From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed legislation requiring health insurance companies to cover treatment for autism in children younger than age 17.

The bill does not apply to policies covering businesses with 50 or fewer employees, or to new policies or existing ones renewed this year. Backers say the bill would help pay for “applied behavior analysis.”

From CTV.CA, London [Ontario] Free Press:

TORONTO — The father of an autistic teenager who has camped out at the Ontario legislature for more than a week is vowing not to eat until the province agrees to eliminate the backlog of children waiting for a crucial but costly therapy.

Stefan Marinoiu, 49, who has been drinking nothing but water for eight days, is trying to put pressure on the province to deliver the treatment more quickly to autistic kids, including his 15-year-old son Simon.

Marinoiu’s goal is to eliminate by November the wait list of 1,148 eligible children who are still waiting to receive intensive behavioral intervention therapy, or IBI.

Jeff D. Opdyke, writing in the Wall Street Journal, says he and his wife were skeptical when their daughter’s speech therapist recommended tripling her weekly sessions at a cost of nearly a thousand dollars a month. Their insurance provider doesn’t cover the service, and their personal finances can’t stretch indefinitely. When should they decide enough is enough?

… at some point, most of us in this situation have to face the fact that our resources are limited, especially when money doesn’t guarantee a quick cure, or perhaps even a cure at all.

… Throwing money at her disability seems the only option at the moment. Still, Amy and I know we can’t continue funding this cost for a long time. At some point, we’re going to have ask if this is really something that money can fix … or if this is simply who our daughter is.

From the Tampa Tribune:

Watching from the Senate gallery, mothers with autistic children wept as the Florida Senate unanimously approved a bill that would require health insurance companies to provide coverage for the treatment of autism.

… Under the bill, large insurance companies must provide coverage for therapies and other treatments for children diagnosed by age 8. The bill excludes insurance plans offered by small employers. The House on Tuesday passed a similar plan.

Seek out graduate programs in applied behavioral analysis

By Jane Gross in the New York Times:

Unable to find appropriate support for their kids, many parents of children with autism are going back to school to learn how to perform applied behavioral analysis (A.B.A.) themselves. They’re spending lots of money and even changing careers in the process — but they believe it’s worth it if it helps their kids learn.

Featured is a program at Caldwell College in New Jersey.

In most states, a generic special education degree is sufficient to treat children with autism and to use the particular techniques of A.B.A., the only therapy for the disorder with proven results in peer-reviewed research. But many colleges and universities now offer specialized degrees in A.B.A. Graduate programs are offered at Northeastern University in Boston, Florida State University in Tallahassee, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, the University of Maryland in Baltimore County and California State University in Los Angeles, to name a few. Administrators at several of the programs say they, too, have parents of autistic children among their students.

For some parents, it’s just the latest in a long line of sacrifices they’ve made for their kids.

(more…)

From CNN:

Poses are modified for people with limited range of motion or balance issues. Instructors say regular yoga can increase joint mobility. People with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, stroke and arthritis are mentioned.

‘Autistic and uncovered’

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Molly and Steve Schad say they have spent about $60,000 on various treatments for their son Harry (left) since he was diagnosed with autism five years ago. Bills under consideration in Missouri and Illinois would require insurance companies to provide some coverage for autism treatments.

Insurance companies are wary, and say mandating benefits could make premiums shoot up without necessarily providing better care. They say many autism treatments are unproven, and that much remains unknown about the disorder.

Meanwhile, parents like the Schads report that efforts to help their children are causing them financial hardships. In a recent study, parents described filing for bankruptcy, liquidating retirement funds, and stripping the equity out of their homes to pay for services not covered by insurance. Parents also reported losing income as they gave up their jobs to care for their children with autism.

Presently, about 30 states do not mandate insurance coverage for autism.