Litigation

Congressional Sport Concussion Hearing Scheduled for Thursday

By Michael Kaplen

On, Thursday, September 23, the House Education and Labor Committee will examine legislation to reduce and more safely manage concussions in student athletes.  The Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act would establish minimum standards in K-12 schools on concussion safety and management, including educating students, parents and school personnel about how to recognize and respond to concussions.

At the request of several members of the Education and Labor Committee, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigated the prevalence of concussions in high school athletics and found that concussions often go unrecognized. Recent research shows that concussions can have serious repercussions for student athletes both on the field and in the classroom. During the 2005-2008 school years, an estimated 400,000 concussions occurred in high school athletics ? brain injuries that often go unnoticed and untreated.

I hope that this congressional committee will give serious consideration to the sports concussion recommendations made last week by the New York State Traumatic Brain Injury Services Coordinating Council (TBISCC) which I chair.  These recommendations will both improve the quality of life for individuals suffering from a traumatic brain injury and prevent future brain injuries from occurring.

The TBISCC has recommended the enactment and implementation of regulations and/or legislation which would require school districts to utilize sports related neuropsychological assessments to determine pre-injury base line neurocognitive functioning.

The council further recommended that serial retesting be required following a brain injury or suspected brain injury for all students in engaged in school-based athletic programs.

A second recommendation by the council was for legislation and/or regulations that provide that the expenses associated with sports related neuropsychological assessments, both baseline pre-injury assessments and serial post-injury reassessments, be included as mandated coverage under each and every health insurance policy.
It would be practical to include regulations covering the council?s second recommendation under the recently enacted federal health care act as ?preventive pediatric care?.

I look forward to addressing the committee during its hearing.

Full post as published by Brain Injury News and Information on September 20, 2010 (boomark / email).