Wisconsin Autism Insurance Rule Published

NOTE: For more information, including links to all my posts on autism insurance in Wisconsin, visit Wisconsin Autism Insurance - Updates from Elvis Sightings
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Apologies in advance to my regular readers for yet another policy-wonk, Wisconsin-specific post.

But, this is information that needs to get out there. I'll do a very sketchy first pass at it, and at a later date I will link to the consumer fact-sheets that the Autism Society of Wisconsin (ASW) and other organizations are now feverishly developing.

[NOTE: If you have any specific questions that you would like the factsheet/FAQs to address, please let me know in the comments. I have an "in" with one of the movers-and-shakers who is working on the FAQs, and I've been asked to pass your questions along!]

So, here's the deal. The legislation that passed in the Wisconsin State Budget in June 2009, requiring insurers to cover autism treatment, was just the first step. The second step is that the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) for the state had to hammer out the corresponding changes to the insurance rules, on a short timeline. To make this happen, the OCI convened an Autism Working Group, a group of insurance company reps, legislators, advocates, parents, and providers who have been working like crazy since July to define terms for the document that spells out what insurance companies do and don't need to do.

That document is now published, at http://www.oci.wi.gov/rules/0336em09.pdf (note that it opens a PDF document).

The press release announcing the document is at http://www.oci.wi.gov/pressrel/1009autism.htm.

The document is what is known as an "emergency rule." This means that, while it goes into effect immediately due to time constraints, and in this case is good for one year, an ongoing process has yet to take place that involves hearings (at the OCI and likely also before the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules) and a legislative process and further opportunities to monkey with the document before it becomes permanently enshrined in the rules.

However, until that long drawn-out administrative rule finalization process happens, the emergency rule applies, for at least a year.

The emergency rule takes effect November 1, and will start affecting actual insurance coverage whenever the insurer's next new plan-year begins after that date. For many insurers, that new plan-year will begin January 1, 2010 -- so that is when coverage would actually start.

Here are a few highlights (note that this is my own reading, backed by additional conversations with people involved in the process -- but I am no expert. The upcoming FAQ from the ASW & friends will be much more authoritative):

• Wisconsin's Medicaid Waiver program (which is how Joy currently gets her treatment) was the basis from which the Autism Working Group began their deliberations -- the insurance coverage is meant to be reasonably similar on the whole to what people are getting through the waiver right now, though there are plenty of differences, both good and not-so-good.
  
  
• The group did not spell out which specific treatments have to be covered, though behavioral principles are a necessary component. Instead, they hammered out a set of requirements as to what level of published evidence qualifies a treatment to be "evidence-based" for purposes of the rule. The introduction to the document states that this was done such that ongoing research can be taken into account without needing to change the rule. My understanding from outside conversations is that the evidence-requirements were crafted with the intent to include the treatments that are being covered by the waiver program right now.
  
  
• Insurers will be required to cover up to FOUR years of intensive-level autism treatment (to the tune of $50,000 per year as stated in the legislation), as opposed to the up-to-three years covered by the waiver program. However, any intensive-level service that has already happened when insurance coverage starts, whether under the waiver or out-of-pocket, counts toward those four years.
  
  
• (update to original post) As stated in the legislation, insurers are also required to cover what they're calling "post-intensive" treatment to the tune of $25,000 per year. This is autism-related treatment for people of any age. Since I am not as familiar with post-intensive services under the waiver, I can't make a good comparison -- but I think that the post-intensive waiver coverage is somehow time-limited (certain ages? certain number of years?) and the post-intensive insurance coverage, as I understand it, is not.
  
  
• Those who have been reading Elvis Sightings for a while may remember my ranting and advocacy around the waiver program's [in-my-view-unreasonable] insistence on having all therapy take place in the home (as opposed to including other natural settings). Good news -- the language in the new rule only requires a majority of the treatment to take place when a parent is present, and that it should be "provided in an environment most conducive to achieving the goals of the insured’s treatment plan." Can you say, "Joy's awesome daycare at Lynda's place"? Sure, I knew you could! Woo hoo!
  
  
• Another change from the waiver program, this one not so fortunate: under this rule, insurers are not required to cover therapists' travel-time. I do not know how this will work out in practice; some service-provider agencies may choose to "eat" this cost in order to continue to be able to hire therapists...
  
  
• While there is not a list of specifically included therapies, there is a specific list of exclusions. Among the therapies NOT covered: acupuncture, hippotherapy, auditory integration therapy, chelation, cranial sacral therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy. (See the rule document for a complete list.)

Well, that's a few highlights from my perspective.

There are many questions yet to be answered, and most caseworkers and providers and insurers haven't got these answers just yet... will my particular insurer cover my particular therapy provider? How does my Katie Beckett (non-waiver) medical assistance coverage play in? Does our family still keep our county caseworker if the waiver was where that relationship started? What about co-pays & deductibles? Et cetera.

We just don't know yet. But the answers will have to be worked out soon.

Joy's particular service provider ("Agency 2") has recommended that current waiver-based clients with insurance contact their insurers. Our plan is to make that contact and ask the insurer the question: how can we proceed in order to avoid any kind of gap in treatment coverage?

Stay tuned.

(P.S. My thanks to JoyDad for helping me sort out the administrative rule-making process!)