The result is legislation the General Assembly passed during the hectic final day of this year's session making it easier for children with diseases such as Down syndrome and autism to get needed therapy.

"This is the first legislative session where we stood up and got action," said Heidi Moore of Alpharetta, a longtime advocate for children with disabilities, who has a 7-year-old son with Down syndrome. "The legislators listened to the families and responded."

The bill won final passage last Friday night with an hour left in the 2007 legislative session and is on Gov. Sonny Perdue's desk for his signature.Under the legislation, families seeking physical, speech and/or occupational therapy for their children through a Medicaid waiver program would only have to apply for prior approval every six months. A policy change imposed by the state Department of Community Health last September made families go through the prior approval process every three months.Children also would be covered for 16 units of therapy per month, up from eight units under the current policy. Four units equals one hour of therapy.

"That allows children who are getting therapy for an hour a week not to have to submit for prior authorization," Moore said. Also, the legislation directs the DCH to reduce the amount of paperwork families and therapists have to fill out to comply with the program's requirements.

"It's silly that we require therapists and doctors to fill out nine pieces of paperwork to say, 'Yes, this child has Down syndrome,' " said House Speaker Pro Tempore Mark Burkhalter, R-Alpharetta, who introduced the bill.
"We're spending 10 to 15 hours a week on paperwork," added Ellen Roberts, a speech  language pathologist at Children & Adult Therapy Services in Monroe.

Moore said the paperwork has become so burdensome that some therapists have stopped accepting Medicaid, reducing families' access to therapy services.
"It's been a nightmare," she said. "It's one thing to get approval for therapy. It's another to find a therapist to provide the service."

Mark Trail, Medicaid director for the DCH, said the agency already has put in place some changes to streamline the process.He said two of the required forms have been combined into a single document. Also, families now can attach requests for prior authorization onto the program's Web site rather than having to fax it in, he said.
"We're not interested in making more paperwork than is necessary," Trail said. "But it has to be enough to determine if the care is actually m edically necessary."
Burkhalter's bill was amended when it reached the Senate to extend the bill's requirements to the care management organizations that oversee therapy services for disabled children who are covered by the regular Medicaid program and not through the waiver.