Autism Deserves Equal Coverage

As part of a more than 20-year career in health care marketing and reimbursement, Kristin has advocated for autism related causes since 2006. She led a multi-year statewide effort to pass autism insurance reform in California and was a principal drafter of SB 946, signed into California law by Governor Jerry Brown in 2011. Subsequent to the passage of SB 946, Kristin was appointed to the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC)’s Autism Advisory Task Force to help draft recommendations regarding medically-necessary behavioral health treatment. In 2009, Kristin co-founded Autism Deserves Equal Coverage to help families and providers access health care treatment through private insurance and in 2013 founded Autism Deserves Equal Coverage Foundation as a companion non-profit organization. She also co-founded the ASD Insurance Help Yahoo group to assist parents secure insurance coverage for autism. Through message boards and individual case advocacy, Kristin has helped hundreds of families successfully appeal insurance denials. More than 15 of her cases have resulted in enforcement actions taken by the Department of Managed Health Care and California Department of Insurance to require compliance by health insurers doing business in California. Her most recent accomplishments include expanding the benefits of behavioral health treatment in SB 946, which was limited to private health insurance, to State employees and Healthy Families (September, 2012), Covered California (January, 2014) and Medi-Cal (September, 2014). She is especially proud of leading the effort that resulted in legislation included in the state budget that set California up to be the first state in the nation to implement new federal guidance about Medicaid autism coverage.