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New Bills from Week Two
Legislators are busy getting their bills out. There were a couple we wanted to let you know about:
House File 74 gets rid of the lifetime cap on home and vehicle modifications in the Intellectual Disabilities Medicaid waiver, and replaces it with an annual cap that is in the Brain Injury Medicaid waiver. Right now the lifetime cap is $5,727.37 (source) for individuals getting ID waiver services.
People who are covered by the BI waiver currently have an annual cap of $6,872.85. House File 74 would still require any home and vehicle modifications to be necessary and approved in advance, but the change means people can make needed changes to their vehicle or home as their needs change.
Senate Study Bill 1050 would require insurance to pay for autism treatment and diagnosis. It gets rid of the $36,000 annual cap on services in the state employee health plan, as well as the age limit for coverage (the state employee insurance plan only covers autism treatment and diagnosis up to age 21). Other health insurance plans are required to cover these services up to age 19, and has annual limits that vary by age group ($12,500-$36,000). This bill would eliminate those age and coverage limits. That means insurance plans will have to pay for autism treatment and diagnosis for the person's lifetime, without caps on the service.
Finally, House Study Bill 49 requires Medicaid to expand access to services for individuals with autism by creating a new Medicaid Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) autism waiver to provide services to people with autism spectrum disorder. This would allow individuals with autism to receive Medicaid HCBS services if they do not also have an intellectual disability.
Remember you can keep track of these and other bills of interest in the Bill Tracker. Bills are added daily (and the status is automatically updated as bills move through the legislative process).
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