Thursday, May 13, 2010

State legislation: North Carolina to bring autism insurance bills to the General Assembly

A news report indicates that North Carolina is poised to bring autism insurance bills for legislative consideration,
"On Tuesday [May 11, 2010], Joint Study Committee voted to move the bill from the study phase to the legislative approval process.

North Carolina now joins a growing list of states where autism insurance reform is underway. Nineteen states have enacted autism insurance reform since 2007 and with this action North Carolina becomes the eleventh additional state to introduce autism insurance reform legislation. The legislation now moves to House and Senate subcommittees for review and recommendation."
The General Assembly website shows that the referenced bills which were postponed since August 7, 2009 , and are currently listed under conference committee study are,
House Bill 589 (= S375) (2009 Title): An act to require health benefit plans and the state health plan to cover hearing aids and replacement hearing aids; and to require the state health plan for teachers and state employees to provide coverage for autism treatment disorders.
The most recent version of the legislation stated coverage for "behavioral therapy" including, but not limited to applied behavior analysis, classified under habilitative and rehabilitative care, with treatment including care provided or ordered by a licensed medical doctor or a licensed psychologist who determines the care to be medically necessary. The service provider or competencies of the delivery of behavioral therapy or applied behavior analysis is not defined.

For further reading
Family Pushes For NC Autism Insurance Coverage
Bill In NC House, Senate Could Relieve Financial Burden
POSTED: 6:18 pm EDT May 12, 2010
UPDATED: 6:53 pm EDT May 12, 2010


Autism Insurance Bill Moves Forward In NC
Chelsi Zash   WFMY News 2 

Created:  5/11/2010 1:21:47 PM  Updated: 5/11/2010 1:39:57 PM 

Autism Society of North Carolina Blog

Autism Votes North Carolina

North Carolina General Assembly

Past post
Saturday, May 8, 2010
State Advocacy: North Carolina - Advocacy day planned for May 10, 2010 meeting of the Joint Study Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorder and Public Safety

© 2010 Regina G. Claypool-Frey
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