Managed Care - August 2008 - (Page 39) aid, but Medicaid may step in if private benefits are exhausted. “There is a need for everyone to step up to the plate and assume appropriate responsibility,” says Friedlander. It’s not the role of health plans to negotiate with a child’s school district, says Friedlander. “It’s our role to empower the parents to do that or to seek outside assistance.” He adds that employee assistance programs that provide legal benefits are a resource for parents in this area. “mental or nervous conditions” and the diagnosis for autism fall into this category. Other states view autism as a neurological disorder and require coverage on par with physical illnesses. Autism Speaks is working on autism “insurance reform” legislation across the country. Its model legislation is very specific about the scope of services required, which goes beyond ABA to include prescriptions, psychiatric care, speech, physical and occupational therapies, and habilitative care. Discussion needed AHIP says an open discussion is needed to clarify the roles of the parties involved. “Some of the services included in the mandate discussion have traditionally been provided by counties and school systems as educational services. This is a public policy question as both these systems and the health care system face major challenges,” says AHIP’s Pisano. Different sources have reported varying numbers of states with mandated coverage for autism. The numbers range from 13 to 24. The nature and extent of the requirements vary widely. For example, Connecticut requires benefits for State action Elizabeth Emken, vice president for government affairs at Autism Speaks, says that in addition to Louisiana and Pennsylvania, six states have enacted legislation very close to its model: Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Texas. Eight states are considering legislation that has been endorsed by Autism Speaks, and 20 states are considering some form of new autism reform legislation. Sixteen states now have no autism legislation under consideration or enacted. MC Tom Reinke is a freelance writer who specializes in health and business issues. Try Our New Digital Edition How to Use the Digital Edition To navigate through the issue, use the control bar at the top of the screen. Turn the pages as you would do with the print edition. To access more help click on the red question mark in the bar. Opens the Tools menu. View a list of all articles. Zoom in and out on the current page. Click the word “Zoom” to open the zoom configuration window. Switch to single-page view. Open the magnify window. Navigate to the previous or next page. Navigate to the cover or back page. Search the full text of the issue for a word or phrase. Print pages. Save an offline version to your computer. Save the direct link to an article to bookmark or email Care M A N A G E D ALSO: AUGUST 2008 HEALTH PLAN FOUNDATIONS The digital edition of MANAGED CARE is now available. Readers see a complete copy of an issue on their computer screens, with the added ability to search through every single word in the issue. With the digital edition, you can: What happened after all those not-for-profit health plans converted? tic eu 2 ap ..1 er Th n.. ce tio du ica Re Dupl PAGE 16 You can receive Managed Care’s digital edition every month free by registering here: http://www.managedcaremag.com/digital A Conversation With Mercer’s Blaine J. Bos 27 Adults Slow to Get Vaccinated 32 States Mandate Autism Services 35 Continuous Glucose Monitoring at Home 40 WWW.MANAGEDCAREMAG.COM SIGN UP NOW to receive an alert when each new issue is available: http://www.managedcaremag.com/digital • Click on any URL anywhere in the magazine and go directly to that Web page • Click on the title of any article on the cover or in the table of contents and go directly to that article • Search for any string of characters • Make and save notes with the article that you are reading • Instantly e-mail a link to any article to an associate • Get more information about advertised products by clicking on an ad • Save the magazine file to your desktop for offline reading • Print any or all pages AUGUST 2008 / MANAGED CARE 39 http://www.managedcaremag.com/digital http://WWW.MANAGEDCAREMAG.COM http://www.managedcaremag.com/digital
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