Making progress with insurance legislation for autism treatment
~ This entry was posted on August 24, 2009
On August 13th, New Jersey became the fifteenth state in the nation to enact autism insurance reform. This is exciting news for the autism community nationwide. The bill will require NJ insurance companies to provide coverage of evidence-based medically necessary autism therapies up to $36,000 annually for a child with autism that is 21 years of age or younger. Coverage includes Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy. The NJ bill was signed into law only a few short weeks after Wisconsin enacted its own legislation. Other states that have enacted insurance reform bills are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas. While this is substantial progress, there is still much work that needs to be done in order to have insurance reform enacted in every state across America. The majority of states, including California, still do not require insurance companies to cover treatment of autism. What can be done? Autism Votes, an Autism Speaks initiative, has an entire website dedicated to getting lawmakers to listen. If you are interested in getting involved, the site (autismvotes.org) provides information on how to get in touch with the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Senate Majority leader Harry Reid to urge them to pass insurance reform. In addition, you can reach State elected officials to bring this issue to their attention. Lawmakers need to understand that autism is a condition that deserves appropriate treatment, therapy and care. California is one of the states with pending reform but still faces an uphill battle to get it passed. In the meantime, follow the insurance company’s own guidelines to cover autism treatment. For a detailed roadmap on how to begin the process, click here: http://www.wellspring.com/docs/insurance-company-road-map.pdf
