Employer-Sponsored Insurance Expenditures for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Increased 51 Percent From 2011 to 2017

AHRQ Stats

Access more data on this topic in the associated statistical brief.

Today's Headlines:

• Employer-Sponsored Insurance Expenditures for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Increased 51 Percent From 2011 to 2017.
• New AHRQ Views Blog Posts on Gains in Patient Safety, Advances in Data Analytics.
• Celebrating Women’s History Month.
• Health Literacy Recognized as Essential to Public Health.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

Employer-Sponsored Insurance Expenditures for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Increased 51 Percent From 2011 to 2017

Employer-sponsored health plan spending on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) increased from $13,000 per child in 2011 to $20,000 in 2017, according to a study conducted in part by AHRQ intramural researchers and published in Psychiatric Services. Nearly all ASD-related spending increases were attributable to outpatient behavioral-intervention related services, which increased from $1,746 to $8,317 during that time frame. Spending on children with ASD accounted for 41 percent of the total growth in spending for children aged 3 to 7. Despite general increases in medical expenditures for children with ASD, only 1 in 7 children received $20,000 or more in services in 2017. Access the abstract.

New AHRQ Views Blog Posts on Gains in Patient Safety, Advances in Data Analytics

• Working Together To Tackle Our Most Pressing Safety Issues: Jeff Brady, M.D., M.P.H., director of AHRQ’s Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, highlights the success of this year’s Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW). Dr. Brady congratulates the Institute for Healthcare Improvement for sponsoring PSAW and notes that recent gains have been made possible by including clinicians, patients and families, researchers, health system leaders and other interested parties in patient safety projects. Virtual meetings hosted last year by AHRQ allowed stakeholders to put forth dozens of compelling ideas aimed at continuing safety advances.
• Helping To Answer Pressing Policy Questions With Data and Analytics: AHRQ’s expanding data analytics capabilities to help address the nation’s most pressing healthcare challenges is highlighted by Joel Cohen, Ph.D., director of the agency’s Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, and David Meyers, M.D., AHRQ’s acting director. With recent refinements to its Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, the agency is poised to support initiatives that would enhance the Affordable Care Act, lower drug costs and address other priorities.

Celebrating Women’s History Month

In recognition of March as Women’s History Month, AHRQ is highlighting the significant role and impact several of our distinguished colleagues have had on improving the quality and safety of healthcare in America. These dedicated professionals have served the healthcare community for decades, including their time as AHRQ grantees, advisers and leaders.

Health Literacy Recognized as Essential to Public Health

Health literacy is now included as one of the overarching goals of Healthy People, a national science-based initiative that sets goals and objectives to improve the health and well-being of Americans. The new Healthy People 2030, updated every 10 years by HHS, emphasizes the essential role that organizations must play in improving health literacy. A previous definition focused only on individuals’ capacities to understand health information. In developing new definitions for both personal and organizational health literacy for Healthy People 2030, HHS drew on recommendations from an independent advisory committee of national health experts, as well as input from the public and stakeholder groups. Access the abstract to a Journal of Public Health Management & Practice article that describes the definitions and the process HHS used to create them.

Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) highlights journal articles, books and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:

• COVID-19 increased the risk of ICU-acquired bloodstream infections: a case-cohort study from the multicentric OUTCOMEREA network.
• Medical crisis checklists in the emergency department: a simulation-based multi-institutional randomised controlled trial.
• Toward the development of the perfect medical team: critical components for adaptation.

Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue or access recent cases and commentaries in AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Systematic review: Cervical Ripening in the Outpatient Setting.
• White paper: Standardized Library of Lumbar Spondylolisthesis Outcome Measures.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Variation in intensive care unit intubation practices in pulmonary critical care medicine fellowship. Brady AK, Brown W, Denson JL, et al. ATS Sch 2020 Dec;1(4):395-405. Epub 2020 Oct 21. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

INSMA: an integrated system for multimodal data acquisition and analysis in the intensive care unit. Sun Y, Guo F, Kaffashi F, et al. J Biomed Inform 2020 Jun;106:103434. Epub 2020 Apr 28. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Matching with time-dependent treatments: a review and look forward. Thomas LE, Yang S, Wojdyla D, et al. Stat Med 2020 Jul 30;39(17):2350-70. Epub 2020 Apr 3. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Barriers to implementing cardiovascular risk calculation in primary care: alignment with the consolidated framework for implementation research. Tuzzio L, O'Meara ES, Holden E, et al. Am J Prev Med 2021 Feb;60(2):250-7. Epub 2020 Dec 3. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Inequitable access to surveillance colonoscopy among Medicare beneficiaries with surgically resected colorectal cancer. Sanchez JI, Shankaran V, Unger JM, et al. Cancer 2021 Feb;127(3):412-21. Epub 2020 Oct 23. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Primary care quality and cost for privately insured patients in and out of US health systems: evidence from four states. Zhou RA, Beaulieu ND, Cutler D. Health Serv Res 2020 Dec;55(Suppl 3):1098-1106. Epub 2020 Oct 29. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Characteristics of long-term care residents that predict adverse events after hospitalization. Kapoor A, Field T, Handler S, et al. J Am Geriatr Soc 2020 Nov;68(11):2551-7. Epub 2020 Aug 20. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Antibiotic susceptibility of Escherichia coli among infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units across the US From 2009 to 2017. Flannery DD, Akinboyo IC, Mukhopadhyay S, et al. JAMA Pediatr 2021 Feb;175(2):168-75. Access the abstract on PubMed®.