Alpaca Health matches Frisco families with independent BCBAs. Our clinicians are based in Lewisville, next door in the Denton corridor, and nearby Coppell, and come to homes across Frisco, with telehealth available anywhere in Texas. We accept Medicaid and private insurance, we do not run a waitlist, and most families know their coverage and match options within days.
Clinically reviewed by
Samantha Ridout, M.Phil., BCBA, LBA-NYS· BACB certification #1-22-57709 · Last updated August 2026
Accepted insurance
Choose your Frisco BCBA for your child
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Lindsey Lambert, M.S., BCBA, LBA, is a cofounder of Unscripted ABA and a behavior analyst with over a decade of experience across home, school, community, private clinic, and nonprofit settings.
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Linda Ishiekwene, M.B.A., M.Ed., BCBA, LBA, is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and the founder of Special Effects Behavioral Services, a client-based practice in Dallas, Texas.
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Kailey Brown is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and co-founder of Unscripted ABA, a BCBA-owned practice in the DFW area that provides individualized, relationship-focused services in home, school, and community settings.
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Connie L. Green, M.Ed., BCBA, LBA, is the founder of Thrive and Shine ABA Services in Coppell, Texas, where she supports children, teens, and adults in home, community, and transitional settings. She focuses on young adults building independence.
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Bayli Krasovic, M.A., BCBA, LBA, is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and co-founder of Unscripted ABA, a practice dedicated to delivering compassionate, evidence-based ABA services to children and their families.
Book a consultationView profileIn-school and in-daycare ABA: therapy integrated into your child's daily routine
Virtual ABA therapy: BCBA-coached telehealth sessions from home
Autism evaluations: ADOS-2 diagnostic assessments, coverage verified first
Parent training: twice-monthly Family Guidance sessions with your child's BCBA
Which setting fits your family? Tell us during signup and we will say plainly what is available at your address. Most families start with in-home ABA therapy, and virtual ABA therapy reaches any Texas address the same week.
We accept most insurance providers and handle verification, prior authorization, and paperwork.
Don't see your plan? Check all accepted insurances
Alpaca Health accepts the plans shown above, and we confirm your exact benefits before you commit to anything. Families who want the coverage mechanics in more depth can read about Texas Medicaid waivers guide.
What our own data shows about ABA care in Texas
Every number below comes from the sessions, claims, and prior authorizations that partner clinics ran on Alpaca Health between August 2024 and August 2026. It describes families served by those clinics, not the ABA market in Texas.
Families who owed nothing
29%
Share of Texas families whose settled claims carried no patient responsibility. Most Texas families at partner clinics are on commercial plans, which carry deductibles and copays that Medicaid plans do not.
Alpaca Health partner-clinic caseload, Aug 2024 to Aug 2026. 307 families across 36 clinics.
Median owed per hour of therapy, commercial plans
$5.00
Patient responsibility owed per delivered hour for Texas families on commercial plans. About three in ten owed nothing at all. Middle half of families: $0 to $15.45.
Alpaca Health partner-clinic caseload, Aug 2024 to Aug 2026. 307 families across 36 clinics.
On Texas Blue Shield commercial plans
46.4%
Share of Texas families at partner clinics whose primary payer is Texas Blue Shield. TRICARE West Region covers another 13.7 percent.
Alpaca Health partner-clinic caseload, Aug 2024 to Aug 2026. 169 families across 31 clinics.
Median days to a payer decision
14.1
Days from the moment a partner clinic submits a prior authorization to the moment the payer approves or denies it. About a third of decisions took longer than 14 days. Middle half of requests: 8 to 25 days.
Alpaca Health partner-clinic caseload, Aug 2024 to Aug 2026. 364 families across 38 clinics.
How Texas prior authorizations ended
- Approved56.3%
- No authorization was needed23.3%
- Withdrawn before a decision13%
Share of prior authorization requests by outcome. Outcome groups with too few families behind them are not shown, so these shares do not add to 100. 302 families across 36 clinics.
