by IABA Team | Mar 8, 2022
The PUNS list (Prioritization of Urgency of Need for Services) is a database in Illinois that tracks the current services and future needs of persons with developmental disabilities. The list was a way of prioritizing the needs of children in Illinois. The PUNS list will not be used for children in need by 2023, as other Medicaid services become available to help with autism services.
While the PUNS list was an important resource in the past, families will also need to be aware of new EPSDT (Medicaid) benefits and how to navigate through them. Families who are familiar with the PUNS list & services offered should look at those services and be aware of what is being continued & discontinued through EPSDT versus continued Waiver Funding.
What does the PUNS List Look At?
The PUNS list primarily focuses on three aspects of coverage:
- Community Integrated Living Arrangements
- Home Based Supports
- Child Group Homes
These are the primary focus due to the magnitude of the developmental disabilities of qualifying individuals. Needing help with specialized living arrangements takes top priority on the PUNS list.
Other needs the PUNS list looks at include:
- In-Home Supports
- Job Coaches
- Community Day Services
- Residential Services
- Therapy Services
These are secondary focuses of the PUNS list, based on priority of needs. Individuals still able to live comfortably at home but still needing healthcare services are the secondary focus of the PUNS list.
The other major factor for priority on the PUNS list is time. Many people in need are on the PUNS list for years before their case is finally accepted by the state.
Waiting for the PUNS list
The PUNS list has 2 categories for individuals seeking help:
- Seeking Services (category for people who currently need or desire supports)
- Planning for Services (category for people who do not currently want or need supports but may in the future).
The seeking services category is the primary focus for priority on the PUNS list, as the individuals in this category actively need help. PUNS selections are based on a person’s cumulative length of time in the Seeking Services Category. As funding is available, individuals are selected from PUNS and invited to apply for DD Waiver services.
The wait for priority on the PUNS list could take years of waiting for families in need of immediate assistance. As more social service programs from Medicaid have become available, the PUNS list has slowly started to fade away.
The PUNS list is basically a waiting list with special criteria. Appealing the speed at which applicants receive help is nearly impossible, as the list is handled internally by the state. The PUNS list started with children in need of medical services as a large portion of the list but has slowly morphed into a priority list for adults who have alternative housing needs.
IABA Consultants & PUNS
To date, as of March 2022, IABA consultants is still the only ABA provider offering services to individuals on the PUNS list. PUNS has primarily morphed into a service used for adults and will actually stop funding children in 2023.
IABA Consultants will stop accepting waivers from the PUNS list in 2023, as children will no longer be covered. However, starting in July 2022 IABA will be supporting our current PUNS clients to help with access to ABA benefits available through EPSDT. IABA will continue to provide behavioral therapy to adults with developmental disabilities through the PUNS waiver.
As of March 2022, IABA Consultants has started accepting Illinois Medicaid as a billing provider. More children are being accepted into the Illinois Medicaid All Kids program, allowing proper funding to be allocated to those in need.
If you have a child who has been waiting on the PUNS list and want to learn more about the Illinois Medicaid All Kids program, click here.
ABA Therapy from IABA Consultants
IABA consultants is now accepting All Kids Medicaid!
Medicaid Clinic Timeline:
- Oak Lawn: Current
- Naperville: May 2022
- Glenview: Summer 2022
- Managed Care Plans: Summer 2022
Dates are tentative and may be subject to change.
For details and coverage information, find the location closest to you and give us a call or send us an email.
If you have questions regarding autism treatment, education, or plans to use ABA therapy, we are here for you! Our goal is to make sure no family is turned away due to financial constraints. Our therapy team would love to talk to you. Find the location closest to you and give us a call. We’re here for you.
by IABA Team | Mar 1, 2022
As of March 2022, IABA Consultants is accepting Illinois Medicaid All Kids members! We have been working hard over the past year to make sure everything is in place for proper billing and services. Let’s go over what we’ve done and what to expect with Medicaid and ABA therapy services here at IABA Consultants.
