For Quatiba Davis, chief clinical officer at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based ABA Centers, autism care has long been defined by waitlists, lack of diagnosis and skeptical payers. That status quo isn’t acceptable — and she said she’s betting on a data-driven model to prove there’s a better way.
ABA Centers offers individualized, evidence-based applied behavior analysis therapy and autism diagnostic services across multiple settings, including in-home, clinic, school, community and telehealth environments, according to the company’s website.
“That’s what we mean by value,” Ms. Davis said. “Are you willing to pay for a 40-hour treatment plan on a weekly basis for two years, or are you willing to pay for an eight-hour treatment plan for 25 years? You have to make sure you show the value of your work, and I think AI can support us.”
ABA Centers has built a diagnostic team and a prescription tool that ties therapy hours directly to a person’s individual support needs, she said. The approach aims to eliminate guesswork and arm clinicians with evidence when payers question higher-intensity treatment plans.
“If we back that by research and in alignment with our clinical outcomes as to what our data shows, we have a better chance or opportunity to get the dosage that we prescribe,” she said.
The company’s sister organization, Curative AI, supports this model with a value-based care platform that tracks outcomes across more than 1,800 patients, Ms. Davis said. The system generates visuals and prompts to help clinicians spot regression early and suggests programs to run. Clinicians are also trained to analyze data and make data-driven decisions.
“AI is also not the end-all, be-all. It’s a prompted system to support clinicians in their own work that can be manipulated by clinicians. So if a chart shows me you should run this intervention again, and either clinicians say, ‘No, I have enough data,’ then I can put that into the system.”
ABA Centers is also investing in the workforce pipeline, committing $1 million to Philadelphia-based Temple University to expand training for board-certified behavioral analysts, Ms. Davis said. The goal: reduce bottlenecks, shrink waitlists and eventually operate in all 50 states.
For Ms. Davis, the strategy is about more than growth. It’s about building a system that can scale without compromising quality — one that uses data and technology to close longstanding gaps between what children need and what payers are willing to pay.
