At Stateline, Christine Vestal offers some q&a on autism and the
Affordable Care Act:
Will existing state insurance mandates apply to policies sold on the state insurance exchanges?
Maybe.
The ACA says state insurance mandates in place before Dec. 31, 2011 may apply to policies offered on the exchanges. If a state requires commercial carriers to cover ABA, that same requirement may be applied to policies sold on its exchange.
However, when the administration directed states to define “essential benefits,” every state either chose a “benchmark plan” (defined as the small business plan in the state with the most beneficiaries) or let the federal government choose a similar plan for them. If a state’s benchmark plan includes a requirement to cover ABA and other autism treatments, then all the plans on its exchange must do the same.
But in 11 of the 34 states with autism mandates, the benchmark plan does not include autism coverage, according to an analysis by advocates Autism Speaks. In those states, as well as the 16 states without autism mandates, state officials have the option of adding autism coverage as a required “supplemental” plan.
In Ohio, where the legislature is currently considering an autism bill, Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, mandated autism coverage by executive order in December 2012. Alaska’s insurance chief, Bret Kolb, wrote to state lawmakers last month confirming that Alaska’s newly-minted autism mandate would apply to policies sold on the federally-run exchange.
How do state mental health parity laws affect autism patients?
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, every state but Wyoming now has a mental health parity law on the books, requiring that when insurers cover mental illness and/or substance abuse they do so on an equal financial basis with physical illnesses. A federal law – the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Act of 2008 – also requires equal treatment, but the Obama administration has yet to complete the federal rules that would enable states to enforce it.
Parity laws only require carriers to pay as much for mental health treatments as they pay for medical treatments, with the same co-pays, deductibles and coverage limitations. The laws do not require carriers to cover specific treatments, such as ABA treatments. Still, state parity laws, combined with mandates, will maximize coverage for any given child.