Getting Approved for Medicaid & ABA Services
The process for us to accept Medicaid as an insurance provider took a long time mainly because ABA therapy & services have only very recently been accepted for coverage by Medicaid. October 2021 was the first time the state of IL listed ABA therapy services as billable by Medicaid for children with autism.
When a new area of coverage makes its way into Medicaid coverage, there was a lot of red tape to get through. ABA services were no different. We have finished the state auditing process to become a Behavioral Health Clinics and hired licensed clinical social workers (LCSW) to get on the same page for helping families with Medicaid. ABA therapy Medicaid coverage is a totally new field, so everyone on our team needed to learn.
Medicaid ABA Services at IABA Consultants
The programs we create for individuals with Medicaid will be nearly identical to those of individuals with private insurance. Each person is different, so care plans and services need to be carefully constructed.
While the general ABA services are currently the only therapy we offer (as of March 2022), we have plans for more in the future. Our LCSWs have started working on the following supplemental care services:
- Social skills groups (tentatively scheduled for summer 2022)
- LCSW-led groups
- Resource library for families & clients
Other possibilities we want to look at down the road include:
- Crisis teams for extreme behaviors
- On-staff psychologists
- Parental care programs for at-risk families
- Counseling (both individual and family)
- Medication monitoring & management
We are also working on getting in-home ABA therapy added to our Medicaid programs. Given the demand for in-home services, we are currently adding and training staff. There are also certain aspects of in-home therapy that make RBT requirements more specific for Medicaid children. We will update Medicaid & in-home services as soon as we have staff available.
Having social workers on staff has led us to some interesting ideas that will benefit all of our clients regardless of funding.
ABA Therapy from IABA Consultants
IABA consultants is now accepting All Kids Medicaid!
Medicaid Clinic Timeline:
- Oak Lawn: Current
- Naperville: May 2022
- Glenview: Summer 2022
- Managed Care Plans: Summer 2022
Dates are tentative and may be subject to change.
For details and coverage information, find the location closest to you and give us a call or send us an email.
If you have questions regarding autism treatment, education, or plans to use ABA therapy, we are here for you! Our goal is to make sure no family is turned away due to financial constraints. Our therapy team would love to talk to you. Find the location closest to you and give us a call. We’re here for you.
by IABA Team | Feb 26, 2022
A Licensed Practitioner of the Healing Arts (LPHA) in Illinois can be legally defined in several ways. The important definitions for the sake of this blog will be listed, as some definitions are not applicable to autism or ABA therapy services.
- A clinical psychologist who holds a valid license in the state of practice and is legally authorized under state law or rule to practice as a clinical psychologist, so long as that practice is not in conflict with the Clinical Psychologist Licensing Act
- A licensed clinical professional counselor possessing a master’s degree who holds a valid license in the state of practice and is legally authorized under state law or rule to practice as a licensed clinical professional counselor, so long as that practice is not in conflict with the Professional Counselor and Clinical Professional Counselor Licensing Act [225 ILCS 107]
- A clinical social worker possessing a master’s or doctoral degree who holds a valid license in the state of practice and is legally authorized under state law or rule to practice as a social worker, so long as that practice is not in conflict with the Clinical Social Work and Social Work Practice Act.
LPHAs & ABA Therapy
LPHAs are important when it comes to ABA therapy service providers and Medicaid. Many service providers are nationally licensed for Medicaid, with state licensure being an afterthought. If a provider is nationally certified by Medicaid but not certified at the state level, they need to be supervised by an LPHA.
Medicaid treatment plans using ABA therapy and services must be supervised by an LPHA for billing. An LPHA will supervise programs, time, & service professionals and how Medicaid should be billed.
LPHAs are not required to have contact with clients–they simply manage billing and other backend processes. If a billing conflict arises, LPHAs will contact service providers in order to figure out what is going on with a certain expense.
ABA Therapy from IABA Consultants
IABA consultants is now accepting All Kids Medicaid!
Medicaid Clinic Timeline:
- Oak Lawn: Current
- Naperville: May 2022
- Glenview: Summer 2022
- Managed Care Plans: Summer 2022
Dates are tentative and may be subject to change.
