Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between having access to a medical home and unmet needs for specialty care services for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Parents of children enrolled in a national autism registry were invited to complete an online Access to Care Questionnaire. The resulting sample consisted of 371 parents–child dyads. Bivariate and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to determine whether having a medical home was associated with the number of unmet needs for specialty care. Less than one in five children with ASD had a medical home (18.9 %). Nearly all parents reported that their child had a personal doctor or nurse as well as a usual source of care, but less than one-third received coordinated care (29.9 %) and less than one-half received family-centered care (47.1 %). Many children had unmet needs (63 %), and the highest unmet need was for behavioral therapy. Having a medical home was associated with fewer unmet specialty care needs, even after demographic, child and family characteristics were taken into account. Children with ASD who have a medical home are more likely to have adequate access to needed services. Unfortunately, relatively few children have a medical home that includes family-centered and coordinated care. Enhancements in the delivery of primary care for children with ASD may make a real difference in access to needed specialty care services, potentially improving child and family outcomes.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Gurney, J. G., McPheeters, M. L., & Davis, M. M. (2006). Parental report of health conditions and health care use among children with and without autism. Archives of Pediatrics, 160, 825–830.
Bitterman, A., Daley, T. C., Misra, S., Carlson, E., & Markowitz, J. (2008). A national sample of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders: Special education services and parent satisfaction. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38(8), 1509–1517.
Croen, L. A., Najjar, D. F., Ray, G. T., Lotspeich, L., & Bernal, P. (2006). A comparison of health care utilization and costs of children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders in a large group-model health plan. Pediatrics, 118(4), e1203–e1211.
McGrath, R. J., Laflamme, D. J., Schwartz, A. P., Stransky, M., & Moeschler, J. B. (2009). Access to genetic counseling for children with autism, Down syndrome, and intellectual disabilities. Pediatrics, 124(Suppl 4), S443–S449.
Brachlow, A. E., Ness, K. K., McPheeters, M. L., & Gurney, J. G. (2007). Comparison of indicators for a primary care medical home between children with autism or asthma and other special health care needs. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 161, 399–404.
Sheldrick, R. C., & Perrin, E. C. (2010). Medical home services for children with behavioral health conditions. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 31(2), 92–99.
Kogan, M. D., Strickland, B. B., Blumberg, S. J., Singh, G. K., Perrin, J. M., & van Dyck, P. C. (2008). A national profile of the health care experiences and family impact of autism spectrum disorder among children in the United States, 2005/2006. Pediatrics, 122, e1149–e1158.
Krauss, M. W., Gulley, S., Sciegaj, M., & Wells, N. (2003). Access to specialty medical care for children with mental retardation, autism, and other special health care needs. Mental Retardation, 41(5), 329–339.
Ruble, L. A., Heflinger, C. A., Renfrew, J. W., & Saunders, R. C. (2005). Access and service use by children with autism spectrum disorders in Medicaid managed care. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 35(1), 3–13.
Chiri, G., & Warfield, M. E. (2012). Unmet need and problems accessing core health care services for children with autism spectrum disorder. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 16(5), 1081–1091.
Starfield, B., & Shi, L. (2004). The medical home, access to care, and insurance: A review of evidence. Pediatrics, 113(5 Suppl), 1493–1498.
Farmer, J. E, Clark, M. J., Drewel, E. H., Swenson, T. M., & Ge, B. (2011). Consultative care coordination through the medical home for CSHCN: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Maternal and Child Health, 15(7), 1110–1118.
Homer, C. J., Klatka, K., Tomm, D., et al. (2008). A review of the evidence for the medical home for children with special health care needs. Pediatrics, 122(4), e922–e937.
Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. (2012). National profile of children with special health care needs and autism spectrum disorders: Key findings from the 2009/10 NS-CSHCN & 2007 NSCH. Retrieved from www.childhealthdata.org.
Golnik, A., Scal, P., Wey, A., & Gaillard, P. (2011). Autism-specific primary care medical home intervention. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(6), 1087–1093.