Where therapy hours were delivered in Texas
- At home72.1%
- By telehealth9%
- In a clinic office7.2%
- Other settings6.2%
- At school5.6%
Share of delivered therapy hours by the place of service billed on each signed session note. Alpaca Health partner-clinic caseload, Aug 2024 to Aug 2026.
Families who had at least one telehealth session
62.1%
Telehealth is a small share of total hours in Texas, and most families used it at least once. It fills gaps around illness and travel rather than replacing in-person work.
Alpaca Health partner-clinic caseload, Aug 2024 to Aug 2026. 226 families across 30 clinics.
These figures describe clients of Alpaca Health partner ABA clinics, on the payers Alpaca Health contracts with. They are not measurements of the ABA market in Texas. A figure appears only when at least 25 families from at least 3 clinics sit behind it.
Start ABA therapy nowGetting an autism diagnosis in Frisco
Neither private insurance nor Texas Medicaid will authorize ABA therapy until a doctor or psychologist has made a medical autism diagnosis, so this step comes before everything else.
Which route fits comes down to your child's age, the plan on your card, and how soon you need an answer. The county line matters again here, because the publicly funded routes are organized county by county rather than city by city. The three routes below cover where most Frisco families start.
ADOS-2 with Alpaca Health
Alpaca Health offers an ADOS-2 diagnostic evaluation with no waitlist, and the result is the medical diagnosis private insurance and Texas Medicaid require. Frisco centers run no-cost evaluations for the same ages. We verify your coverage before you book.
Start your evaluationUnder 3: Early Childhood Intervention, by county
Collin County families go through LifePath Systems in McKinney at 972-562-0331, which also runs a parent training program for toddlers at risk of autism. Denton County families go through ECI of North Central Texas, run by MHMR of Tarrant County, at 1-800-754-0524.
Age 3 and up: hospital teams and private practices
The UT Southwestern and Children's Health Center for Autism Care is referral-gated: your pediatrician completes a referral form and faxes it with records to 214-867-5389, and review takes two to four weeks before an appointment is scheduled.
How to choose and what to expect
- Confirm the practice evaluates your child's age: Frisco splits sharply, with some practices starting at two and a half and others seeing only teens and adults.
- Confirm the practice takes your exact plan: Frisco has assessment centers that are cash-pay and out of network, and hand you a receipt to file yourself, which does not help if the diagnosis is for Medicaid.
- Ask whether a referral is required: The hospital route needs a pediatrician referral on file. Private practices frequently do not.
- Join more than one list: Waits run long enough that families routinely hold two appointments and keep the first to come up.
- Know what a school evaluation does: Frisco ISD and the other three districts will evaluate at no cost, and that establishes special education eligibility rather than the medical diagnosis insurance and Texas Medicaid require. For ages 3 to 5 the number to call depends on your county, 972-348-1664 on the Collin side and 817-740-7551 on the Denton side.
Recent Texas policy changes
Two Texas Medicaid ABA changes took effect in 2025, and both work in families' favor. Neither one cuts coverage.
Last reviewed August 2026.
April 2025: simpler renewal paperwork
Medicaid ABA runs on authorization periods: an initial therapy plan, then extensions roughly every 90 days. Effective April 1, 2025, Texas simplified the extension paperwork. The prescribing provider's signature is no longer required on 90-day extension requests, only on the initial plan.
Your provider files these forms, so the change you may notice is fewer delays between authorization periods.
September 2025: higher Medicaid payment rates
Effective September 1, 2025, Texas raised what Medicaid pays providers for ABA services. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) adopted the increase after a public rate hearing, and the current amounts live in the HHSC rate tables.
Payment rates shape your options. When Medicaid pays providers enough to sustain care, more of them can serve Medicaid families, and over time that can mean shorter waits and more choices near you.
