about pioneer parents in indiana By Angela Arlington
Michele Trivedi M ichele Trivedi remembers the frustration of health insurers refusing to cover autism. “When my child was diagnosed, since she had a major regression of speech and behavioral skills, the doctors wanted to test her for a brain tumor. None of that testing was covered by our insurance due to her diagnosis of autism – even though the tests were for brain tumors. The first year of her autism diagnosis, we paid $75,000 out of pocket for testing and treatment, even though she did have “good” health insurance – all because insurers refused to cover autism and declared it a “pre-existing condition.” Her medical bills were twice our income at the time – I had to give up my career when we moved to Indiana, and my spouse was in medical residency, making about $35,000 per year. Thankfully, my in-laws paid the medical bills so that we could access treatment. We were lucky.” Before the Indiana Autism Insurance Reform Law was passed in 2000, many insurance carriers in Indiana would drop children from their plan once they were diagnosed with autism – rendering them “uninsurable due to a pre-existing condition.” This meant that the child had to go on the state’s high-risk plan with a long waitlist or go uninsured. Some insurers would allow the child to stay on their plan, but the insurer would not cover anything remotely related to autism, such as medications, seizure treatment, MRI or CT scans of the brain. “I contacted my HMO on the first day that the autism coverage law went into effect to find out how to get services covered. After spending a few hours on the phone being passed from one supervisor to another, I was told, “Yes, we heard about that law, but
18 Special Needs Living • April 2021
