You asked what the state has done in the past two years on Lyme disease, including funds spent on the issue.

HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE

Public Act 99-284 (the managed care reform act) requires health insurers to cover Lyme disease treatment under certain conditions. Specifically, individual and group insurance policies must cover Lyme disease treatment including at least 30 days of intravenous antibiotic therapy, 60 days of oral antibiotic therapy, or both. Such policies must provide further treatment if recommended by a board-certified rheumatologist, infectious disease specialist, or neurologist licensed in the state. (PA 99-2, June Special Session specified that the rheumatologist, infectious disease specialist, or neurologist could be licensed in another state with practice requirements substantially similar to Connecticut's.)

This coverage requirement applies to hospital and medical services offered by HMOs and health insurance policies that cover (1) basic hospital expenses, (2) basic medical-surgical expenses, (3) major medical expenses, or (4) hospital or medical service expenses. The coverage must be in policies or plans delivered, issued for delivery, renewed, or continued in the state beginning January 1, 2000.

STATE AGENCY ACTIVITIES

Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) has a "Tick Identification, Testing and Information Laboratory" as part of its department of entomology. The laboratory identifies ticks to species, to stage of development, and to degree of engorgement (an indication of approximately how long the tick has been feeding). It also tests certain ticks for the presence of the bacterial organism that causes Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi). In addition CAES staff provides information about the biology and control of ticks. These services are provided for all Connecticut citizens.

The procedure to follow to have a tick identified and tested for Borrelia burgdorferi is as follows:

1. Citizens need to bring the tick to their municipal or regional health department.

2. The municipal or regional health department will submit the tick to the agricultural experiment station, with a request to have it tested.

3. The tick will be identified (species, development stage, approximate degree of blood engorgement). The laboratory will test deer ticks and certain other species of ticks for the presence of the spirochetes that cause Lyme disease. (A testing form is attached.)

The experiment station's Lyme disease activities are not budgeted separately, but rather included in broader funding categories of the facility.

Department of Public Health

The Department of Public Health (DPH) conducts surveillance of human cases of Lyme disease and uses that information to develop prevention strategies. Generally, the state does not implement the prevention measures but rather makes the information and strategies available to residents for their use. In the latter half of l999, the state announced a demonstration project funded by the federal Centers for

Disease Control (CDC) in the Westport-Weston Health District and on Mason's Island. More information on DPH's Lyme disease activities is provided in a previous OLR report (99-R-1190, November 30, 1999). A copy is attached.

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