Autism Center of Excellence (COE) Certification

Medical Home - Calendar of EventsUniversity of Washington experts provide the Autism Center of Excellence (COE) trainings through a contract with the Health Care Authority (HCA). As of July 2024, we are contracted to provide 4 general trainings a year.

Upcoming COE Trainings: Flyer

Questions? Please email Kate Orville, Co-Director Autism COE Certification Training at orville@uw.edu .

Purpose of the COE Training

  • To increase the number of qualified clinicians (COEs) across Washington State who can appropriately diagnose children and youth with autism who have Medicaid insurance.
  • Help children and families access needed services as appropriate, including writing a Medicaid/Apple Health prescription for Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). COE required for Managed Care Organization (MCO) prescription approval.

Who is Eligible to Become a COE

  • The HCA determines which primary care and other clinicians  can become COEs. Currently the list includes medical physicians working in primary care, specialty physicians, clinical psychologists, ARNPs and pediatric naturopaths. Physician Assistants (PA-C) whose supervising clinician is a COE are eligible as of Jan 1, 2023.
  • The WA Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) accepts autism diagnoses from COE clinicians.  As of Oct 7, 2024, DDA will begin also accepting diagnoses made by ND and PA-C COE clinicians.

What the Training Covers

  • Starting in September 2024, the COE training builds on the “Autism COE Quick Start Guide“, a practical guide to setting up autism evaluations developed with community COEs and university and tertiary care experts.
  • The Autism COE Quick Start Guide provides an overview of information and resources to guide you in developing your Autism COE practice for Medicaid patients and their families. This document includes tips for working with your administration, developing a comprehensive evaluation workflow, billing and coding guidelines, templates for documentation, feedback and referral processes, and community resources.  In addition to the overview, there are numerous appendices with specific, in-depth information including but not  limited to an autism clinic proposal template, EMR report templates, ABA referral documentation, screening and diagnostic tool recommendations, and more.
  • Additionally, the COE training provides
    • Evaluation and diagnosis of children exhibiting signs and symptoms of autism spectrum disorder and determining which evidence –based treatments, including ABA, are likely to be helpful for individual children
    • The lived experience of autism from autistics and family members- what they would like you as a health care professional to know
    • How to write an approved prescription for ABA treatment
    • Paperwork and process to complete to become a HCA recognized COE after the training

COE Training Logistics

Steps for the COE training course:

1) Register for the WA Autism COE Certification training

2) There is a separate prerequisite online Autism course from the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) PediaLink for COE-eligible participants to complete prior to each live Zoom training (but highly recommended for everyone) .

  • July 31 2024 the AAP   published a new free Autism Identification and Collaborative Care online course with 6 separate modules and can provide 3 free CME 1/MOC credits. The videos for the course take a total of 3 hours and 14 minutes and there are additional practical resources.  The modules can be completed in any order, however, all six must be completed and the post assessment passed in order to obtain CME and MOC credits.  This online course is eligible for a maximum of 3.00 CME and 3.00 MOC Credits.   The AAP, not the UW, tracks and provides the certificate of CME/MOC for this course.
  • Where to find the AAP/Pedialink course:  https://www.aap.org/Autism-Identification-and-Collaborative-Care  or https://bit.ly/3SwAHGX
  • If you are not already a member of the AAP or have registered before for AAP/Pedialink courses, you will need to register for Pedialink to access the free autism course – you should be given this option while you are registering for the autism course.  After registering, you may be taken to a page of Pedialink courses that has a “my library” option which is where you can findthe course to start on it.
  •  Here’s an overview of the AAP prerequisite course-
·        Module 1: Neurodiversity, Social, and Medical Models
·        Module 2: Characteristics, Surveillance, and Screening
·        Module 3: Definition and Diagnosis
·        Module 4: Co-occurring Conditions
·        Module 5: Caring for Patients
·        Module 6: Partnering with Patients and Families

3. If you are registered for the WA COE course, please complete the AAP course and attest briefly that you have completed it for the training:  https://redcap.link/COE-Coursework-Done

4. The live Zoom Videoconference training is 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with 45 minutes off for lunch.  It includes a facilitated discussion led by Gary Stobbe, MD and Jim Mancini MS, CCC-SLP as well as other expert panelists to respond to questions posed via the online survey.  There is Washington State specific information about how to do an autism evaluation that meets Health Care Authority criteria and how to do this in your clinic. We also have regional breakouts to allow deeper discussion with peers and other community/agency partners.

More information about COEs and Autism Diagnosis in Washington State.

december, 2024

X