New Ohio House legislation would require insurance companies to continue providing coverage – and guarantee minimum benefits – for clients diagnosed with autism.
Other recently introduced bills in the Ohio General Assembly would toughen penalties for strangulation and prevent radio and TV stations in the state from imposing non-compete provisions in their contracts with reporters and broadcasters.
House Bill 350, introduced earlier this month, would prohibit insurers from stopping or reducing coverage solely because a customer has been diagnosed with or treated for autism.
The legislation would also require insurers to cover 20 therapy visits per year, 20 hours of clinical therapeutic intervention per week, and 30 visits per year of mental or behavioral outpatient services for clients younger than 21.
State Rep. Cheryl Grossman, the suburban Columbus Republican who co-sponsored the bill, said she wants to make sure that families who have children with autism have the insurance coverage they need.
In 2012, Gov. John Kasich signed an executive order to provide autism coverage for about 100,000 state employees. Grossman said she now wants to expand that to cover private insurers as well.
As almost half of children with autism who receive coverage before starting school end up in a regular public school, Grossman said she looks at the issue “as almost an investment in their success.”
Grossman said that 43 states have already passed similar coverage requirements.
Another House bill, meanwhile, seeks to crack down on domestic violence in Ohio by significantly increasing state penalties for non-fatal strangulation. Currently, strangulation that doesn’t result in a person’s death is a misdemeanor in Ohio – House Bill 362, which has bipartisan support, would make the crime a third-degree felony punishable by up to 36 months in prison.
Repeat offenders would be charged with a second-degree felony, which could bring an eight-year prison sentence.
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