What Idaho CHIS agencies use to build the schedule

Most small and mid-size Idaho CHIS agencies schedule in one of two ways: general tools like spreadsheets, whiteboards and shared calendars, or an ABA practice-management platform such as CentralReach, RethinkBH, AlohaABA, Theralytics or Motivity. The platforms are built around billing, authorizations and clinical data, with scheduling as one part of a bigger system. The general tools cost little and bend to any workflow, but they don't know anything about authorizations, credentials or who is covering whom. Below we compare what each option offers for scheduling, using each vendor's own public pages as they read on September 26, 2026.

One thing to know up front: none of the vendor pages we checked mention Idaho, CHIS or Idaho Medicaid by name. These products are marketed to ABA practices. Many Idaho CHIS agencies use ABA-based methods, so the tools can still fit, but you will need to confirm with each vendor that it handles your Idaho workflows.

What a CHIS schedule has to handle

Before comparing tools, it helps to name the job. A CHIS schedule is more than a calendar of appointments. It has to line up three things at once: the child's authorized hours, a qualified person to deliver them, and a time that works for the family.

The authorization piece comes straight from the rules. Idaho's CHIS rules are in IDAPA 16.03.26, Sections 180 to 186, effective July 1, 2026. Section 183 says:

"All CHIS identified on a participant's ACTP must be prior authorized by the Department and maintained in each participant's file."

The same section says ongoing prior authorization requests must list "all CHIS hours being requested and the qualification of the individual(s) who will provide them." So whatever tool you use, someone at your agency has to keep scheduled hours inside what was authorized, and keep the right people on each case. Section 184 covers provider qualifications and duties, including supervision. For the details, read the rule text and the CHIS chapter of the Idaho Medicaid provider handbook, and check the current handbook before relying on any summary.

The day-to-day work is familiar to any scheduler. At our fictional agency, Sagebrush Behavioral Services, the scheduler Dana builds the week, then spends much of it repairing it: Marcus calls out sick, a family cancels, Priya's time-off request lands on a week where she covers two children. The question for any tool is how much of that repair work it helps with, and how much stays in Dana's head.

Spreadsheets, whiteboards and shared calendars

Plenty of agencies run on these, especially in their first years. They are flexible, cheap or free, and everyone already knows how to use them.

What works: a whiteboard shows the whole week at a glance in the office. A shared spreadsheet can hold anything you want in any layout. A shared calendar lets technicians see their own sessions on their phones.

What they don't do on their own: they don't compare scheduled hours against authorized hours, warn you about double-booking across people, track credentials, or keep a record of who changed what. That checking falls to a person, usually the scheduler or owner.

The HIPAA question: if a child's name, initials tied to other details, diagnosis or address goes into a cloud spreadsheet or calendar, the company hosting it is handling protected health information for you. Under the HIPAA definition in 45 CFR 160.103, a business associate includes a party that "creates, receives, maintains, or transmits protected health information" on your behalf for functions that include "practice management." 45 CFR 164.502(e) requires that the assurances from a business associate be documented in a written agreement. Some general-purpose services offer a BAA only on certain plans, and some don't offer one at all. Check your specific plan, and talk to whoever advises you on compliance. A whiteboard in a locked office avoids the cloud question, but not the question of who can see it.

ABA practice-management platforms

Each summary below uses only the vendor's own public pages, checked September 26, 2026. Features change often. Treat this as a starting list for a demo, not a verdict.

CentralReach

What it is: CentralReach describes itself as an "Autism and IDD Care Platform" and an EMR, with practice management, data collection, clinical tools, billing and revenue services, and staff training.

Scheduling, in the vendor's words: its scheduling product is CR ScheduleAI, described as AI scheduling that "aligns provider availability, compliance, and client needs." The page lists balancing availability, credentials and client needs; managing authorization hours and payor requirements; real-time adjustments and utilization reporting; and route optimization for in-home care. Two features on that page, "Embedded Cancellations" and "Interactive Drafts," are marked "coming soon."

Built around: a full EMR with clinical and billing services. On the site's menu, ScheduleAI appears under the enterprise ABA offerings. A separate "Startup & Small ABA Therapy" menu lists practice management and data collection, among other products.

