From the Hartford Courant:

The Connecticut General Assembly and Senate have approved a bill requiring a health insurance policy to pay for physical, speech and occupational therapy for treatment of autism spectrum disorders, to the same extent it covers the services for other conditions. The measure now awaits the governor’s signature, and would take effect January 1.

The new legislation “certainly brings more fairness to decisions insurance companies make about what’s covered,” said Kevin Lembo, the state healthcare advocate, who advocated for the bill. It doesn’t make much sense that “grandma can get speech therapy after a stroke,” but an autistic child can’t get the same service, he added.

The Connecticut Association of Health Plans did not try to block the autism bill, said the association’s lobbyist, Keith Stover.

“We think that the bill that passed this session was a rational compromise on autism,” Stover said. The concern of insurers, he said, is “We want to be very, very careful to ensure there’s a bright line between medical costs and costs that are more related to special education.”

See earlier posts:

• Florida legislature passes autism bill; Other disabilities left out
• NC to require insurance coverage of autism treatments
• Other posts start here

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 9:15 am and is filed under autism, insurance, NOT2BEMISSED. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.