For details and coverage information, find the location closest to you and give us a call or send us an email.
If you have questions regarding autism treatment, education, or plans to use ABA therapy, we are here for you! Our goal is to make sure no family is turned away due to financial constraints. Our therapy team would love to talk to you. Find the location closest to you and give us a call. We’re here for you.
by Jessie Cooper | Feb 24, 2022
Last week I wrote to you about life being beautiful, even when it is hard after yet another winter in COVID and the extension of my divorce. As with many of us, these past two years have been full of pain for me alongside joyful moments. Leaving domestic violence saved my life and began to lay the groundwork for my children living free of abuse. Yet the system in which I am divorcing poses its own challenges as many systems do.
Living through the pandemic, alongside my family and friends, has also been traumatizing not only for me but for the people I love. As yet another winter rolled in with no change to the stressors around me, for the first time in a long time, I was able to see that pain is part of life and oftentimes it is out of our control. I’ve often written about fear as a guidepost, but the acceptance of the pain that true trauma and hardship bring is real. I’d like to say more.
Accepting Emotions
As a small child, I thought that life was always supposed to be happy and that happiness was the destination we were all working toward. I was taught, as a girl, to modify my emotions to keep the peace and others comfortable. Any type of negative emotion was seen as something to be avoided and punished. Being uncomfortable or causing discomfort seemed to be a cultural “No” for women where I grew up.
I am lucky enough to have a mother who at home allowed us to feel our full range of emotions (and I had a lot) but even with this outlet, I was conditioned to feel shame over negative and loud emotions that often came from fear, pain, and my experiences with injustice. Happiness was where we were all going and how other people deserved to feel. The full range of negative emotions I felt (and still feel) were not welcomed and are still not welcomed in many places.
You see in a world where comfort and happiness are the prizes, discomfort is seen as the enemy. We are sold an awful lot of bullshit from the stories politicians tell, social media, and marketing firms about how to stay small and comfortable. Feel pain? Vote for me and I’ll fix your suffering. Feel pain? Follow my beautiful life on Instagram, then copy it. Feel pain? Buy another…fill in the blank to numb it. Feel pain? Just pour another glass of wine mama. All these ‘solutions’ when the real answer is, “feel the pain; first nurture your own heart and soul, then ever so slowly step back into life.”
Pay Attention to You, Not What the World is Telling You
Our society is gaslighting us by telling us that life is supposed to be warm and fuzzy all of the time. If we question our own discomfort, leaning into how we feel, we are challenging the system of power that is designed to keep us small. In my recent experience, if you speak loudly about discomfort (like domestic violence) shame is rampant because speaking about pain makes other people uncomfortable. I can write with 100% certainty that other survivors have had this experience when they have spoken about their abuse. Perhaps, in my lifetime, that percentage will decrease.
But here’s the thing. None of us, none of us, go through life in a bubble feeling happy all of the time. Happiness is fleeting and if we are using it as a meter for our life we will in fact miss our lives. Joy is a long-lasting emotion that can live with pain. I’ll write more about this later, but today we stay with pain.
How many of you have been raised to believe that pain is a scary, avoidable emotion that needs to leave your life as quickly as it came? And how many of us have had life experiences that are outside of our control that caused the pain? I’m guessing all of us. At the end of one of Glennon Doyle’s recent podcasts, her daughter Tish Melton sings. One line in the song has stuck with me week over week. “I hit rock bottom, it felt like a brand new start. I’m not the problem, sometimes things fall apart.”
This line stays with me because so many of us are not only told to avoid pain but told that when bad things happen it’s our fault especially when we are talking about abuse. Or that if we are feeling pain our job is to hide the pain to keep everyone comfortable, because everyone else being comfortable keeps us safe. It’s a loop that ultimately leads to shame and, as the brilliant Brene Brown writes, “the only way to eradicate shame is to talk about it.”
Pain & Shame
So, if pain and the strong emotions surrounding this pain are part of life, why should pain something to be avoided? The real answer is it should not. Pain is just part of life. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s not something we need to race past to get back to happiness. It just is.
