Autism Therapy: medical home

definition of medical home: Personalized network of medical and home caregivers and therapy providers who together create a therapy program for the person with autism.

No Factsheets to Display

Management of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Primary Care
Pediatric Annals, by Myers, SM, published in 2009, summarized Oct 7, 2010

Effective medical treatment may allow a child with autism to respond better to educational and behavioral interventions as well as to other types of therapies.

Autism is a common, chronic disease and patients with autism require a medical home. Certain health factors may make autism worse and behavior worse. The purpose of this article is to describe how doctors can manage autism as a chronic disease. The main treatments for autism are behavioral and include applied behavior analysis (ABA). Drug therapy may be useful if target symptoms are severe and do not respond to behavioral interventions.


Services for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Payment Issues
Pediatric Annals, by Wegner, LM, and Macias MM, published in 2009, summarized Apr 30, 2009

In order to provide a medical home for children with autism, doctors will likely have to spend time developing and working with teams of community-based specialists.

This article describes how insurance can be billed to pay for the many services that are often required for children with autism. The authors start by stating that every parent who takes their infant and young child to visit the doctor should ask about child development. If there seems to be a problem, then a screening test can be given and these can be charged to insurance. The time needed to score and explain the test to parents can also be billed to insurance. The article goes on to describe how codes can be used to bill insurance for care of children with autism.


Medical Homes for Children with Autism: A Physician Survey
Pediatrics, by Golnik, A., Ireland M., and Borowsky IW, published in 2009, summarized Apr 13, 2009

Physician education on autism may help physicians provide quality medical care to children with autism.

This paper reports on a survey of doctor thoughts on caring for children with autism. Doctors report that they have more trouble giving medical care to children with autism than they do to children with other brain problems. Doctors want to learn more about autism and autism treatments so that they can help their patients. Most doctors report more problems in working with others to care for a child with autism than they do to care for children with other problems. Doctors agree that children with autism need better medical care.


Comparison of Indicators for a Primary Care Medical Home Between Children with Autism or Asthma and Other Special Health Care Needs
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med, by Brachlow, AE, Ness KK, McPheeters ML, and Gurney JG, published in 2007, summarized Jun 1, 2007

Children with autism do not get the best treatment from their doctors and this may have a bad effect on their outcome.

This survey was designed to see if children with autism receive what the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) defines as medical home care. Medical home care is doctor care that is: "accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family-centered, compassionate, culturally effective, and coordinated with specialized services." This United States survey found that children with autism are half as likely to have a medical home as children with other special health care needs. The results agree with a different survey that found that only half of parents of children with autism feel that their child has a medical home. The authors believe that doctors treating children with autism need to better understand community resources, send children for expert support, and help families maintain a therapy plan.


Showing 1-4 of 6 results

No News to Display

No Comments to Display


Please comment on medical home or other autism therapy topics.

  • Factsheet
  • Research
  • News
  • Comments.
    • Share |