BCBS offers autism deal; Senate fears vote delay

With the General Budget committee set to vote on the autism bill Wednesday, the committee's chairman said Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state’s largest healthcare provider, has offered to provide the similar autism therapy insurance coverage sans mandate.

The committee’s chairman, Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose, said he met with BCBS chief executive officer Terry Kellogg and has a letter promising coverage for autism therapy starting Jan. 1, 2018. The offer appears to have an age cap at 16 years old, while the bill has no age limit. Pittman also said the committee will still have a vote on the bill tomorrow as planned despite fear in the Senate that some are attempting to delay the vote.

“We will have a vote tomorrow on this autism bill,” Pittman said. “One of things I find ironic is that we would not trust them to implement a coverage signed by their chief executive officer, and yet we’re going to mandate that same company implement the same coverage.”

Some have said BCBS is keen to avoid the mandate which would set a precedent for future government healthcare mandates. Pittman has been one of the few vocal opponents of the autism bill due to his concerns about how the state would finance the bill. He said the BCBS agreement would have the state provide $2.5 million for Medicaid.

Despite the autism bill not being on the Senate’s agenda, conversation of the bill dominated the session. During a vote on SB 55, a bill that would increase weight restrictions for trucks that run on natural gas, Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, took an hour to hold a quasi-filibuster that didn’t filibuster anything. Instead Singleton said he wanted to “draw a line in the sand,” and call for support for the autism bill.

“Let’s protect our children and not let some backroom negotiation affect what we’re going to do,” Singleton said.

Last week: Brewbaker demands vote on autism insurance bill

Sen. Dick Brewbaker, R-Pike Road, was visibly perturbed after learning about the potential BCBS deal. Brewbaker said he felt moves were being made to delay the vote with the BCBS deal on the table, and he threatened action if the vote didn’t take place.

“If we get beat in a vote in committee or on the floor, we’re not going to start burning the house down,” Brewbaker said. “But we are going to start being more uncooperative if a bill that passed the House unanimously to help disabled children is going to be killed behind the scenes by leadership because they don’t want to vote… They need to remember that the concurrence on the General Fund budget is a debatable motion, and I’m willing to debate it till the cows come home if we’re not going to at least get a fair-and-square vote in committee or on the floor.”

The autism bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Patterson, R-Meridianville, would require coverage of autism therapies, with some conditions. Autism therapy can cost up to $120 per hour. The bill would also provide a sliding scale of inflation-adjusted caps on coverage. For children 9 years and younger, the amount would be $40,000 a year; for those 10 to 13, $30,000 a year; 14 to 18, $20,000 a year and age 19 and older, $10,000 a year.

The offer from BCBS says the company would provide coverage that includes behavioral therapy for individuals age 0-16. It's unclear if that is an age cap or not.

The autism bill passed the House 100-0, but was delayed a week before being assigned to Pittman’s committee, evidence of the effort to purposefully delay the vote, Brewbaker said.

“Instead of sending it to my committee, which is Youth Affairs, they send it to the Budget Committee,” Brewbaker said. “So the chairman has a public hearing but doesn’t vote, which burns another week. Now we can’t get a committee vote until at least tomorrow, and we can’t report it for a second reading until the legislative day after that, so we can push this far enough to where if it even gets on a special order, it’ll be at the bottom of a 25 or 30 bill calendar where all the controversial issues are stacked in front of it. I’m not putting up with that.”

Reporter Brian Lyman contributed to this report.