And alongside pain just being part of life, joy is also a part. Sitting with pain and allowing others to know about your pain heals your own experience with pain and, in cases of abuse, can save the lives of others when you speak out. The more we allow pain to be part of life, the more we can tackle head-on what is working in our lives, how to nurture ourselves through life’s challenges, and how to protect others from the pain others are trying to inflict on us. The small subset that is.
It’s OK to say what hurts. If we swallow our pain and push on into, “fine,” just to demonstrate we’ve won the golden ticket of happiness we will in fact miss our own lives. Pain happens. Hard times happen. How we navigate the pain is not only the roadmap back to our own hearts but will help to build a more true representation of the human experience.
If you are living in a situation where pain is happening because another person is causing it, this type of pain is not OK and not what I am writing about. I am writing about the pain that comes from feeling our own emotions and human experiences. If another person is hurting you, in any way, the kindest thing you can do for yourself is to leave. Yes, it will hurt, but that pain is worth it. The pain you are feeling from abuse is never, not ever OK.
Pain within is a compass. It tells us how to care for ourselves and how to leave what is no longer serving us. Happiness is a guise as a final destination. Freedom is what we all deserve. Freedom to be who we are, feel what we feel, and live our lives as close to our soul as possible.
I don’t know about you but I’m not raising my little men to be happy, I’m raising them to be free. Free to feel every part of their human experience knowing that first mama and then their own hearts is a safe space to land.
Xoxo,
Jessie
P.s. This one’s for you Kiki
by IABA Team | Feb 19, 2022
Medicaid in Illinois has 2 types of plans that are commonly given to children–All Kids and Managed Care plans. The short version of what these 2 packages are can be summed up by saying All Kids is a complete health insurance plan while Managed Care is a recommended care plan where some things may not be covered.
Both of these plans have specific uses for those in need of healthcare. Applications need to be submitted and approved before any coverage is granted.
So, what are the differences between All Kids and Managed Care when it comes to benefits and uses? Let’s take a look.
Illinois Medicaid All Kids
All Kids is, quite simply, a complete health insurance package for a child in need.
Illinois’ All Kids program is for children who need comprehensive, affordable, health insurance, regardless of immigration status or health condition. All Kids covers:
- Doctor visits
- Hospital stays
- Prescription drugs
- Vision care & glasses
- Dental care
- Regular check-ups
- Immunization shots
- Medical therapy
- Speech therapy
- Physical therapy
- ABA services (As of October 2020)
To receive All Kids benefits, a family & child must meet several criteria. Check out the Illinois All Kids webpage for more information.
Click here to visit the State of Illinois application page.
Illinois Medicaid Managed Care
Managed care is a kind of health insurance program. When you enroll in managed care, you become a member of a Health Plan. You will have at least 5 Health Plans to choose from depending on where you live. The Health Plan you choose will offer you a full range of services while helping you coordinate your health care.
- Your health care needs
- Help manage your health care conditions
- Give you information you need to stay healthy
- Help you identify your health goals and create a care plan to achieve those goals
- Answer questions about your care
- Find a doctor or specialist
- Transition out of a hospital or facility
- Provide community resources
Unlike All Kids, managed care is not a comprehensive health plan. Managed care plans can help you find the care you need, but may not cover all the costs. Be sure to talk to a Medicaid representative if you have questions.
ABA Therapy from IABA Consultants
IABA consultants is now accepting All Kids Medicaid!
Medicaid Clinic Timeline:
- Oak Lawn: Current
- Naperville: May 2022
- Glenview: Summer 2022
- Managed Care Plans: Summer 2022
Dates are tentative and may be subject to change.
For details and coverage information, find the location closest to you and give us a call or send us an email.
If you have questions regarding autism treatment, education, or plans to use ABA therapy, we are here for you! Our goal is to make sure no family is turned away due to financial constraints. Our therapy team would love to talk to you. Find the location closest to you and give us a call. We’re here for you.
by Jessie Cooper | Feb 17, 2022
This past November I made a decision to stop publicly writing until my divorce was final. I’ve spent hours on the stand just reading my own bank statements and wanted to prevent my blog from somehow adding to the length of the divorce process. In September of last year, the courts scheduled a final hearing for March 3rd, 2022. “Just 6 months,” I thought, “I can do 6 more months.”
