Abstract
This study compared Medicaid service utilization and expenditures among adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) as they aged into adulthood. Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) data was used to identify a national cohort. Winsorization was utilized to control for expenditure outliers. A greater proportion of adolescents with ASD utilized most services. Decreases in the use of key services, including psychiatric outpatient services, were observed for both groups. Changes in medical services, such as increases in inpatient and long term care services, among the ASD cohort suggest medical needs of adolescents with ASD change as they age. Information remains lacking on changing ASD symptom presentation during the transition to adolescence.
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Author Contributions
LLS provided oversight of the study and manuscript development, wrote the initial draft of the paper, and led revisions to the manuscript and addressing reviewers’ comments. MX analyzed the data and PT conducted data analysis for revisions to the manuscript. SM, DM, and CN assisted with manuscript development, and provided guidance on statistical analysis and revisions to the manuscript based on reviewer comments. RF assisted with manuscript development and interpretation of statistical results.
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This research was approved by the University of Pennsylvania IRB. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Shea, L.L., Xie, M., Turcotte, P. et al. Brief Report: Service Use and Associated Expenditures Among Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder Transitioning to Adulthood. J Autism Dev Disord 48, 3223–3227 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3563-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3563-4