over a specific period.
Most families arrive with the first, get the second within a phone call, and then stall on the third. Prior authorization is where paperwork goes to wait, and it is the single most common reason a family who was ready in June is still not in therapy in September. It is also the part iCare Therapy handles for you. Once we have your diagnostic report and your insurance card, we assemble the request, submit it, and follow it up so that you are not the person on hold with the plan.
If your child does not yet have a diagnosis, start there. Ask your pediatrician for a referral to a developmental evaluation. Waitlists for evaluation are real in the Charlotte area, so getting on one now is worth more than any amount of planning about therapy that cannot start until it is done.
How long authorization takes
Authorization timelines are set by the plan, not by the provider, and they vary with how complete the request is when it arrives. A request that carries a full diagnostic report, a clear referral and a treatment plan moves faster than one that has to be returned for a missing page.
iCare Therapy does not publish a number of weeks, because nobody controls the plan’s side of the process and a number on a website becomes a promise the moment a family reads it. What we do instead is tell you which step your request is at and what is being done about it, at any point, for as long as it takes. If a provider gives you a single confident number, ask them what happens when it is wrong.
What iCare Therapy does for your family
We verify your benefits before you commit to anything, so you know what is covered and what your share is before the first session, not after. We assemble the authorization request from your diagnostic report and our own assessment, submit it to the plan, and follow it up. If the plan asks for something more, we tell you what it is and, in most cases, we obtain it ourselves. If a request is denied, we tell you why in plain language and what the appeal route looks like.
Therapy itself happens in your home, in the rooms where the skills are actually used, with a virtual option when that suits your family better. A Registered Behavior Technician comes to you at a time you choose. A Board Certified Behavior Analyst writes the plan, supervises the sessions and adjusts the plan as your child progresses. Caregiver training is built in rather than added on, because a plan that only works when the therapist is in the room is not a plan.
Where we deliver care
iCare Therapy delivers care across thirty two zip codes in Mecklenburg, Iredell and Gaston counties, from Statesville and Troutman in the north to Indian Trail in the south, and west into Belmont. If you are not sure whether your address is inside the service area, the service area page lists every zip code, or a care coordinator can tell you in a minute over the phone.
