Va. commission to review mandatory insurance coverage for “devastating” childhood disease: Treatment for PANS/PANDAS can cost hundreds of thousands, say affected families
“The legislation from Del. Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, would have applied to both Medicaid and private insurance as a way to lower the treatment costs for PANS/PANDAS, a disease scientists believe is caused by a child’s immune system attacking their brain.
Kristina Nunnally with the Virginia Alliance for PANS/PANDAS Action, or VA4PA, told a House subcommittee her family has lived a “life in crisis” as insurance companies have repeatedly denied her four children, all of whom have been diagnosed with the disease, treatment prescribed by their neurologist.
“Many years waiting for the delay in treatment has resulted in the permanent scarring on our children’s brains,” Nunnally said. “The delay of treatment comes at the cost that is the life of a child and what their lives could have held for them, and the trajectory of their lives have forever changed.”“
Gabriella True