Pricing: pricing isn't published on the pages we checked. The site invites you to schedule a consultation.

Privacy: CentralReach's security page says it is HIPAA compliant, with an annual HIPAA assessment by the firm BDO, and that it has completed a SOC 2 audit. The security page does not mention a BAA, so ask.

RethinkBH (Rethink Behavioral Health)

What it is: a practice-management platform that brings "scheduling, data collection, billing, and clinical documentation together in one system."

Scheduling, in the vendor's words: calendar-based staff and client scheduling with individual, group and list views; authorization tracking shown on the schedule; staff availability to help prevent double-booking; multi-location scheduling; and billable, non-billable and travel hours by staff member. Scheduling is "included with the RethinkBH Practice Management Platform." A separate add-on, "AI Scheduling Powered by TheraDriver," is described as offering schedule optimization, staff matching and automated schedule rebuilding.

Built around: practice management tied to billing and clinical documentation. The site says it is "built for growing ABA practices and large, multi-location organizations alike," and has menu pages for start-up, scaling and enterprise practices.

Pricing: pricing isn't published. The FAQ says Rethink "offers customized pricing based on your organization's size and needs."

Privacy: the homepage FAQ says Rethink maintains HIPAA compliance through "encryption, role-based access controls, audit logs, and BAAs," and that the platform is HITRUST CSF certified.

AlohaABA

What it is: an "all-in-one ABA practice management platform with integrated data collection," covering billing, scheduling, payroll, authorizations, accounts receivable and reports. Aloha also sells managed billing services.

Scheduling, in the vendor's words: viewing multiple schedules at once to compare availability; billable, non-billable, drive-time, mileage and break appointments; recurring appointments; tracking staff and client unavailability; day, week, month, list and timeline views; checking authorization use while scheduling; scheduling validations "to minimize billing errors"; and capturing signatures, time, date and geotag on appointments.

Built around: billing and practice operations, with clinical data collection added.

Pricing: published. The pricing page lists practice management (billing, scheduling, payroll, authorizations, client portal and more) at $29.99 per staff member per month, with no implementation fee. Data collection is priced separately, per client per month.

Privacy: Aloha publishes a sample Business Associate Agreement on its site and says a signed version is provided at onboarding or on request.

Theralytics

What it is: ABA software for practice management, data collection and billing, with optional billing services. The site says it was "built by Board Certified Behavior Analysts who've run ABA practices."

Scheduling, in the vendor's words: activity-based scheduling (assessments, parent training and so on); filtering by location such as clinic, school or in-home region; room and resource assignment; role permissions, including self-scheduling "where appropriate"; conflict checks when setting session times; automatic mileage and travel-time calculation; session notes connected to the schedule; and tracking RBT supervision requirements.

Built around: practice management and billing, with data collection. The scheduling page says it is "built for growing clinics, multi-location practices, and hybrid care."

Pricing: published. Practice management and data collection are each $20 per client or $30 per user per month; the combined plan is $30 per client or $45 per user per month. Core plans have a 10-client or 10-user minimum, a minimum monthly fee of $200 or $300 depending on the package, and no annual contract. Clearinghouse fees may be extra. There are also start-up packages bundled with billing services.

Privacy: the security page says Theralytics is HIPAA compliant and has completed a SOC 2 Type II audit. We didn't find a BAA mentioned on the pages we checked, so ask.

Motivity

What it is: ABA clinical data collection and practice management, sold separately or together.

Scheduling, in the vendor's words: "AI-trained scheduling" with rules that automate appointment setup; matching clients with "best-fit providers"; tools for unexpected cancellations; automatic drive-time calculation; overlap detection that alerts you to double-bookings; compliance and capacity checks; locking session times after billing; and cancellation trend reports.

Built around: clinical data collection first, with practice management and billing. The site has a menu page for "ABA Startups & Small Teams."

Pricing: published. Practice management is $24 per learner per month, data collection is $24 per learner per month, and the combined platform is $48 per learner per month. Enterprise plans are quoted separately.

Privacy: Motivity publishes a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement page that becomes part of its license agreement.

Side by side

All vendor details below are from each vendor's public pages, checked September 26, 2026. "Not published" means we couldn't find pricing on the pages we checked.

