Rehabilitative, Habilitative Services and Devices Covered Under Health Law

A little remarked upon requirement in the health law expands treatments for people with cerebral palsy, autism and other developmental disabilities. But some advocates and policy experts are concerned that insurers may find ways to sidestep the new requirement.The health law requires that individual and small group plans sold on or off the health insurance marketplaces cover 10 essential health benefits, including “rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices.”

Autism Focus of New Legal Center

With autism prevalence on the rise, a new legal resource center is launching that will focus specifically on issues facing those with the developmental disorder across the country.

Autism Speaks plans to announce Tuesday that it will form the new center with an eye toward helping establish key legal precedents for this growing population.

First on the agenda will be ensuring that autism insurance laws passed in many states in recent years are implemented appropriately, organizers said. Ultimately, however, plans call for the center to address everything from housing to employment to criminal and family law issues as they relate to autism.

Military Families Fight for Autism Coverage

HOUSTON - As Congress and the President spend taxpayer cash as fast as it comes off the press, thousands of military families waging the toughest kind of fight are frustrated by a nation which professes gratitude for those who serve, but refuses to fully fund therapies proven to help disabled military kids.
"We are sending the parents of these children to war. We have a moral obligation to care for the medical needs of these families here at home," says Karen Driscoll, a Marine Corps wife.
While Driscoll's husband fought in Iraq she was battling Tricare, the defense department's health insurance company, to increase benefits for children like her son Paul, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three.

California Group Claims Autism Treatment Is Denied Illegally

California regulators are violating mental health and other laws by allowing health insurers to deny effective treatment for children with autism, consumer advocates contend.
In a lawsuit, Consumer Watchdog, a Santa Monica group that monitors insurance practices, is asking a judge to order the Department of Managed Health Care to require insurers to provide autistic members with the services their physicians have ordered.
The battle over autism treatment is at least a decade old. In 1999, in response to widespread outrage over insurers' refusal to cover such needs, the state Legislature adopted the Mental Health Parity Act.
The law requires insurers to cover care for mental and behavioral problems at the same level as they do for physical illnesses.