Thomas, K. C., Ellis, A. R., McLaurin, C., Daniels, J., & Morrissey, J. P. (2007). Access to care for autism-related services. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(10), 1902–1912.
Interactive Autism Network. (2011). Interactive Autism Network: Linking the autism community and researchers. Retrived from http://ianproject.org.
Lee, H., Marvin, A. R., Watson, T., et al. (2010). Accuracy of phenotyping of autistic children based on Internet implemented parent report. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, 153B(6), 1119–1126.
Daniels, A. M., Rosenberg, R. E., Anderson, C., Law, J. K., Marvin, A. R., & Law, P. A. (2012). Verification of parent-report of child autism spectrum disorder diagnosis to a web-based autism registry. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(2), 257–265.
Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. (2009). Measuring medical home for children and youth. A resource manual for childhealth program leaders, researchers and analysts, pp. 1–55. Retrieved from http://www.childhealthdata.org/docs/medical-home/mhmanual_withappendices-updated-12-7-10-pdf.pdf.
National Center for Health Statistics. (2012). NCHS Urban-rural classification scheme for counties. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/urban_rural.htm.
Medical Decision Logic Inc. (2013). Clinical research management system. Retrieved from http://www.mdlogix.com/news-events-2/crms-at-hopkins.
Strickland, B. B., Jones, J. R., Ghandour, R. M., Kogan, M. D., & Newacheck, P. W. (2011). The medical home: Health care access and impact for children and youth in the United States. Pediatrics, 127(4), 604–611.
Reichow, B. (2012). Overview of meta-analyses on early intensive behavioral intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42, 512–520.
Kuo, D. Z., Houtrow, A. J., Arango, P., Kuhlthau, K. A., Simmons, J. M., & Neff, J. M. (2012). Family-centered care: Current applications and future directions in pediatric health care. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 16(2), 297–305.
Kuo, D. Z., Frick, K. D., & Minkovitz, C. S. (2011). Association of family-centered care with improved anticipatory guidance delivery and reduced unmet needs in child health care. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 15(8):1228–1237.
Ngui, E. M., & Flores, G. (2006). Satisfaction with care and ease of using health care services among parents of children with special health care needs: The roles of race/ethnicity, insurance, language, and adequacy of family-centered care. Pediatrics, 117(4), 1184–1196.
Carbone, P. S., Behl, D. D., Azor, V., & Murphy, N. A. (2009). The medical home for children with autism spectrum disorders: Parent and pediatrician perspectives. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40(3), 317–324.
Hyman, S. L., & Johnson, J. K. (2012). Autism and pediatric practice: Toward a medical home. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(6), 1156–1164.
Murphy, N. A., & Carbone, P. S. (2011). Parent-provider-community partnerships: Optimizing outcomes for children with disabilities. Pediatrics, 128(4), 795–802.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2011) Coordinating care in the medical neighborhood: Critical components and available mechanisms (AHRQ Publication No. 11-0064). Retrieved from http://www.pcmh.ahrq.gov/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_12547_955653_0_0_18/.
Cohen, E., Kuo, D. Z., Agrawal, R., et al. (2011). Children with medical complexity: An emerging population for clinical and research initiatives. Pediatrics, 127(3), 529–538.
Cohen, M. S. (1999). Families coping with childhood chronic illness: A research review. Families, Systems and Health, 17, 149–164.
Coury, D., Jones, N. E., Klatka, K., Winklosky, B., & Perrin, J. M. (2009). Healthcare for children with autism: The Autism Treatment Network. Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 21(6), 828–832.
Kataoka, S. H. (2012). Fixing a broken system: The story of autism, one state at a time. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 51(8), 759–761.
Acknowledgments
This study was developed and implemented with funding from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Division of Services for Children with Special Health Needs, Grant number H6MMC11059. We also wish to thank the families who gave generously of their time to contribute to advances in care for individuals with ASD.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Farmer, J.E., Clark, M.J., Mayfield, W.A. et al. The Relationship Between the Medical Home and Unmet Needs for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Matern Child Health J 18, 672–680 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-013-1292-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-013-1292-z