Autism Treatment Clinics in Colorado Face Uncertain Future

Ethan Ortengren, 16, left, laughs while reading a book with registered behavior technician Sadie Kearns at Seven Dimensions Behavioral Health in Evergreen on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. For the first time in years, Jay Ortengren has seen his 16-year-old son, Ethan, reach milestone after milestone as he lives with a severe form of

Ethan’s progress, and the level of treatment he qualified for in Colorado, were enough that Ortengren was able to start working full time again. Sabrina Ortengren, right, hands a backpack to her son Ethan, 16, while dropping him off for the day with registered behavior technician Sadie Kearns in the parking of Seven Dimensions Behavioral Health in Evergreen on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. To stanch the flow, Colorado lawmakers boosted funding for those types of programs by about $10 million, including federal matching dollars, through a mid-year budget adjustment in February.

Facing increasing business costs and limited growth in state funding, Urbano Powell said she’s had to reduce the number of Medicaid patients she sees just to make ends meet — even, she said, as it “violates my own personal values.” It simply cost more to provide appropriate treatments than he’d get reimbursed by the state, he said. While losing clinics has an immediate impact on patients and their families, Lopez worries about the downstream effects if it’s not a sustainable business.

Zenzinger, the senator on the powerful budget-writing committee, said lawmakers had also asked HCPF to bring a request to address funding for pediatric behavioral therapy, which covers autism therapy for children. But HCPF did not, instead offering a plan to expand who qualifies for services — which Zenzinger saw as only further burdening providers who were struggling to stay in the state.

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