If your child receives ABA therapy through Florida Medicaid, there is a state review underway that you should know about. During the 2026 special legislative session, Section 40 of House Bill 5003-E created the Applied Behavior Analysis Task Force, a ten-member advisory body housed at the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). Its job is to evaluate how ABA services are delivered under Florida Medicaid and to send recommendations to the Governor, the Senate President, and the House Speaker by December 31, 2026.
This article sticks to what is on the public record: the task force's own page at AHCA, the authorizing legislation, and the published meeting materials. It is not a prediction of what the task force will recommend, because nobody knows that yet, including the task force.
What the task force is charged with reviewing
AHCA's charge language covers six areas: clinical care models, care transitions, quality metrics, service-authorization limits, potential caps on service duration, and provider enrollment and billing standards. The stated goal is threefold: keep care high-quality and family-centered, keep the program financially sustainable, and avoid disrupting access for current recipients and their families.
The phrases that matter most to families are service-authorization limits and potential caps on service duration. Nothing has been decided, but the fact that caps are explicitly on the review list is the reason to pay attention between now and December.
Who sits on it
The task force has ten members and is chaired by AHCA Secretary Shevaun L. Harris as a nonvoting, ex officio member. The appointed members include developmental-behavioral pediatrician Dr. David Childers of UF Jacksonville, behavior analysts Dr. Kerri Peters of the University of Florida and Dr. Yanerys León of the University of Miami, nonprofit and provider leaders, and representatives of managed care organizations including Molina Healthcare and Florida Community Care. One seat, reserved for a family member of a child receiving ABA through a Medicaid managed care plan, was still pending appointment as of early September.
For Miami-Dade families, it is worth knowing that Dr. León directs applied research at the UM-NSU Center for Autism and Related Disabilities and is the 2025-26 president of the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis, so South Florida clinical experience is directly represented at the table.
What has happened so far
The task force will meet five times. Meeting 1, on August 12 in Tallahassee, covered the current state of Florida Medicaid ABA services and the task force's organization. Meeting 2, on August 31, covered clinical evidence, care transitions, comparative Medicaid models from other states, and managed care. Agendas, meeting materials, and approved minutes are posted on the AHCA task force page, and the remaining meetings will be listed there as they are scheduled.
The scale under review is significant: state officials have described Florida's Medicaid ABA spending as the largest in the nation, serving roughly 55,000 children, which is the backdrop for the legislature ordering this review.
What this review does not change today
The task force is advisory. It does not write policy, and its existence does not change your child's current authorization, provider, or hours. Coverage for medically necessary ABA under Florida Medicaid continues, through your managed care plan, with the same prior-authorization and treatment-plan requirements that took effect with the managed care transition in 2025, including the Comprehensive Diagnostic Evaluation documentation requirement.
Any actual policy change would come later, through legislation or rulemaking, after the December 31 report. That is also why the window between now and December matters: it is when the record that shapes those recommendations is being built.
What families can do between now and December
First, keep your documentation current. Reassessments, treatment plans with measurable goals, and your child's Comprehensive Diagnostic Evaluation are the paperwork that authorization already turns on, and any tightening would only raise their importance. Second, follow the meetings: materials and minutes are public, and the AHCA page lists each session. Third, the task force accepts public input; questions and comments can be sent to BACOMMENTS@ahca.myflorida.com. If a duration cap or authorization limit would affect your child, a specific, factual account of what therapy has changed for your family is the most useful thing a task force record can contain.
If you are in the middle of an authorization problem right now, that is a separate track from this review: your managed care plan's appeal process and Florida's fair hearing process exist regardless of what the task force does. Our team can help families understand what documentation their plan is asking for, in English or Spanish.
Where we will update this
The task force's report is due December 31, 2026, and its authority expires July 1, 2027. We will update this article as meeting materials are published and when the recommendations are released. For the background on how Florida Medicaid ABA got to this point, see our earlier guide to the SMMC managed care changes.
Update, October 6, 2026: the task force held its second full meeting on October 5. Our follow-up article covers what the October meeting put on the table and what families can do before the final recommendations.
