The Impact of the Medical Home on Access to Care for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 45; no. 3; pp. 636 - 644
• Main Authors: Cheak-Zamora, Nancy C., Farmer, Janet E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.03.2015; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Academic ability; Access to Health Care; Adolescent; Agricultural Occupations; Allied Health Personnel; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Care and treatment; Child; Child and School Psychology; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Child Health; Child Health Services - statistics & numerical data; Child, Preschool; Childhood Needs; Children; Community Services; Family (Sociological Unit); Family Programs; Female; Health Needs; Health Programs; Health Services Accessibility - statistics & numerical data; Health Services Needs and Demand - statistics & numerical data; Health Surveys; Humans; Individual Characteristics; Individual Needs; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Language Impairments; Logistic Models; Male; National Surveys; Neurosciences; Original Paper; Parent Attitudes; Parents; Patient-Centered Care - statistics & numerical data; Pediatrics; Pervasive Developmental Disorders; Psychology; Public Health; Regression (Statistics); Resistance (Psychology); Risk factors; State Surveys; Statistical Analysis; Teamwork; United States - epidemiology; United States; Delivery of health care; Unmet needs; Medical home; Autism spectrum disorder
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-014-2218-3

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience difficulty accessing health care services. Using parent-reported data from the 2009–2010 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs, we examined whether having a medical home reduces unmet need for specialty care services for children with ASD (n = 3,055). Descriptive statistics and Chi square tests identified sample characteristics and examined the relationship between unmet needs and a standardized measure of medical home. Logistic regression models explored the individual impact of demographic, condition-specific and medical home variables on unmet need. Parents reported that nearly all children had a need for specialty services, 36 % had an unmet need, and 23.9 % had a medical home. Children who had fewer unmet needs were more likely to have received family-centered and coordinated care through a medical home, and this relationship remained significant even when demographic and condition-specific variables were taken into account. These findings suggest ways to improve access to care for children with ASD through enhanced family-centered and coordinated care within the medical home.