Read the entire draft of President-Elect Obama's federal mandate for autism insurance coverageIn support of researchers, clinicians, and families who are working to find a treatment or cure ASD, Senator Obama and the autism community have united behind the “Autism Treatment Acceleration Act of 2008” This legislation authorizes federal funding in order to:
1. Create and evaluate Autism Care Centers, through a demonstration project to develop a national network of comprehensive treatment facilities that provide a full array of medical, behavioral, mental health, educational and family care services to individuals and families in a single location.
2. Establish an ASD Coordinating Committee, consisting of representatives from relevant governmental agencies, researchers, and the public, to coordinate government activities relating to ASD.
3. Establish a national autism translational “Research to Services” network for the purposes of leveraging and enhancing the autism treatment and service capacity of federal, regional, state and local agencies and integrating regional, state and local agencies as fully as possible into national efforts.
4. Create a “National Center for Project Access” to provide training and technical assistance to frontline autism service providers and enhance program evaluation support.
5. Establish a population-based ASD case registry that will facilitate the understanding of the root causes, rates, and trends of ASD.
6. Implement a grants program directed toward public and private nonprofit entities for the purpose of carrying out multimedia campaigns to increase public education and awareness about healthy developmental milestones for infants and children that may assist early identification of signs and symptoms of ASD.
7. Require that insurers provide coverage for the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders and the treatment of autism spectrum disorders in connection with group health plans.
Source: ATAA 2008 (.doc) (Adventures in Autism)
No comments:
Post a Comment