In the Virginia (US) legislature (which I sometimes call the “House of Burgess” for fun), efforts to mandate coverage of intensive behavioral therapy (AKA “ABA,” “discrete-trial training,” etc.) by insurance policies gained a little momentum 16 February when Senate Bill 464 passed by a nearly 2-to-1, bi-partisan margin. Earlier this legislative session, one similar bill (HB 303) was rejected by a narrow vote (4-to-4) in the committee on Commerce and Labor of the Virginia House but another (HB 34) may still be alive (I’m too uniformed about legislative processes to know).
The summary of the just-passed Senate bill, whose chief patron is Senator Janet D. Howell of Reston (VA, US), is as follows:
Requires health insurers, health care subscription plans, and health maintenance organizations to provide coverage for the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and for treatment of ASD in individuals from age two to six, subject to an annual maximum benefit of $35,000. This requirement does not apply to individual or small group policies, contracts, or plans, and will not apply to the state employees’ health insurance plan until July 1, 2015. This measure will not apply to an insurer, corporation, or health maintenance organization if the costs associated with coverage exceed one percent of premiums charged over the experience period.
Virginians who are concerned about helping young children with Autism to succeed should contant their representatives to urge passage of this legislation. It is not a perfect solution (for example, the coverage is limited to young children only), but this is a situation in which the perfect should not be the enemy of the good.
Senator Howell’s bill has co-patrons, including R. Creigh Deeds, Mark R. Herring, David W. Marsden, J. Chapman Petersen, Richard H. Stuart, Patricia S. Ticer, Jill Holtzman Vogel, and Mary Margaret Whipple. Way to go to them and to every Virginia Senator who voted for the bill: Blevins, Colgan, Deeds, Edwards, Herring, Houck, Howell, Locke, Lucas, Marsden, Marsh, McEachin, Miller (Y.B.), Norment, Northam, Petersen, Puckett, Puller, Quayle, Reynolds, Saslaw, Stosch, Stuart, Ticer, Vogel, Wampler, and Whipple. Thanks.
- HB 34 Health insurance; mandated coverage for autism spectrum disorder.
- SB 464 Health insurance; mandated coverage for autism spectrum disorder.
- HB 303 Health insurance; mandated coverage for autism spectrum
The state legislature voted nearly 2:1 to reject similar legislation in 2009 (HB 1588 Autism spectrum disorder; mandated health insurance coverage).
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Hi John,
I’m sure you know by now that HB 464 was tabled by the subcommittee a few days ago – it’s a bummer and the whittling down and then tabling was the same scenario as last year. I think a lot of people had high hopes when it was able to cross to the other side of the legislature.
On a more optimistic note, however, the bills in Iowa, Maine, Kentucky and Missouri seem to still be in play and have made some positive headway. I need to do a check-in on those in Alaska, Kansas, and Vermont.
I did kind of rundown on where the various autism insurance bills were at on Feb 4, and at that time HB 34 had been killed in subcommittee, other insurance related bills had also been defeated, and one restricted to early intervention had been deferred until 2011.
http://pibasig.blogspot.com/2010/02/leg-news-virginia-autism-insurance.html
Regina, thanks for the comment and, especially, for keeping on top of these developments. I was hoping we’d see something valuable come through VA this year and am saddened that we didn’t. I hope other readers will follow the link to your coverage of these matters.