There is a pilot program in Utah that is intended to provide autism treatment to children who need it. It is supposed to be funded by a public-private partnership. The funds from private companies have not appeared. This is yet another problem with this particular program.
Where will the funding come from? This is the question that parents of children who have autism want to know. There is a pilot program in Utah that is designed to help families afford the autism treatment that their children require. This sounds great, until you realize that this program is insufficient in a number of ways.
Many states require private insurance companies to cover the cost of Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA, treatment. ABA is a scientific approach for evaluating behavior. It is used as a form of treatment for autism. It teaches social, motor, and verbal behaviors, and also teaches reasoning skills.
This treatment is used with children who have an autism spectrum disorder who cannot “pick up” on social skills in the way that other children can. Timing is essential with ABA treatment because the best results are achieved when ABA is started while a child is very young.
ABA treatment can be expensive. This is exactly why many states have required private insurance companies to cover ABA. Utah is one of the states that does not require private insurers to cover it.
The pilot program was intended to help parents with those costs. However, the program is insufficient. It leaves parents who are public employees with the burden of coming up with $6,000 per year, out of pocket, in order for their child to receive up to $30,000 worth of behavioral treatment each year.
The program only covers kids who are between 2 and 6, while leaving out children who are older. The state is using a lottery type system to determine which, of the many families on the waiting list, will have the option of receiving help from this program. Only around 300 kids will be accepted into this program.
Now, it appears that there is a big problem with the funding for the pilot program. Several private donors promised to contribute money to the program. Again, that sounds great, until you learn that the donors haven’t actually followed through with their promises.
According to an article in The Salt Lake Tribune, Intermountain Healthcare said it would contribute $500,000. It hasn’t done so. Regence BlueCross BlueShield says it will not contribute to the pilot program, (and is using the excuse that the company donated $450,000 through its foundation to a different autism program last year). Zion Bank said it will donate money, but has not disclosed the amount it intended to contribute.
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