ABA Medicaid rates in Georgia are the second-highest in the country for direct therapy: Georgia Medicaid pays $123.64 an hour for code 97153, ranking 2nd of 42 states and 94.9% above the national median of $63.44. The rate is $30.91 per 15-minute unit, billed with modifiers U3 and U6, effective 2025-07-01.
Georgia's schedule has an unusual feature: it pays the full individual technician rate for group ABA and for technician-assisted assessment. That single design choice makes Georgia the top-paying state for group therapy. All rates are compiled from official Georgia Medicaid publications and link to their source documents on the Georgia Medicaid rates hub.
Georgia's current ABA rates come from a specific state plan amendment. The "Increase Reimbursement Rates for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Therapy State Plan Amendment Public Notice" was published 2025-05-19, and CMS approved "25-0008 Autism Spectrum Disorder Rate Increase" with an effective date of 2025-07-01. Every Georgia ABA rate on this page carries that same effective date.
For agencies, the approval matters as much as the rates: an increase approved by CMS is part of the state plan, not a temporary add-on, which gives providers a more stable basis for hiring and expansion decisions. It also means future changes will need their own public notice and amendment, which gives agencies advance warning.
| Code | Per hour | Rank | vs national median |
|---|---|---|---|
| 97153 technician therapy | $123.64 | 2 of 42 | +94.9% |
| 97154 technician-led group | $123.64 | 1 of 37 | +312.7% |
| 97152 technician assessment support | $123.64 | 5 of 29 | +60.5% |
| 97155 analyst plan changes | $160.56 | 3 of 41 | +58.9% |
| 97151 analyst assessment | $160.56 | 9 of 41 | +37.7% |
| 97156 caregiver training | $70.08 | 39 of 43 | -26.1% |
Analyst-led groups (97158) pay $17.51 a unit, or $70.04 an hour, ranking 2nd of 30 behind Virginia ($112.52), 87.8% above the national median.
The pattern is clear: Georgia sets one rate for technician-level work ($30.91 a unit, modifier U3) and another for analyst-level work ($40.14 a unit, modifier U2), and applies them across codes. The U6 modifier appears on every line.
A modifier is a two-character suffix on a billing code that tells the payer something about the service or the provider. In Georgia, the modifier pair is how the schedule distinguishes technician work from analyst work: U3 marks technician-level codes and U2 marks analyst-level codes, with U6 on every ABA line. A claim that omits a modifier, or pairs the wrong ones, may not match the published rate. Billing systems should map each code to its modifier pair once and apply it automatically.
All Georgia ABA codes are priced per 15-minute unit, so each hourly figure is four units. Revenue follows documented time. With a technician unit worth $30.91, every lost quarter-hour from a late start or early ending is significant, so recording actual start and stop times is worth the discipline.
Most states pay group ABA per patient at a fraction of the individual rate, which is why the national median for 97154 is only $29.96 an hour. Georgia pays $123.64, the same as an individual technician hour, and ranks 1st of 37. Only Iowa, at $114.36, takes a similar approach.
For an agency, that changes the economics of group programming entirely. A social-skills or school-readiness group led by a technician earns the full individual rate for each participant's time, so groups become a revenue line rather than a loss leader. Clinical appropriateness and payer documentation requirements still govern who can be served in a group, but Georgia's schedule removes the usual financial penalty.
Running groups responsibly
Because the rate makes groups attractive, documentation should be especially careful. Each participant's treatment plan should state why group services are clinically indicated, which goals the group addresses, and how progress is measured. Agencies that can show those links will be on firm ground if a plan or the state reviews group billing; those that use groups to fill schedules will not.
Georgia's one weak code is caregiver training. At $17.52 per 15 minutes, or $70.08 an hour, 97156 ranks 39th of 43 and sits 26.1% below the national median of $94.80. It pays less per hour than the analyst rate for 97155 by a wide margin, even though both are typically delivered by a BCBA.
The wage data makes the gap concrete. At the Georgia analyst proxy wage of $28.35, wages take 57.5% of the 97156 rate, leaving $29.79 an hour, compared with $120.27 for 97155. Agencies should deliver family training within the scope that clinical need requires, but Georgia's schedule gives no financial reason to shift analyst time toward it.
