New California Health Insurance Law Requires Providers to Cover Behavioral Autism Treatment

parents and caregivers of children with autism can breathe a sigh of relief just this past Sunday a new California law went into place requiring insurance companies to cover applied behavior analysis therapy now in case you don't know what that is this therapy is considered the most effective treatment for autism the new law relieves a huge financial burden for parents and allows more families to seek this kind of treatment for their children Ashley langoliers a case supervisor with the Center for autism and related disorders

is here to explain it all and to tell us about an upcoming seminar and insurance seminar where you can learn more about this new law good morning to you how are you Ashley I am doing very well thank you for having me well first of all before we get into the specifics of this ball can you define autism for those people that are not quite familiar with the term absolutely um autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that affects children it essentially impairs all domains of functioning most specifically a child's ability to

communicate with others to understand language to use language social interaction social skills and also repetitive and stereotypic challenging behaviors and there are certain levels of autism some people can have or some kids can have a little bit more severe cases of it right absolutely it's known as a spectrum disorder so there's definitely kids who are more severely impacted than others on the consider like the low end of the spectrum and then children on the high end of the spectrum that maybe have only delays and just advanced types of social skills

alright this new law which states that as of July first California will require most health insurance providers to cover applied behavioral analysis or ABA therapy what who is this therapy who would it be for ABA are applied behavior analysis M is a therapy for and it will confuse for a lot of different types of people but and it is empirically proven to be the most effective form of therapy for children with autism it essentially is a very intensive one-on-one therapy in which children are provided

one-on-one services with the behavior therapist in their home or the school or the community where skills are broken down into very small steps and taught very repetitively such that children are able to basically learn the skills that their typically developing peers are learning and in a way catch up then to their typically developing here so I imagined families have struggled before to receive this type of treatment absolutely it's very intensive so obviously it is very costly so so the resources for I mean for parents to find

you know and the funding to get this type of treatment for their child has been very challenging to date most people get it through the state-funded regional center or through school districts but so many so many families and so many children have not had access to the treatment just because of the financial burden now what kind of difference is it's going to make now what what types of insurances will cover this treatment and and when can I know the law went into place july first yeah which was what three two days ago but when can we start seeing people start receiving this treatment well hopefully

immediately if you even if you have a california health insurance plan you can call your insurance company you can also call us at the card Fresno office and we can actually verify coverage for you which is pretty exciting really okay okay tell me a little bit more about card because this center really you do so much for the community and i'm not sure if people know exactly where you're at and what kind of services you offer so give us a little a little synopsis there of the center card sure kardam we are an applied behavior analysis agency we have several locations across the

country and internationally and we do have an office here in fresno we primarily offer applied behavior analysis one-to-one behavioral treatment consultation we also offer weekly social skills groups and so you know absolutely if you ever have any questions about or families have any questions about coverage or services definitely give us a call we have tons of people able to answer questions and very excited to do so Wow and so not only are you there ready to answer questions but you will be holding a seminar which is happening

saturday july 28 so here in a couple of weeks everyone saturday Marcus on your calendars because is it free for people absolutely okay okay and what will be taught there I mean what can people learn or get out of this seminar well hopefully I'm you know that the law is so new and it just went into effect and parents might be feeling like it's a little bit tricky to kind of navigate the world of insurance funding so hopefully it'll help parents just learn a little bit about you know how to maybe get started

and how to learn about you know co-pays and all of that and whether or not they're even covered their insurance covers them so it's going to be held at the Center for card which is at 4928 east clinton way the number is there on your screen 255 6900 295 6900 so important to mark this on your calendars saturday july twenty athens from 10 to two so any question regarding autism the services that they offer and most importantly this new law was just went into effect july first of requiring all

health insurances to or most health insurances to cover this type of much needed treatment for our kids thank you so much for being here I really appreciate it and uh so much for having me of course and hopefully a lot of people will take advantage of that seminar can you all call alright I think we'll talk to you soon okay