Georgia lawmakers are now in the middle of a heated dispute over autism therapy funding for foster children, and the pressure is building fast. Parents, providers, and at least one Republican senator say a Medicaid reimbursement cut could choke off access to care and wipe out progress that took months or years to build.
The flashpoint is a 30% reduction tied to applied behavior analysis, better known as ABA therapy, for children covered through Georgia’s foster care Medicaid system. Sen. Brian Strickland of McDonough joined families and advocates at the Capitol to argue that the cut, which took effect Sept. 1 through Amerigroup, should be rolled back before clinics start closing their doors.
Strickland, who is running for state attorney general, said the issue hits close to home because he is a parent of a child with autism. He called the cuts “indefensible” and said companies should be held accountable if families are left scrambling for care that their children depend on every day.
That alarm is not coming out of nowhere. Advocates say the change is landing in the middle of a broader Medicaid fraud crackdown, and they fear foster children are being caught in the crossfire even though the policy is meant to target waste, not therapy.
Taylor Sanders of the Autism Families Alliance says families and clinicians have been speaking up more as the reality of the reimbursement change sets in. Her message is blunt: time matters, because every missed day can set a child back in communication, safety skills, and behavior.
Sanders described one family with a 3-year-old who had only recently started using words after beginning ABA therapy. Now the child’s mother is worried that a one-on-one routine that helped unlock those first words could disappear before the gains have a chance to stick.
That fear is what makes the debate so tense. Advocates argue that the children most affected are often the ones who need steady, consistent services the most, and a sudden cut can destabilize everything they have worked for.
Kelsey Bennett of the Autism Families Alliance said the stakes are simple and painful: every day without critical care risks reversing hard-earned progress. She urged lawmakers and agencies to rethink the change and bring families, clinicians, and other stakeholders into the process instead of making broad decisions from the top down.
Amerigroup says the rate changes were based on service complexity and clinical expertise. The company said it raised reimbursement for treatment planning and caregiver-engagement services, kept rates for licensed clinicians from going down, and maintained coverage for medically necessary autism services.
But that explanation has not calmed critics, who say the real pressure point is the technician-led care that many children receive most often. Sanders argued that if those workers are squeezed out by lower rates, the promise of coverage on paper will not mean much in real life.
The concern is not just theoretical, either. Sanders has warned that as many as 75% of clinics could close or stop serving foster children if the cuts stay in place, a number that has only intensified the panic among families already trying to hold things together.
For parents, the biggest worry is what happens when therapy stops and the child has to start over. Sanders said progress lost is hard to regain, especially when children are just beginning to build the skills they need to communicate and function across different settings.
That is why the call from advocates keeps circling back to the same point: reverse the cuts before the damage gets baked in. They want the state to slow down, listen to the people delivering care, and avoid a policy move that could leave vulnerable foster children with fewer options and longer waits when every ounce of consistency counts.
