When it comes to the world of medicine and Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy, your team members must keep up-to-date with current trends, changes to the law dealing with ABA, and to improve their own abilities. Medical journals, conferences, and continued education opportunities are a few of the tools by which they can improve productivity, efficiency, and patient satisfaction.
At WebABA, we offer more than standard medical billing, payroll, and credentialing support to practices around the country. We also work tirelessly every day to gather as much information related to the practice of ABA therapy so that you can stay well informed to run a successful practice.
While we support your practice with client intake to billing and everything in between, you’ll have more time to support your team of ABA therapy providers and ensure they are meeting legal requirements to continue providing excellent care to your patients. Please consider the following information regarding continuing education units (CEUs) and opportunities.
What are CEUs?
In essence, a continuing education unit (CEU) keeps your behavior analysts up-to-date with the latest developments in the field of applied behavioral analysis. To ensure that analysts are continuing to learn and develop innovative best practices, it is required that board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) and board certified behavior analysts-doctoral (BCBA-Ds) recertify every two years.
Continuing education is crucial for anyone involved in applied behavior analysis, and not only because it is required by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) in order to maintain your certification. CEUs also give behavior analysts a clearer understanding of their practice, which helps them to provide exceptional care to their patients.
In the end, first-rate care is sure to help you develop a quality reputation, which will in turn help to draw more patients to your practice and generate more revenue that can be funneled back into equipment and staff.
What counts as a CEU, however, is different depending on the institution you are learning from.
What types of institutions offer CEUs?
Thankfully, CEUs are not elusive or expensive. Plenty of avenues exist for attaining CEUs so that your board certified behavior analysts can remain equipped to provide quality services to the patients they treat.
Keep in mind that recertification requires BCBAs and BCBA-Ds to complete at least 32 continuing education units of acceptable continuing education coursework, where at least four hours of ethics programming is completed.
Type 1: College or University Coursework
One option for acquiring CEUs would be by attending graduate-level behavior analysis courses at a qualifying college or university like.
When calculating the worth of CEUs you can attain from attending these courses, every 50 minutes of classroom instruction is equal to one CEU. In a common American college, one academic semester credit is equal to 15 CEUs, and one academic quarter credit is equal to 10 CEUs.
Any or all portions of the required hours of continuing education can be applied during any certification cycle, and a course syllabus or transcript is usually required as documentation that it was taken or completed.
Type 2: Events Offered by Authorized CE Providers (ACE)
Authorized continuing education (ACE) providers sponsor ACE events from time to time which are approved by the BACB. Like colleges and universities, 50 minutes of instruction is equivalent to one CEU.
Also like colleges and universities, any or all portions of the required hours can go to any certification cycle, and the certificate or letter that is sent out by the ACE provider is proof of documentation.
Type 3: Non-Authorized Events
Sometimes taking advantage of a seminar, presentation, workshop, conference event, or colloquium may net you a CEU or two. These events are not certified by the BACB and must be completely related to the field of behavior analysis. Like the other two types, non-authorized events equal one CEU to 50 minutes of instruction.
However, the maximum number of hours that can be garnered by this type of continuing education can only be up to 25 percent of the total amount of hours required, and they may be applied during any certification cycle.
You’ll need an attestation—proof that the workshop or event was attended—signed and dated by the certificate authority as proof of attendance.
Type 4: Giving Instruction
Those who can may be able to teach. In this type of continuing education, instructors of behavior analysis can also earn credit that is equivalent to types one through three: one CEU equals 50 minutes of instruction.
This is only on a one-time basis, however, for each event, provided that your staff member was there for the complete term.
Unlike the others, though, the maximum number of hours acquired from this particular category can account for up to 50 percent of the total requirement and may come during any certification cycle. Your staff member will need to present a letter from the department chair on letterhead from the university he or she was teaching at, or a letter from the ACE provider’s coordinator.
Type 5: BACB Events
Annually, the BACB will host events or activities that are pre-approved for CEU distribution. These conferences and presentations can be free or low costs to attend, and you don’t need to register with an ACE provider. Other instances include BACB enlisting the aid of certified behavior analysts to help them write, pilot, test, and review examination questions as well.
A maximum of 25 percent of your total required hours of continuing education is allowed for any certification cycle, and your staffer will need a certificate that is issued out directly from the BACB or access to the BACB Gateway as proof.
Type 6: Passing Exams
During the final year of your behavior analysts recertification cycle, passing the board certification exam that is appropriate to your staffer’s field—e.g. a behavior analyst passing the certification exam to recertify as a BCBA—should help them meet the requirements of continuing education for the current recertification period.
Usually, those testing do not need to re-qualify to take the exam. They simply need to apply to take the exam and pay the fee if applicable. This should be done with caution, however, as failing the exam will leave them no longer certified by the BACB.
After the testing, depending if your staff member passed, the BACB will provide the re-certified individual direct access to their BACB Gateway account online.
Type 7: Scholarly Activities
Behavior analysts also have the option to receive CEUs if they decide to publish an ABA article in a peer-reviewed journal. They also have the option of acting as a reviewer or action editor of an ABA article for a peer-reviewed journal.
The CEUs are divided out as follows:
- One CEU for one reviewer
- One publication for 8 hours of continuing education
The maximum amount of hours that can be netted by this category is 25 percent of the total required hours for any certification cycle, and for proof, your staffer will need to submit the final publication that lists his or her name in the byline. For action editors, an editorial decision letter is required. For reviewers, a letter of attestation from the action editor should suffice.
At Amvik Solutions, we believe that keeping current with continuing education is a wonderful tool that helps grow your practice, just like the strong client intake, credentialing, and billing backbone services we provide.