Friday, December 4, 2009

STATES: Missouri Prefiles Two Autism Insurance Reform Bills


Missouri joins the District of Columbia in filing legislation seeking health insurance reform for the treatment of autism.

This week, two autism insurance reform bills including coverage of applied behavior analysis and Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB) certificants were prefiled for consideration in the upcoming Missouri legislative session.


SB 618      Requires health carriers to provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders under certain conditions
Current Bill Summary (with link to full text of the Senate bill).
Last action: Prefiled 12/1/09

HB 1311 Provides health insurance coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder
No bill summary is available at this time
Last action: Prefiled 12/1/09

Both bills include applied behavior analysis, recognize the BACB Certification and propose reimbursement to Certificants in a capacity as direct or supervisory provider. Limit of coverage for ABA treatment of autism is $72,000/year.

Both bills have the support of Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, and House Speaker Ron Richard states that he has reversed his position of last year and would support the bill that emerges from the House - in contrast to last year when the Speaker declined to bring a similar Senate passed bill to the Missouri House floor.  An interim committee has been working, prior to the prefiling to build consensus among the interested stakeholders of families, insurance providers and small businesses.


Related
MO Governor, Lawmakers Introduce Legislation Again Mandating Autism Insurance Coverage Marshall Griffin, 
St. Louis Public Radio (2009-12-03)

Gov. Nixon, legislative sponsors announce legislation to require coverage of autism diagnosis, treatment
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon's News Release
December 3, 2009
Pre-filed bill would require coverage of Applied Behavioral Analysis, protect families from slashed coverage because of autism diagnosis

Autism Votes Missouri page (not yet updated 12/4/09)

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Practitioner Issues in Behavior Analysis SIG
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Views and news expressed in this blog or by the PIBA SIG are those of the SIG or individual SIG member authors and do not represent official policy of ABA International or other official body. For official policy of the Association of Behavior Analysis International, the reader is directed to their website

Thursday, December 3, 2009

ANNOUNCE: National Autism Center announces new manual for evidence-based education of those with ASD


The National Standards Project of the National Autism Center announced in their December newsletter that a NEW manual targeting educators is available for free download or purchase at their website, and shared an update on the also available recently released National Standards Project Report.


National Autism Center Releases New Autism Educator Manual

We are pleased to make available a comprehensive new manual by the National Autism Center entitled, Evidence-Based Practice and Autism in the Schools.
“We created this manual for educators as a means of promoting evidence-based practice for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in schools,” said Susan M. Wilczynski, Ph.D., BCBA, Executive Director of the National Autism Center. “We know that research-supported interventions are most likely to produce positive outcomes for the ever-increasing numbers of students with ASD.”
The development and publication of the manuals were made possible through support from the American Legion Child Welfare Foundation, Inc., and the Niel M. Wreidt 2003 Revocable Trust. The American Legion grant enabled us to distribute the first 3,000 manuals free of charge to public school systems throughout the country.
Due to the overwhelming response to the manuals, we are making them available on our website. Visitors can now download them for free, or purchase a hard copy through our on-line Bookstore. We welcome you to take a look!




This is a new complement to the National Standards Project Report, previously issued in September, which addressed the level of evidence for autism interventions.




 NAC Director Susan M. Wilczynski, Ph.D., BCBA talks about the National Standards Project


In their update on the National Standards Project Report, the NAC December newsletter also stated that,


The response to our September announcement of National Standards Project results has been tremendous! Individuals from every state in the United States, and from close to 50 countries, have visited our website in the past two months. They have downloaded tens of thousands of free copies of the Project results.
Help us to continue spreading the word! Forward our e-card to others who might be interested in learning about the National Standards Project.
We invite you to visit our website to view and download a free electronic copy, or to purchase a printed copy, of the report.
The primary goal of the National Standards Project is to provide critical information about which treatments have been shown to be effective for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The National Standards Report covers a broad range of applied treatments and identifies the level of scientific evidence available for each. The report serves as a single, authoritative source of guidance for parents, caregivers, educators, and service providers as they make informed treatment decisions. We are confident that these findings and recommendations will change lives and give hope and direction to people whose lives are touched by autism.