This past week I received a call from my new lawyer… another extension. Four more months. The date I was told was final was not. There is so much I want for my children, so four more months of the same felt unreal, yet here it was. It felt like Groundhog Day. Haven’t I been here before? Stuck in the same?
Dealing with an Extended Divorce Process
Yes, I have been divorcing for what will now be more than half of my younger son Declan’s life. He was 18 months when this all started, now he wants a race car cake, like Metchie (his older brother, Dametrius) for his third birthday. My Henry will be ready for kindergarten this fall. My son Dametrius will start looking at colleges.
My children have kept growing, yet their mama’s world has seemed stuck in the same storm. Sunshine was promised yet clouds continue to roll in. As hard as my situation is (divorcing in a small town while leaving domestic violence) I can’t help but think of all of us, stuck in the pandemic for longer than my divorce, waiting for a clearing stuck in the darkness.
Last September when I received the final divorce date I thought “OK after my divorce is final life can go on.” I will be able to make plans. I want to go to the beach. To hold my babies for more than two nights at a time before transferring to their father yet again. To begin building a life with the amazing partner I am lucky to call mine. To spend time with friends. The list went on and on.
With COVID, I have felt the same way, wishing for it to be over so life can go on. Have you? How many times have you found yourself saying, “when COVID is over, when it’s normal again, I’m going to…” fill in the blank. I know personally, I’ve thought about activities for the kids, swim lessons, flying on an airplane with children, and so much more. My sister’s darling twins turned 3 this year, she really, really wants to take them to storytime.
Finding Motivation
I don’t know about you, but when there is a restriction present it is hard to plan, to know what to do, to make things feel formal. Whether it’s a divorce, a pandemic, or anything else outside of your control, how do you convince yourself to go on when sometimes all you want to do is go back? Back to the way things were before the restriction was there.
This week when I got the news of yet another delay something shifted in me. Snapped if you will. I couldn’t do it. I could not spend one more moment telling myself, “when I’m divorced I’ll fill in the blank.” I don’t know about you but I also cannot do one more, “when COVID is over then I’ll fill in the blank” either.
I looked at my babies (OK now full-on boys) and right in front of me, life is happening. They are growing, evolving, and living. They aren’t waiting for anything to change their lives, they are just alive. While divorce is hard, they are little, and often the biggest upset of the day is something like no ice cream or Mario time.
Dametrius is actually thriving and his thriving splits my face into a smile I cannot shake. In looking at my children and now two restrictions without an end I can depend on I decided, “you know what, I can live too.” I don’t need to wait for this to be over and the truth is life isn’t going to be the same after all of this but it’s not going to be better either. It’s just going to be different. There are amazing things happening right now in the darkness, shining stars if you will.
Seizing the Now
Sure there are a million things my heart and mind want to do when I am divorced and the pandemic isn’t restricting our social life. But there is so much to love right here, right now. Just this past weekend, I celebrated my 35th birthday and was surrounded by the best friends and family I could ever ask for. I am not kidding you, outside of my dear Aunt Linda in Colorado and Catherine in New Mexico, I sat down with, dined with, or exchanged gifts with everyone I love. Everyone.
How does a woman become that lucky? And these people I love? They are the most incredible people you have ever met. After spending a week with them, alongside my boys, I basked in the evidence right in front of me that life can be beautiful even when hard things aren’t going anywhere. Or are going somewhere at a snail’s pace.
I thought to myself, what do I want to do now with my one wild and precious life? I do not have time today to fill the pages with my dreams. But today, I want to adjust my spirit for the slow walkout and to enjoy every step on the path. I’ve got some incredible people walking right alongside me.
When Life is Dark as Winter’s Night, Share Some Kindness, Bring Some Light.
Xoxo,
Jessie
