January 17, 2012 Status Update:

Huge accomplishment today (one of many more to go).

HB 1106 as introduced was amended after discussions with the Governor’s staff and the insurance industry. KEY provisions of the amended draft as agreed:

• Emergency Clause: Regulations within 280 days.
• A Working Group rather than an Advisory Board: made up of 3 BCBAs who have been practicing at least 3 years; one BCaBA practicing at least 3 years, one consumer or family member and no more than 2 others that the Board of Medicine may deem it necessary to appoint.
• This Working Group will draft regulations to regulate BCBAs, BCaBAs and the supervision of unlicensed individuals providing ABA.

HB 1106 was passed out of the House Health, Welfare and Institutions committee on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 with a 21-0 vote.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday the bill will be on the Floor of the House of Delegates for First Reading, Second Reading (debate) and Third Reading (vote).

We are very grateful to Delegate Greason and the members of the House Health, Welfare and Institutions committee for their support of children with a diagnosis of autism and their families.

NEXT STEPS:

• Thank the members of the committee for their "yes" vote.
• Contact all the Delegates and be present on Thursday for the debate and Friday for the VOTE!

WE must have 80 votes to keep our emergency clause and regulations within 280 days. Keep pushing!!

Status:

The bill that passed in the Virginia 2011 legislative session required insurance coverage of treatment and therapy including Applied Behavior Analysis, (ABA) for children ages 2-6 on the Autism Spectrum.

At the last minute the Governor added an amendment to our bill, which has delayed the implementation of the ABA coverage.

The Governor’s amendment to license Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) in Virginia was determined by the Attorney General’s office to be inadequate to authorize the Board of Medicine to write the regulations to govern the licensure. Thus, under the current law the way it is written, it is impossible to have ABA reimbursed by insurance.

The law had a mandate that the insurance companies prepare to provide coverage on January 1, 2012. The key therapy (ABA) will not be covered and families are once again facing out of pocket expenses that they cannot hope to afford.

Insurance companies have built the cost of covering this therapy, as mandated by the bill, into their premiums for the 2012 policy year. They are pocketing that amount without having to pay for the therapy.

The 2012 legislative session has to FIX the law with language that will either authorize the Board of Medicine to act to promulgate regulations to license BCBAs in Virginia or altogether remove the licensure provision from the bill.

The Virginia Autism Project is coordinating efforts with our Patrons to properly implement this law.

Next Steps:

January 11, 2012—First day of Legislative Session

• Stay Tuned for Autism Legislative Day plans (date to be announced)
• Delegate Tag Greason and Senator Janet Howell are each introducing bills to “fix” the technical issues presented by the Governor’s amendment to our bill in the last session.
• BCBAs, BCaBAs, Providers and Families: JOIN OUR MAILIING LIST and receive ACTION NOTICES
• DONATE to the Virginia Autism Project to help us pay for expenses to implement the law.