BILL NUMBER: S7753

SPONSOR: RITCHIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the insurance law, in relation to
requiring that more expansive Lyme disease testing be offered as part of
most laboratory tests covered by health insurance

 
PURPOSE:

To reduce the long-term effects of Lyme disease due to patients going
undiagnosed, by requiring insurance coverage for Lyme disease tests
whenever laboratory testing is required to be covered under the insur-
ance law.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 adds a new paragraph to the insurance law, requiring that Lyme
disease testing shall be included as covered by insurance whenever labo-
ratory testing is required to be covered under the insurance law. The
section requires both enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay tests and west-
ern blot tests be covered at minimum, and requires coverage whenever a
              

doctor orders the test, regardless of the outcome of the test.

Section 2 provides the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The Center for Disease Control estimates that Lyme disease is the fast-
est growing vector borne infectious disease in the United States.  Each
year, 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported to the Center for
Disease Control by state health departments, but most researchers agree
that only a fraction of the individuals infected are ever actually diag-
nosed. Two national studies undertaken by researchers for the Center for
Disease Control estimated that 300,000 people are actually infected with
the disease each year.

The underreporting of Lyme disease cases, especially among individuals
in the Northeastern United States, where the disease is most prevalent,
results in serious long-term complications for millions of people
infected with the disease who go undiagnosed. Over 40 percent of people
infected with Lyme disease suffer long-term health problems because
their infection went undetected. Unfortunately, the average patient sees
five doctors over nearly two years before being diagnosed and tested for
the disease.

Providing physicians with the means to regularly test for the disease is
critically important to help doctors diagnose the disease early enough
to allow treatment that can prevent many of the long-term complications
that are common when Lyme disease is not detected at its early stages.

This legislation amending the insurance law to require that the costs of
Lyme disease testing be included in health insurance coverage for labo-
ratory testing will insure that the costs of testing are covered by
insurance, making it possible for patients to learn whether they have
contracted the disease. Prompt diagnosis and proper treatment are crit-
ical to preventing medical complications of Lyme disease.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the state.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it
shall have become a law; provided however, that effective immediately,
the addition, amendment, and/or repeal of any rule or regulation neces-
sary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are
authorized to be made and completed on or before such effective date.