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ABA Therapy With Optum in Fort Collins, CO
Yes, Attain SLB accepts Optum for ABA therapy. If Optum manages your family’s behavioral health benefits, your child (age 1 to 18) can start at our Fort Collins clinic or at home anywhere in Colorado, with no waitlist. Since every plan is set up differently, we verify your benefits with you before the assessment.
Why Optum is on your card
Optum often handles the behavioral health side of a health plan. Its 2024 autism and ABA orientation for providers is titled “Optum with UnitedHealthcare” and names United Behavioral Health, operating under the brand Optum. So if your card lists Optum or United Behavioral Health for mental or behavioral health, that’s usually who reviews ABA requests for your plan.
What Optum’s ABA materials say
- Optum runs an autism and ABA program with a specialized team that assists members and handles authorizations.
- ABA providers request services and check authorizations in Optum’s Provider Express portal, so most of the paperwork runs between us and Optum.
- Optum allows BCBAs in contracted ABA practices to provide caregiver training and supervision by telehealth once services are authorized. We offer telehealth, which can make parent sessions easier to fit in.
Good questions for Optum
Whether you call Optum or let us do it, these are the questions that tell you the most: Is ABA included for my child? What does authorization require, and how often does it need renewing? Is therapy at home treated the same as therapy at a clinic?
Colorado law, briefly
Colorado requires the health plans it regulates to cover the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of autism, and the Division of Insurance says that includes ABA (Section 10-16-104 (1.4), C.R.S.). If your plan comes through an employer, ask whether it’s fully insured or self-funded, because self-funded plans aren’t subject to Colorado’s mandates. A “CO-DOI” on your card means the Division regulates your plan.
Where therapy happens
Live near Fort Collins, Loveland, Windsor, Greeley, Timnath or Wellington? Our clinic at 1224 E. Elizabeth St is close by. Anywhere else in the state, a therapist comes to your home, after school or for full days. You can move between clinic and home sessions if your needs change. A BCBA leads every child’s program, sets goals with your family and adjusts the plan as your child grows.
Checking another plan? See the insurance we accept. If your child is on Health First Colorado (Medicaid), start with our Health First Colorado guide.
What to have in hand
- Your insurance card, front and back: the member ID, plus the behavioral health line if it’s listed
- A diagnosis report for your child, if you already have one
From first call to first session
- Tell us about your child and share your member ID.
- We verify your benefits with Optum and explain them to you.
- Our BCBA assesses your child and puts the treatment plan in writing.
- We send the request to Optum for authorization. When it’s approved, we set up your schedule.
Busy day? Leave your details on our Start Here form and we’ll get back to you, usually within the hour during business hours.
Optum and ABA: Common Questions
Yes. We accept Optum for ABA at our clinic in Fort Collins and for in-home therapy anywhere in Colorado. We verify your benefits before the assessment.
Optum’s provider materials name United Behavioral Health as operating under the Optum brand. Call us with your member ID and we’ll check.
Optum allows BCBAs in contracted ABA practices to provide caregiver training by telehealth after services are authorized. We’ll go over whether it fits your child’s plan.
There isn’t one. We have no waitlist, so the assessment is scheduled once your benefits are verified.
Sources
- Optum, Autism/ABA Provider Orientation, “Optum with UnitedHealthcare” (2024)
- Optum Provider Express, Autism/ABA (requesting services and authorizations)
- Colorado Legislative Council Staff, “Colorado Health Insurance Mandates” memo (March 9, 2020): autism spectrum disorder, Section 10-16-104 (1.4), C.R.S., and which plans state mandates apply to
- Colorado Division of Insurance, Commercial Insurance Resources for Behavioral Health Providers in Colorado (ASD minimum coverage including ABA; “CO-DOI” on the insurance card)
This page is general information, not a guarantee of coverage or cost. Last reviewed November 2026.
