Montana Legislation

This bill tried to change the state’s social services law so that the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) would include coverage for autism. The requirements of this bill are the same as what is in the section of the state insurance law about autism coverage except there are no annual maximums in place for applied behavior analysis. The section of the state insurance law about autism coverage is summarized at the bottom of this page.

This bill tried to change the section relevant to parity in the state insurance law. This bill would have required the following:

• Establish that all large employer fully-insured plans, all non-grandfathered small employer plans, and all non-grandfathered individual plans must provide behavioral health coverage that is “no less favorable” than coverage for other medical care
• Extend the section to grandfathered small employer plans
• Eliminate annual maximums for behavioral health coverage
• Establish that inpatient day limits only apply to grandfathered small employer plans
• Make clear that coverage of “severe mental illness” must also be “no less favorable” than coverage for other medical care

This bill tried to change the section relevant to parity and the autism section of the state insurance law. This bill would have required the following:

• Eliminate annual maximums for behavioral health coverage
• Clarify that the subsection about annual maximums for applied behavior analysis are no longer relevant because applied behavior analysis is considered an essential health benefit(essential health benefits cannot have annual maximums or lifetime maximums); however this subsection still would apply to grandfathered plans