BILL NUMBER:S5979

TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the insurance law, in relation to
mandatory health insurance coverage for tracking devices for children
with developmental disabilities

PURPOSE:

To help prevent death and serious injury as a result of wandering,
many parents have armed their autistic children with tracking devices,
such as LoJack or Project Lifesaver. These tracking devices ensure
that if a child does wander that they can be found quickly and safely
Unfortunately, many parents are unable to obtain these tracking
devices because of the expense to purchase and maintain the equipment.

This legislation will provide parents and caregivers of autistic
children the option of utilizing a tracking device and requiring
insurance companies to cover the costs for the equipment and
monitoring services.

SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends subsection (i) of section 3216 of the insurance law
to add a new paragraph 30.

Section 2 amends subsection (l) of section 3221 of the insurance law
              

to add a new paragraph 19

Section 3 amends section 4303 of the insurance law to add a new
subsection (oo).

Section 4 is the effective date

JUSTIFICATION:

The inclination of children on the autism spectrum to wander off
impulsively is a critical safety issue for parents and caregivers. In
New York City this past month we witnessed a nonverbal autistic child,
Avonte Oquendo, wander from his school; an ongoing case that has
garnered national attention.

In 2012, the Interactive Autism Network (IAN - ianproject.org), the
nation's largest online autism research project, released the results
of the first major survey on wandering and elopement among individuals
with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

The wandering and elopement survey found that approximately 50% of
parents of children with autism report that their child has eloped at
least once Among the families reporting at least one instance of
elopement, nearly 50% say that their child went missing long enough to
cause significant concern about safety. Of those who have gone
missing, nearly 25% were in danger of drowning and 65% were in danger
of a traffic-related injury, according to the findings which were
published in the journal Pediatrics.

In discussing the study at the time of its release, Dr Paul Law,
author of the study and director of medical informatics at the Kennedy


Krieger Institute, observed that elopement is one of the most
important issues related to autism that had not been addressed much at
all prior to this study.. In fact, according to the study, it is very
common and a problem that puts children with ASD at greatest risk for
an early death.

With the Centers for Disease Control now estimating that 1 in 88
children in the U.S.has been diagnosed with ASD, experts say there is
a pressing need for devising clear best practices for managing
"elopement."

To quote Dr. Law's conclusions based on the study of elopement: "On
the broadest scale, it means we as a nation need to get a system
organized so that when children do elope, and when parents call to
report it, there's an immediate response. The likelihood of them
having a very bad outcome is dramatically increased the longer it
takes to recover a child in a safe place."

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Bill

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
become a law