Disability advocates are suing the state Department of Human Services in an attempt to force the agency to provide early treatment in autism cases.
Disability advocates are suing the state Department of Human Services in an attempt to force the agency to provide early treatment in autism cases.
In a lawsuit filed last month in Honolulu, the Hawaii Disability Rights Center claims that children with autism who are eligible for Medicaid are entitled to a treatment called applied behavioral analysis and a broad scope of other remedies under the Medicaid Act.
“Federal law says the states have to cover this,” said Louis Erteschik, executive director for the HDRC.
The treatments stand to offer a better quality of life to the estimated 1,500 to 1,900 children living with autism in Hawaii, and the cost has to be compared with the $2 million to $3 million it costs to care for a severely autistic person over his lifetime, Erteschik said.
The intense early therapy, which can cost $40,000 to $50,000 a year, has a 50 percent chance of bringing autistic children “back into some kind of normal range,” and makes it less likely they’ll be institutionalized for the rest of their lives, Erteschik said.
“Would you spend that if you had a 50-50 chance you wouldn’t have to care for that person for the rest of their life?” he said.
The HDRC filed the suit on behalf of a severely autistic 5-year-old Oahu boy. The boy’s mother, Suzanne Egan, was forced to pay out of pocket for intensive 27-hour per week ABA sessions, and can no longer afford the private treatment, according to the lawsuit.
The treatments generally involve one-on-one training sessions that encourage positive behavior and discourage negative ones. ABA improves functioning and can lead to a more independent and active life — and is the only recourse that has been identified as effective in treating autism, Erteschik said.
The DHS referred questions about the lawsuit to the state attorney general. Anne Lopez, special assistant to the AG, said the state had not been served with the complaint, and in any case would probably not discuss ongoing litigation.
Erteschik said disability rights advocates have been trying for years to get the state to pay for ABA, including failed attempts to fund the treatment through the Legislature.
“At a certain point it was like, we may as well go to court,” Erteschik said.