South Carolina’s Ryan’s Law

Company/Group policies written in South Carolina with more than 50 participants as well as the self-insured/State of SC Employees policy are affected by this mandate to cover autism treatments. Please talk to your employer/benefits coordinator regarding this coverage.

Note that policies are not mandated to provide coverage until the policy's renewal date after July 1, 2008. Therefore, you should not expect coverage to be in effect until after that date, depending upon the renewal date of the policy.

As an example: if you renewed your health benefits policy in October of this year, you will likely renew them again in October of 2008 (which would follow the effective date for Ryan’s Law, July 1, 2008). In this example, your policy renewal goes into effect the January following your policy renewal. The coverage affected by this law will, therefore, not go into effect until January 2009 under this example. Please see your benefits counselor to determine the effective date that your policy will go into effect.

In response to the many inquiries we have received regarding Ryan’s Law, SCAS President and CEO Craig Stoxen developed one-page flowchart reference to help explain who may benefit from "Ryan's Law" and insurance coverage for intensive therapies for ASDs.

South Carolina Legislation for Ryan‘s Law link.

South Carolina Legislation for Section Redesignation pertaining to insurance coverage S 0949 Bill link.