Georgia's wage data sits at or below national levels. The median wage for the closest comparable technician occupation was $18.98 an hour in May 2025, against $22.08 nationally. The analyst proxy was $28.35, against $28.53. Both are proxy occupations and understate pay for credentialed RBTs and BCBAs.
- 97153, 97152 and 97154: wages take 21.8% of the $123.64 rate, leaving $96.66 an hour after a loaded wage.
- 97155 and 97151: wages take 25.1% of the $160.56 rate, leaving $120.27.
High rates and modest local wages give Georgia a wide technician margin, room enough to pay above the proxy wage, invest in training and retain credentialed staff.
Where the competition shows up
A schedule this generous attracts providers. The practical constraint in Georgia is less likely to be the rate than the supply of credentialed technicians and BCBAs, and the competition among agencies to hire them. Agencies that build in-house training programs, pay competitively and offer predictable schedules will be able to staff authorized hours; those that cannot staff will leave Georgia's high rates unbilled.
One prior-authorization rule applies to each ABA code, 97151 through 97158, and no unit limits are published. That is a lighter rule set than in many states, but it covers every code, including groups and assessment support.
Authorization requests should list each code the treatment plan will use. That matters more in Georgia than elsewhere, because groups and technician-assisted assessment pay the full technician rate; a request that omits them leaves high-value hours unbillable. Renewals should be filed with updated progress data before each approval lapses.
Georgia has its own managed-care line for applied behavior analysis, and the rule is "Plans negotiate; the published rate applies out of network." In practice, each plan's contract sets the in-network rate, and the fee schedule on this page governs out-of-network payment and serves as the benchmark in negotiations. Fourteen plans are on file, including Amerigroup, CareSource Georgia, Peach State Health Plan and WellCare of Georgia; the Georgia managed-care page shows the rules by service line.
Reading plan contracts against the schedule
Because Georgia's fee schedule is unusually high, the gap between a plan's offer and the published rate can be large. Agencies should check whether a contract pays a percentage of the Georgia Medicaid schedule or a fixed rate, whether it carries the 2025-07-01 increase, and whether group and assessment-support codes are paid at the technician rate as they are on the schedule. A contract that pays groups per patient at a reduced rate gives up one of Georgia's main advantages.
Georgia's programs include fee-for-service Medicaid and several waivers for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including the New Options Waiver (NOW) and the Comprehensive Supports Waiver (COMP), whose renewal took effect 2026-04-01. Those waivers are paid directly by the state, outside managed care. Agencies that serve autistic clients into adulthood may encounter both systems: ABA under the managed-care rule and adult supports under the waivers, each with its own rates and rules.
Only Alaska pays more on 97153, at $127.80; Iowa ($114.36) and the District of Columbia ($110.00) follow Georgia. At the bottom, Louisiana pays $40.00 and New York $38.52. On analyst codes, Georgia trails only Vermont ($197.40) and Alaska ($167.88) for 97155. Neighboring Florida and Alabama both pay far less for the technician hour, which makes Georgia the anchor market for a Southeast footprint.
- Budget each code at its own rate. Georgia's two-tier structure, plus the low 97156 rate, means a blended hourly figure misleads.
- Staff to the authorization. With a $96.66 technician margin, unfilled authorized hours are the biggest source of lost revenue.
- Build a documented group program. Groups at the full technician rate are a genuine opportunity when clinically indicated.
- Negotiate from the schedule. Plan offers should be compared code by code with the published Georgia rates.
- Watch for the next amendment. Any future ABA rate change will follow the same public notice and CMS approval path as the 2025 increase.
Rates on this page are compiled from official Georgia Medicaid publications, including the Physician Maximum Allowed Fee Schedule and the state's autism rate increase amendment. Each rate in our dataset links to its source document, and hourly figures are the 15-minute unit rate multiplied to an hour. All 20,899 current Georgia Medicaid rates, with history back to 2016, are available on our plans. The national ABA rates hub shows every state on the same per-hour basis, and our methodology explains the conversion.