Caring for Patients with ASD and Their Caregivers: Federal and State Autism-Specific Insurance Reform.

“Economic burden,” “regulatory maze,” and “lawyer’s paradise” are a sample of the epithets lobbed against the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) before it was signed into law in 1990 [2-4]. A quarter-century later, similar doomsday-like forecasts plague efforts to assist disenfranchised people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a condition that has since skyrocketed in prevalence [5-7]. Though regulations to assist those with ASD have moved to the forefront of state and federal policy discussions, ASD initiatives compete with other pressing health care spending concerns to gain access to a finite amount of governmental resources. Satisfying the demand for high-quality, costeffective ASD care requires well-researched, well-defined state and federal spending parameters that emphasize long-term patient outcomes as well as sustainable net gains.