Posted at Age of Autism on March 3, 2010 at 9:30pm (EST)
Personally, I feel that ABA is an effective treatment option to help autistic kids learn self-care skills and improve their social interaction. The cost is prohibitive, forcing a lot of families to forego using it even though research has found that earlier intervention leads to better outcomes. There should be some manner of assistance to families to mitigate the costs.
My question, though, is how Virginia law treats other similar services, like Special Education services for children with mental retardation, Down's etc. For that matter, how are educational services like that treated in other states. Do they fall under medical insurance law or some other type of law? Similarly, are there any treatments that are covered by medical insurance that are not strictly medical in nature?
I think the argument could go either way to defining ABA as a strictly educational intervention or as a type of medical intervention (cognitive-behavioral treatment). If the former, then medical insurers should not be required to cover it. If the latter, then they should.
Ultimately, there are a number of factors to consider. The down side is that I lack the necessary expertise to identify those factors, let alone how to address them afterward.
This comment is being cross-posted to Silenced by Age of Autism.
Posted at Age of Autism on March 3, 2010 at 9:30pm (EST)
ReplyDeletePersonally, I feel that ABA is an effective treatment option to help autistic kids learn self-care skills and improve their social interaction. The cost is prohibitive, forcing a lot of families to forego using it even though research has found that earlier intervention leads to better outcomes. There should be some manner of assistance to families to mitigate the costs.
My question, though, is how Virginia law treats other similar services, like Special Education services for children with mental retardation, Down's etc. For that matter, how are educational services like that treated in other states. Do they fall under medical insurance law or some other type of law? Similarly, are there any treatments that are covered by medical insurance that are not strictly medical in nature?
I think the argument could go either way to defining ABA as a strictly educational intervention or as a type of medical intervention (cognitive-behavioral treatment). If the former, then medical insurers should not be required to cover it. If the latter, then they should.
Ultimately, there are a number of factors to consider. The down side is that I lack the necessary expertise to identify those factors, let alone how to address them afterward.
This comment is being cross-posted to Silenced by Age of Autism.