Question
Difficulty: easy. Skill: recognize. Type: ethics professional judgment.
A payer stops authorizing sessions next month. The team wants to tell the family on the final day and close the case immediately. The file includes 2 related notes from service week 10, and the request came from the caregiver. The BCBA should:
AAsk the stakeholder to decide because the stakeholder is closest to the case.
BDelay action until the next scheduled review meeting without changing the current practice.
CEnd services when funding stops and tell the family that the payer made the decision.
DProvide a written discontinuation or transition plan, review it with stakeholders, and document the steps taken.Correct answer
Content quality status
machine gate passedOrigOriginal study itemThis question was created for BCBA Scenario Tutor. It is not an official, leaked, or copied BACB exam question.
ChkAutomated validation passedThe item includes an answer key, explanation, wrong-choice notes, domain label, concept tags, and source notes. Automated checks cover structure, coverage, and consistency only. No named, credential-verifiable BCBA external review has occurred, and this is not a clinical or exam-validity certification.
DateLast machine check: 2026-07-05Source note: Original v2 item upgraded from internal task/concept map; not copied from official or commercial question banks.
Explanation
Answer DThe decision point is: Does the answer protect consent, confidentiality, scope, documentation, and risk management before action? This item specifically tests Discontinuing services and transitions through a ethics-or-professional-judgment-scenario format. The key clue is in the stem facts: A payer stops authorizing sessions next month. The team wants to tell the family on the final day and close the case immediately. The file includes 2 related notes from service week 10, and the request came from the caregiver. The BCBA should: Answer D is strongest because it follows this rule: Provide a written discontinuation or transition plan, review it with stakeholders, and document the steps taken. This follows the cited official standard(s) without relying on a generic ethics slogan. The tempting mistake is to choose a shortcut before the scenario's prerequisite is satisfied. This choice skips a professional safeguard. Ethics items usually require the safest documented action before convenience or urgency. Exam move: name the missing prerequisite first, then eliminate answers that jump to a label, a familiar procedure, a single data point, or an undocumented action.
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Why this question is hard
ClueKey scenario clueA payer stops authorizing sessions next month. The team wants to tell the family on the final day and close the case immediately. The file includes 2 related notes from service week 10, and the request came from the caregiver. The BCBA should:
TrapCommon trapThis choice skips a professional safeguard. Ethics items usually require the safest documented action before convenience or urgency.
NextIf you missed it, review Scope of competenceThen answer a few related scenarios before moving back to broad practice.
Exam-style review notes
Structured study guidance maintained by Bifang Studio's internal editors and automated quality checks.
RuleDiscontinuing services and transitions: Scope of competenceDoes the answer protect consent, confidentiality, scope, documentation, and risk management before action?
ClueWhat the stem gives youA payer stops authorizing sessions next month. The team wants to tell the family on the final day and close the case immediately. The file includes 2 related notes from service week 10, and the request came from the caregiver. The BCBA should:
TrapCommon trapAccept case immediately. This often shows up as all behavior concerns are automatically within scope..
FixIf you missed this itemRewrite the miss as a rule: "When I see Scope of competence, I must identify the relevant evidence before choosing the action." Then answer two related E domain questions without reading explanations first.
NextNext drillPractice 3 more questions tagged to Scope of competence, then explain why each wrong answer is weaker before moving back to mixed practice.
Source-aware internal editorial maintenance using src-bacb-bcba-tco-6ed, src-bacb-ethics-code for study organization; not an official BACB item and not externally reviewed by a named, verifiable BCBA.
Why the other choices are weaker
AChoice AThis choice skips a professional safeguard. Ethics items usually require the safest documented action before convenience or urgency.
BChoice BThis choice is weaker because it does not resolve the key prerequisite in the scenario: a payer stops authorizing sessions next month. The team wants to tell the family on the final day and close the case immediately. The file includes 2 related notes from service week 10, and the request came from the caregiver. The BCBA should:
CChoice CThis choice is weaker because it does not resolve the key prerequisite in the scenario: a payer stops authorizing sessions next month. The team wants to tell the family on the final day and close the case immediately. The file includes 2 related notes from service week 10, and the request came from the caregiver. The BCBA should:
Study tags
Scope of competenceDiscontinuing services and transitionscompetencereferral
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Editorial transparency
Machine quality gatePublished by Bifang Studio. Content is maintained by internal editors with automated structure, coverage, and consistency checks. No content has been externally reviewed by a named, credential-verifiable BCBA; these checks do not certify clinical quality or exam validity.