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Practitioner Issues in Behavior Analysis SIG
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Views and news expressed in this blog or by the PIBA SIG are those of the SIG or individual SIG member authors and do not represent official policy of ABA International or other official body. For official policy of the Association of Behavior Analysis International, the reader is directed to their website,  

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

ACTION OPPORTUNITY: Online petition requests behavior analysis be included in health care reform

There is currently an online petition to include behavior analysis and Behavior Analysts in the health care legislation currently before Congress,

Senate bill: HR3590: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

House bill:  HR3962: Affordable Health Care for America Act

This petition is an individual grassroots initiative and not intended to represent the formal position of, or endorsement by any formal behavior analytic organization or nonprofit.

To date, 2,350 letters and emails have been sent to elected officials in Congress.

Deliberation on health care reform legislation is in progress now, so if you support the goals of the petition,
please visit without delay to view, and add your signature if you support this effort.

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Practitioner Issues in Behavior Analysis SIG
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Views and news expressed in this blog or by the PIBA SIG are those of the SIG or individual SIG member authors and do not represent official policy of ABA International or other official body. For official policy of the Association of Behavior Analysis International, the reader is directed to their website,  

NEWS: Pediatrics Article Reports Positive Results of Intervention Model for Toddlers with ASD

A story being reported on by  CNN, and  Time, as well as other media outlets in reference to a newly published (November 30) Pediatrics article,

Dawson, G., Rogers, S., Munson, J., Smith, M., Winter, J., Greenson, J., et. al. (2009). Randomized, controlled trial of an intervention for toddlers with autism: The Early Start Denver Model. Pediatrics, Published online November 30, 2009
(doi:10.1542/ peds.2009- 0958)
Link to the abstract; purchase required for full access.

"Objective: To conduct a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), a comprehensive developmental behavioral intervention, for improving outcomes of toddlers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Methods: Forty-eight children diagnosed with ASD between 18 and 30 months of age were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups: (1) ESDM intervention, which is based on developmental and applied behavioral analytic principles and delivered by trained therapists and parents for 2 years; or (2) referral to community providers for intervention commonly available in the community.

Results: Compared with children who received community-intervention, children who received ESDM showed significant improvements in IQ, adaptive behavior, and autism diagnosis. Two years after entering intervention, the ESDM group on average improved 17.6 standard score points (1 SD: 15 points) compared with 7.0 points in the comparison group relative to baseline scores. The ESDM group maintained its rate of growth in adaptive behavior compared with a normative sample of typically developing children. In contrast, over the 2-year span, the comparison group showed greater delays in adaptive behavior. Children who received ESDM also were more likely to experience a change in diagnosis from autism to pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified, than the comparison group.

Conclusions: This is the first randomized, controlled trial to demonstrate the efficacy of a comprehensive developmental behavioral intervention for toddlers with ASD for improving cognitive and adaptive behavior and reducing severity of ASD diagnosis. Results of this study underscore the importance of early detection of and intervention in autism."

The main significances are the very young ages of the enrolled children and the experimental design of randomized controlled trials (RCT); it should be noted that some need for longitudinal followup to see if gains are maintained is discussed in the last paragraph of the full study, and that while 7 of the 24 student treatment group improved to PDD-NOS classification, 2 of the students in the treatment group moved from PDD to an Autistic Disorder diagnosis as well during the course of the study. The overall effect described for the treatment group was of significant benefit compared to the "community based" comparison group and spoke to a potential general benefit of early application of ESDM at the intensity and competency of service delivery as described in the Pediatrics article.

Two quotes from the news reporting,
CNN: "...[Sally] Rogers acknowledges that this study is only the first step. "Every piece of science needs to be replicated before it becomes fact, so we are currently doing a replication study," she said...."

Time: "...Whether the Early Start Denver Model will prove to be more effective than other therapies remains to be seen. Leading autism researcher Tristram Smith, an ABA expert at the University of Rochester, who lauds the new study for its methodological rigor, notes that the gains made by children in the intervention group were similar to those reported in studies of ABA models. "I do think there is a need for head-to-head studies," says Smith. Also needed is high-quality research on how to match individual children with the therapy that suits them best."

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Practitioner Issues in Behavior Analysis SIG
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Views and news expressed in this blog or by the PIBA SIG are those of the SIG or individual SIG member authors and do not represent official policy of ABA International or other official body. For official policy of the Association of Behavior Analysis International, the reader is directed to their website,