General touts program for autistic children

Military Digest

More than 26,000 military families with autistic children are getting better TRICARE coverage of applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy and related services, which can improve a child’s development and quality of life.

But a Comprehensive Autism Care Demonstration that began a slow rollout in late October will still leave retirees and reserve component families facing heavy out-of-pocket costs to provide children with intensive ABA therapy that has become a standard of care, say advocates for families.

Defense Health Agency (DHA) officials say the demonstration, which is to run through December 2018 and is open to any military child diagnosed with autism, will be a platform for evaluating ABA therapy, a series of behavior interventions, to learn which ones benefit autism patients the most.

Army Maj. Gen. Richard W. Thomas, chief medical officer and director of health care operations for DHA, calls ABA therapy an “emerging science.”

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Just as military has done for trauma care and other facets of health care delivery, Thomas sees the autism demonstration resulting in “new, innovative solutions to these patients” and discovery of best practices that are safe and effective.

He called the improved autism coverage a “very robust and generous benefit. We can’t find anything comparable to it on the outside. … We have the most broad-based, generous benefit for patients with these diagnoses.”

A key feature of the demonstration removes an annual cap of $36,000 on TRICARE family coverage of ABA therapy costs. This will allow more children to receive comprehensive treatment levels, typically 25 to 40 hours of therapy per week. The old cap limited treatments to 12 hours a week.

“Families will finally have coverage of prescribed level of care. This is a very important development,” said Karen Driscoll, associate director for military relations at Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest funder of autism research and advocacy.

Driscoll is married to a retired Marine and their oldest son has autism.

ABA therapy uses environmental modifications to produce socially significant changes in behavior of autistic children. It is endorsed by the U.S. Surgeon General and the American Academy of Pediatrics and is “the standard of care in the treatment of autism today,” Driscoll said.

For the demonstration, DHA combined three autism treatment programs into one, ending separate programs for active duty families, non-active duty families and an interim plan under court order that required TRICARE to offer ABA therapy as part of its basic benefit.

Good riddance to an “administrative nightmare,” said one DHA official.

Three different programs delivering the same service in three different ways, Driscoll agreed, “was confusing to beneficiaries seeking care but also to providers, to referring physicians and (TRICARE support) contractors. So this is a big step to provide a uniform benefit for all those affected by autism.”'

The program also removes a minimum age limit of 18 months to receive ABA therapy, as suggested by family advocates during a roundtable discussion hosted by DHA.

Tom Philpott can be contacted at Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, Va. 20120-1111, or by e-mail at:

[email protected]