National Autism Data Registry launched to Understand, Measure, and Improve Autism Treatment and Outcomes

By: Behavioral Health Center of Excellence via Business Wire

November 07, 2023 at 08:00 AM EST

The Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (BHCOE), through its quality measurement innovations, is pleased to announce the launch of the National Autism Data Registry (NADR), an online platform that allows providers and payors to measure and benchmark quality for patients with autism spectrum disorder.

NADR is BHCOE’s latest effort undertaken to support and advance the understanding of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatment for autism. The NADR tracks and reports longitudinal benchmarks on quality of ABA treatment across process, structure, cost, and outcome measures.

Founding members of the NADR include Hopebridge, Acorn Health, Center for Social Dynamics, Proud Moments, JumpStart Autism Center, and Ascend Behavior Partners. These organizations collectively represent a national footprint of over 6,274,268 direct treatment hours served last year, 24 states, 16,000 patients, and over 1 million data points.

NADR will contribute to the efforts of creating standardized national benchmarks for outcomes by helping patients, scientists and the broader community better understand improvement in autism symptomatology over time and the ability to detect meaningful change based on evidence-based treatment such as ABA. As payors and providers collaborate to develop value-based pay arrangements, the NADR platform can provide visibility into the quality of treatment thus enabling value-based care.

NADR is built to collect process, structure, outcome, and cost measures along with social determinants of health. It currently houses 9 different quality measures in relation to ABA Services, in addition to having the capability to collect outcome measures across 13 different outcome assessment tools and 4 categories (e.g., severity of autism, norm-referenced assessment of skills, criterion-referenced assessment of skills, quality of life).

The development of these quality measures is a culmination of years of work that would not have been possible without the contributions and collaboration from Dr. Ellie Kazemi, Dr. David Cox, Members of our Scientific Advisory Board (past and present), BHCOE’s Commission Members (past and present), and Members of our Stakeholder Groups made up of autistic individuals, parents/caregivers of autistic individuals, accredited and non-accredited ABA providers of varying sizes, and payors.

Visit the NADR website or contact us to learn more about:

Benefits of Participation
Why the registry was created
How the registry works
Measures collected and accepted

About the National Autism Data Registry

NADR is BHCOE’s data registry, helping clinics, health systems and ABA practices measure and improve the quality of autism care they provide. More than just data collection, NADR is a comprehensive network of ABA care providers committed to ensuring evidence-based care, improving patient outcomes, and lowering healthcare costs. Learn more at registry.bhcoe.org.

About BHCOE

BHCOE offers a suite of resources and services focused on transforming person-centered behavioral health by advancing measurement science, establishing performance-based standards, increasing access to quality care, and leading community collaboration to ensure and encourage safe, effective, equitable, patient-centered healthcare.

BHCOE Accreditation provides external peer review to support organization quality assurance and improvement. Its Center of Excellence distinction is a widely recognized benchmark representing the most comprehensive evaluation process in behavioral health. Learn more at www.bhcoe.org.
Accelerated Delegated Credentialing (ADC) helps expedite the contracting and credentialing process, resulting in administrative cost savings for ABA practices. ADC also serves as a NCQA Accredited Credentials Verification Organization (CVO) to be the delegated agent for ABA organizations. Learn more at https://adc-credentialing.com/.
BHCOE Learning Hub provides over 100 hours of training for Behavior Analysts and Behavior Technicians to ensure continuous learning and improvement, including a 40-Hour BT training. Learn more at https://learning.bhcoe.org/.
The Autism Investor Summit provides a unique opportunity for autism service providers, investors and key stakeholders to meet in a private setting to discuss the autism services landscape, opportunities for investment and to discuss and learn about best practices and innovation in all areas of autism services. Learn more at https://autisminvestorsummit.com/.
The ABA Payor Summit is an in-person and virtual event designed to address critical issues in the management, delivery and payment of autism services. Structured for leaders and decision makers, this is an open forum for discussion of the challenges facing insurers and payors of public, private and self-insured benefits. Learn more at https://abapayorsummit.com/.