On May 2, 2008 the Florida Senate passed Bill Number 2654. Below is an overview of the Bill taken from www.autismvotes.org:
- Authorizes the Agency for Health Care Administration to seek federal approval for Medicaid coverage of applied behavior analysis and other therapies for children with autism and other developmental disabilities.
- Requires the Office of Insurance Regulation to convene a work group that will negotiate a developmental disabilities compact binding health insurers and health maintenance organizations to insure persons with autism and other developmental disabilities.
- Mandates coverage for individuals with autism by health insurer.
Although this seems like a huge accomplishment, after talking with several ABA providers in other states that have had similar bills in effect for over a year, Bill 2654 is merely a stepping stone in the right direction.
I called several providers in all of the states (namely AZ, IL, IN, MT, NM, PA, SC, TX) that mandate that ABA services be covered by private insurances as well as Medicaid in order to gain some insight into the process. Although the ABA providers in the aforementioned states were extremely helpful, they did not have very good news or very many positive things to say about the new Bills. Even though the Bills had been in effect for a year or more in these states, ABA providers were still battling with insurance companies to get reimbursed. I have the reimbursement rates that various insurance companies pay in these states. Please feel free to contact me (newwayday@gmail.com) with anymore information you may have or advice. Together we can work this out!
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