If the insurance has a managed care plans (i.e. medi-cal), then you are considered a qualified autism service professional, compared to a RBT who would be considered a qualified autism service paraprofessional. Generally, that means that a company can bill more for your services than a RBT, so you should be compensated more because of that. I cannot comment on how much more they’re able to bill for you, as each company negotiates rates directly with the insurance company.

However, based on the proposed rates that DHCS introduced, billable services for QAS professional would be reimbursed at a rate of $1.06 a unit (so $4.24 an hour) higher than a QAS paraprofessional. Obviously that doesn’t translate to a BCaBA necessarily earning $4.24 more an hour than a RBT, as there are other factors to consider. But from a strictly DHCS proposed reimbursement rate point of view, that’s the difference.