|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
|
State Rep. Frank
Andrews Shimkus |
   
|
Shimkus: House 'fixes' Senate-amended autism bill
HARRISBURG, July 2 – The state House added changes to and passed a bill (H.B. 1150) Tuesday that would require insurance companies to cover the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder.
The bill, introduced by House Speaker Dennis O'Brien and co-sponsored by state Rep. Frank Andrews Shimkus, D-Lackawanna, was amended in the Senate earlier in the week in such a way as to give insurance companies the ability to deny autism coverage.
"It was so disappointing to me and parents of autistic children when the Senate amended the bill to give insurance companies the authority to decide just which autism services are medically necessary and which are not," Shimkus said. "What an autistic child needs should be determined by his or her doctor, therapist and parents."
There is no cure for autism and much of the treatment involves behavioral therapy, which insurance companies have argued is not medical care. Currently, insurers in Pennsylvania do not have to cover autism.
The amendment, offered by O'Brien and approved unanimously Tuesday night, ensures that essential autism services, including those that prevent a child from regressing in level of functioning, would be covered by insurance.
House Bill 1150 would require insurance companies to cover up to $36,000 per year of autism-related treatment for people under 21. Coverage would include medically necessary diagnostic assessments, evaluations or tests, psychiatric and psychological care, rehabilitative care, and therapeutic care to include speech, occupational or physical therapy services and prescription drugs.
Health insurers and business groups had opposed the bill, saying it would result in an expensive insurance mandate that harms businesses, especially small ones. However, a study by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, commissioned after last year's House passage of the bill, concluded that covering autism would raise premiums by just 1 percent. PHC4 called that increase "modest," noting that insurers predict premiums will rise 8.7 percent this year even without autism coverage.
"Speaker O'Brien has championed this cause and has served as a soldier for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder," Shimkus said. "His unwavering commitment to improve the lives of those children is to be commended. I am proud to have co-sponsored his bill."
##lr/2008/agh l:'print'releases'AutismAmend.113