Option	Built around	Scheduling highlights (vendor's description)	Pricing published?	BAA on public site?
Spreadsheets, whiteboards, shared calendars	General-purpose	Whatever you build; no authorization or credential checks	Varies by service	Depends on the service and plan
CentralReach	EMR, clinical, billing	ScheduleAI: availability, credentials, authorizations, routes	Not published	Not mentioned on security page
RethinkBH	Practice management, billing, documentation	Calendar views, authorizations on schedule, multi-location; AI add-on	Not published (custom)	FAQ says BAAs are part of its HIPAA program
AlohaABA	Billing and practice operations	Recurring, drive time, authorization checks, validations	Yes, $29.99 per staff per month (practice management)	Sample BAA published
Theralytics	Practice management, billing, data collection	Activity-based, locations, rooms, travel, supervision tracking	Yes, per client or per user; minimums apply	Not found on pages checked
Motivity	Clinical data, practice management	Rule-based scheduling, matching, drive time, overlap alerts	Yes, $24 per learner per month (practice management)	BAA page published

Prices are not directly comparable. Some charge per staff member, some per client or learner, some per user, and some have minimums. Work out what each would cost for your actual headcount and caseload.

Questions to ask any vendor

Fit for Idaho CHIS

• Have you worked with Idaho CHIS providers? Can we talk to one?
• Can the schedule track hours against each child's Idaho Medicaid prior authorization?
• Can we record each staff member's qualifications and see them when we assign a session?
• How do we see which children need supervision, and when?

Day-to-day scheduling

• When a technician calls out, what does the scheduler actually do, step by step? Show us.
• How does time off work? Can someone approve a request that leaves a child uncovered?
• What do technicians see on their phones? What do parents see?
• Can you run the demo using a week that looks like ours, not your sample data?

HIPAA and data

• Will you sign a Business Associate Agreement before we enter any client information? Can we read it first?
• Which subcontractors (hosting, messaging, support tools) handle our data, and do they have BAAs with you?
• Can we limit each role to what it needs, for example a technician seeing only their own children?
• Is there an audit log of who viewed or changed a record?
• If we leave, how do we get all our data out, and in what format?

Cost and commitment

• What would we pay per month at our current size, all in, including add-ons and setup?
• Is scheduling included, or is any part of it an add-on?
• Are there minimums or an annual contract?
• How long does setup take, and who does the data entry?

How to choose

Start with what you need most. If your biggest pain is billing and claims, a platform built around billing may be worth the switch, and its scheduler comes along. If billing is handled and the pain is the weekly scramble of covering sessions, look hardest at how each tool handles call-outs, time off and coverage, since that is where the scheduler's time goes.

Bring your messiest real week to every demo (with children's names and details removed). Ask the vendor to show you the exact clicks for your three most common changes. And get the BAA answer in writing before anyone enters a child's information.

Where Pairing fits

Pairing is scheduling software we are building specifically for Idaho CHIS providers, and it is still in development. It focuses on the schedule itself: a week view where uncovered sessions stand out, a time-off queue that won't approve a request while it would leave a session uncovered, and supervision deadlines you can see at a glance. It doesn't do billing, EVV or payroll, so it would sit alongside the system you already use for those. We are talking with Idaho providers now; if you'd like to be part of that, get in touch.

Week of October 62 sessions need cover

Mon6

Tue7

Wed8

Thu9

Fri10

A.M.

8:30–11:30Jordan

8:30–11:30Jordan

8:30–11:30Jordan

8:30–11:30Maya

J.R.

1:00–3:30Dana

1:00–3:30Dana

1:00–3:30Priya

1:00–3:30Dana

K.T.

3:30–6:00Sam

3:30–6:00Dana

3:30–6:00Sam

3:30–6:00Sam

3:30–6:00Maya

L.S.

9:00–12:00Priya

9:00–12:00Priya

9:00–12:00Priya

9:00–12:00Priya

Replay

How this page was made

Every vendor detail comes from that vendor's own public website, and the rule text comes from IDAPA 16.03.26 and the federal HIPAA regulations, all checked on September 26, 2026. If a vendor has changed a page since then, their page is the one to trust. Drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by the Pairing team.