Both changes build on a benefit that is still young. Texas Medicaid only began covering ABA in February 2022, the last state to add it, and the 2025 updates point toward a program that is settling in rather than pulling back.
How ABA therapy works through Alpaca Health
Four simple steps from your first form to your first session. No waitlists, no phone tag, no guesswork.
1
Tell us about your child
Start with our short intake form. You share the basics: your child's age, your availability, your insurance, and any autism diagnosis you already have. That is all we need to understand where your family is starting from.
2
We verify your insurance
After you submit the form, we verify your insurance and follow up within one business day to confirm the details. No long waits, no phone tag.
3
Get matched with the right provider
We match you with a licensed provider who has availability now, not months from now. Prefer someone specific? Tell us, and we will try to make it work. Either way, the fit is built around your child's needs and your family's schedule.
4
Start care the same week
We introduce you directly to your provider, and they take it from there. Most families have their first meeting or assessment within the same week, whether that is in-home ABA therapy or a telehealth session.
Local programs and organizations that support families alongside ABA therapy.
ECI services for children birth to 3 across Collin, Fannin, Grayson, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties.
Public school district serving local families. Contact for IEP and special education accommodation support.
Free 24/7 phone, text, and chat support for anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. Call or text 988.
The Assessment and Resource Center for Autism and Neurodiversity in Frisco. Autism and neurodiversity testing for children and teens.
Why independent clinics matter
In-home ABA that fits your life
- The providers we work with bring therapy to you, wherever your child is most comfortable.
- That might mean home, daycare, school, or virtual sessions. Our flexible care model ensures that therapy integrates into your family’s daily routine, rather than disrupting it.
- Our network is made up of independent, local clinicians who prioritize collaboration, not control, so you stay in charge of your child’s care.
Support for the full pediatric age range
- Many ABA centers stop care when a child turns 8. Not us. We support the full pediatric age range, toddlers to age 21.
- Your child deserves more than short-term support. With Alpaca Health, they can build a long-term relationship with a provider who understands their growth over time and adapts care as their needs evolve.
- We also support your whole family with educational events and resources, including parent webinars, advocacy toolkits, and grant guides.
More care. Less wait.
- Waiting months for ABA shouldn’t be the norm. At Alpaca Health, we help families connect with the right provider in just a few days.
- We work exclusively with independent providers, which allows us to stay flexible and waitlist-free. That means faster assessments, quicker treatment starts, and the end of years-long waits.
- Ready to get started? We’ll handle the paperwork, help coordinate referrals, and walk you through every step.
Can I get paid to stay home with my autistic child in Texas?
Not as your child's paid caregiver. Texas Health and Human Services rules for the Consumer Directed Services option say a parent, guardian, managing conservator, or stepparent of a child under 18 cannot be hired to provide the services.
What a parent can do is act as the employer under that option and then hire and manage someone else. The Medically Dependent Children Program, which runs through STAR Kids, separately covers respite and flexible family support services.
Where can my child get an autism evaluation in Frisco?
Children can get an ADOS-2 evaluation through Alpaca Health with no waitlist, and the result is the medical diagnosis insurance and Texas Medicaid require. Under 3, Early Childhood Intervention through LifePath Systems or ECI of North Central Texas is the usual entry point.
For older children the hospital route needs a pediatrician referral first, and private Frisco practices test on their own schedule. Ask about cost early, because not every local assessment center takes insurance. You can book an evaluation here.
Which Medicaid plans cover ABA therapy in Frisco?
Texas Medicaid has covered ABA therapy since February 2022 for members age 20 and younger with an autism diagnosis. Which plans you can choose from depends on your county, because the Collin County part of Frisco sits in one Texas managed care service area and the Denton County part sits in another.
A neighbor a few streets over may be offered a plan list you cannot pick from. The plan named on your child's card is the one that authorizes ABA therapy, so keep the card handy on every call.
