In The Politics of Autism, I discuss health care issues and state Medicaid services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Behind the delay is South Carolina’s lowest-in-the-nation reimbursement rate for the therapy, advocates and providers say.Of coruse, the problem will get worse if Congress carries out Trumpcare cuts in Medicaid.
▪ Rates are so low – $13.58 an hour – that providers are backing out of the program, refusing to take on new patients like Zeph, who are covered by Medicaid, the joint federal-state insurance program for the poor and disabled
▪ A 27 percent increase — to $17.28 an hour — that goes into effect July 1 will leave South Carolina still in dead last, trailing the rates paid by the second-lowest state by about $13 an hour. The national average is $43 an hour, according to Autism Speaks, a national advocacy group.
▪ Making matters worse, an expansion of the program next month to include older patients could add hundreds of children and adults to the list of Medicaid patients awaiting autism treatment.
