Insurance Coverage for Autism: What's Your Take?
The up side of this movement is, of course, that families with children on the autism spectrum will have at least some financial recourse as they take on the very high costs of autism treatment. And that's a huge benefit.
The down sides, however, seem a little more complex. For example, the price of insurance coverage is likely to rise overall as treatments for autism are added to the required options. With the cost of insurance at an all-time high, that's bound to be an issue for many families.
In addition, only a very few treatments for autism will be included in the list, meaning that parents may be forced into behavioral (ABA) therapies as opposed to developmental or biomedical options. The reasons for this are frustratingly clear: only very few treatments for autism have been rigorously tested and "proved" effective according to the standards of the CDC. Behavioral therapies are older, relatively easy to test, and while there is controversy over their appropriateness and efficacy, they are in fact the treatment most often recommended by medical professionals.
In our case, insurance covering ABA would have been irrelevant, as it wouldn't have covered most of our therapies of choice. As a result, we'd wind up paying higher insurance bills - while also footing additional bills for therapies NOT covered by insurance. Of course, we'd have the option of choosing different therapies based on insurance coverage, but it's frustrating to think that promising strategies for treating autism could be pushed to the sidelines based on funds available from insurance companies!
So...what's your take on new insurance coverage for autism? Are you pleased to see any movement forward? Frustrated by the limits of what insurance is likely to provide? Would you change your ideas about which therapies to try based on your insurance company's list of options?
Comments
Not sure what the problem is. Why wouldn’t tax payers, insurance carriers, and the general public want to start with the most proven treatment methods?
ABA is the applied branch of a science called behaviour analysis. It has built into its scientific practices procedures that allow for evidence-based practice. In other words, the data collected inform you as to whether or not procedures are having an impact. And when they don’t, the procedures are changed until they do. It doesn’t make sense not to adopt this way of educating a child, or anyone.
ABA and IBI treatments have demonstrated marked improvements in my son’s speech, language, socialization and intercommunicative skills. While his autism is considered “mild”, what is mild on a disorder that stretches over a “spectrum”. I highly recommend parents with autistic children not to wait and to get their children assessed and into an ABA or IBI education plan. Results are not guaranteed, but right now it appears to be a good path to improvement for our son. Insurance companies will like to spin it as “explorative” or “unorthodox”. It is not. There are dozens of medical papers written on ABA therapy and the positive, proven results. So the only reason to withhold coverage or to pay claims is financial. ABA is expensive, and the therapists are not aligned with insurance companies. We are paying cash, which sucks and we don’t know when we will be broke. It doesn’t really matter. I’ll forgo the huge house(rent), the monstrosity SUV and everything else if it means my son will be able to eventually listen, talk and interact with others in a more normal fashion. He needs these skills to survive.
Any treatments covered by insurance companies is a start! And if they start with ABA, so much the better. ABA has been at the core for 95% of the improvement in our daughter. And while we have used other non-traditional methods as well (GFCF diet, sound therapy, etc) the ABA training we received is by far the most comprehensive service we could have ever hoped for. And it’s the most expensive. And school districts and regional centers are more and more reluctant to fund NPAs (non-public agencies) who perform this vital service. Not because it doesn’t work, but because it’s expensive (so the schools and regional centers instead say that the children only “need” a few hours a week of intensive therapy, not the whole program, because they can’t, by law, claim lack of funds)
So I say, hoorah, FINALLY the insurance companies should fund some of this. I mean, a child has autism through no fault of their own or their parents, but yet treatment that can change lives for the better isn’t covered. However, a person can slam their car into a wall after a night of boozing and sheer stupidity, break all their bones, and insurance covers the treatment and no one’s life is changed for the better.
Seems odd, eh?
I think it’s high time that someone takes the insurance companies to task on this issue. Autism is a neurological condition. It deserves the same funding that any other medical condition would.
Many parents do not know that their private carriers may already cover the costs of therapy already! Do not wait for your state to adopt the new laws…..even if they do most out of network providers do not know how to properly code their bills! Visit http://www.blessedwithautism.com to find out how to get your insurance to cover therapy. Submit a free question to our consultants or order a workbook today.