• About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe for Free
  • Download App
  • Anti-Racism Summit
  • Terms of Service
SWHELPER
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Register
  • Home
  • News
  • Culture
  • Mental Health
  • Politics
  • Tech
  • LGBTQ
  • Disability
Find/Post Jobs
  • Home
  • News
  • Culture
  • Mental Health
  • Politics
  • Tech
  • LGBTQ
  • Disability
No Result
View All Result
SWHELPER
No Result
View All Result
Home Mental Health

Medicaid Waivers Help Parents of Children with Autism Stay in the Workforce

SWHELPERbySWHELPER
April 7, 2019
in Mental Health, News, Parenting
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linkedin

PENNSYLVANIA— Medicaid waivers that improve access to home and community-based services for children with autism also help their parents keep their jobs, according to research from Penn State College of Medicine and collaborators.

Previous research found that families of children with autism spectrum disorder experience more challenges obtaining child care and other services compared to families of children with other special needs. Medicaid waivers that target children with autism spectrum disorder help families obtain expensive services they may not have otherwise been able to afford.

Parents of children with autism are also encouraged to commit significant time to participating in their child’s treatment.

“When you’re spending all that time just trying to help your child, there’s less time for work,” said Douglas L. Leslie, professor of public health sciences and psychiatry, Penn State College of Medicine.

When these two factors are combined, the reality is that one parent often significantly reduces their work hours or stops working altogether, increasing financial stress on families that may already be struggling to pay for costly services.

Leslie’s team, along with collaborators at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and the RAND Corporation, set out to determine if Medicaid waivers affected parental employment in families of children with autism. The study appears today (Feb. 6) Health Affairs.

Historically, private health insurers have not covered services for children with autism, Leslie said, putting the onus on school systems. That help can come too late, because research shows that children with autism benefit from interventions that begin before school-age.

“There’s been a lot of policy work over the last decade or so to try and improve insurance coverage for kids with autism,” he said. “One of the main mechanisms they’ve tried to do this through is Medicaid waivers.”

Many states have introduced home and community-based services waivers that expand eligibility for Medicaid-reimbursed services and provide services that are not covered under the standard Medicaid benefit.

“We’ve done some research looking at the effects of these waivers on things like access to care and unmet needs, and we thought it would be useful to see whether they’ve had an impact on parent’s labor market decisions,” Leslie said.

Leslie and his collaborators used information from a nationally representative survey as well as Medicaid waiver data to determine how waivers impacted parental employment from 2005-2006 and 2009-2010.

They found that waivers were effective at allowing parents to remain in the work force. When cost limits and enrollment limits for waivers were raised—giving more families access to more services—the likelihood that a parent had to leave the workforce also decreased.

Characteristics of waivers, such as how much can be spent per child participating in the waiver and how many families can receive services under the waivers, differ from state to state. In the study, the characteristics of a state’s waiver program determined who was helped by that program.

Waiver programs that increased cost limits—making waivers more generous and putting more services into homes—helped the most in lower-income households.

Waiver programs that increased enrollment limits—allowing more families to receive benefits—made the biggest difference in higher-income households that would not otherwise have qualified for Medicaid services.

“Characteristics of the waivers matter,” Leslie said.

He noted that although waivers can help parents of children with autism stay afloat financially, keeping these parents in the workforce goes beyond monetary considerations.

“Caring for a child with autism is difficult,” Leslie said. “Having an outlet through a job can be very beneficial to the parent’s mental wellbeing. It gets them out into the community.”

Leslie hopes his findings will provide more information to policy makers who hold the purse strings for assistance programs such as home and community-based Medicaid waivers.

“The policy landscape with respect to autism services is very much in flux right now, especially with talk of healthcare reform potentially being reversed,” Leslie said. “I think we need as much information out there as we can get about the benefits of some of these programs so that policy makers can be informed about which policies work and how we can ensure that these vulnerable populations can remain protected as we continue to think about healthcare reform.”

Leslie is continuing to research how waivers affect families and children with autism. He is currently investigating whether waivers are effective at getting more children with autism into evidence-based care and if they reduce problematic outcomes, such as hospital admissions and emergency department visits.

Other researchers on this study were Khaled Iskandarani, research data analyst, Diana Velott, senior instructor and Edeanya Agbese, research project manager, Department of Public Health Sciences Penn State College of Medicine; Bradley D. Stein, RAND Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Andrew W. Dick, RAND Corporation in Boston, Massachusetts; and David S. Mandell, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...
Previous Post

Five Reasons to Embrace Conflict

Next Post

New Ways of Detoxing in Alcohol Rehab Centers

SWHELPER

SWHELPER

SWHELPER is a news, information, resources, and entertainment website related to social good, social work, and social justice. To submit news and press releases email contact@swhelper.org

Related Posts

How Does Sex Therapy Rescue Your Love Life? – 6 Incredible Ways
Health

How Does Sex Therapy Rescue Your Love Life? – 6 Incredible Ways

June 30, 2022
Hate Sites Using the Wider Abortion Argument to Spread Racism and Extremism
Health

Hate Sites Using the Wider Abortion Argument to Spread Racism and Extremism

June 29, 2022
The Positive Impact Social Work Can Have on Public Education
Education

The Positive Impact Social Work Can Have on Public Education

June 24, 2022
6 Useful Tips to Keep Your Mind and Body Healthy
Health

6 Useful Tips to Keep Your Mind and Body Healthy

June 24, 2022
Insult to Injury: U.S. Workers Without Paid Sick Leave Suffer from Mental Distress
Education

How Social Workers Can Practice Trauma-Informed Care

June 18, 2022
In A New World, Social Work Leads the Way
Criminal Justice

In A New World, Social Work Leads the Way

June 14, 2022
Next Post
New Ways of Detoxing in Alcohol Rehab Centers

New Ways of Detoxing in Alcohol Rehab Centers

Zero Tolerance Policies Unfairly Punish Black Girls

Zero Tolerance Policies Unfairly Punish Black Girls

Leave Comment
What Can Be Done To Solve The Foster Care Crisis?

Ending the Therapeutic Relationship: Creative Termination Activities

June 24, 2022
What Feelings Are In Your Heart: An Art Therapy Exercise for Kids

What Feelings Are In Your Heart: An Art Therapy Exercise for Kids

June 19, 2022
Want to Work With Children: 5 Skills and Qualities You Should Be Working On

Want to Work With Children: 5 Skills and Qualities You Should Be Working On

April 7, 2019
What Is a Genogram and Why Do I Need to Learn How to Create One?

What Is a Genogram and Why Do I Need to Learn How to Create One?

April 7, 2019
ADVERTISEMENT

Good Things Happen When
You Subscribe

Subscribe
  • What Can Be Done To Solve The Foster Care Crisis?

    Ending the Therapeutic Relationship: Creative Termination Activities

    77 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • What Feelings Are In Your Heart: An Art Therapy Exercise for Kids

    395 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Want to Work With Children: 5 Skills and Qualities You Should Be Working On

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • What Is a Genogram and Why Do I Need to Learn How to Create One?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The Importance of Mental Health Awareness

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram TikTok
SWHELPER

  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe for Free
  • Download App
  • Anti-Racism Summit
  • Terms of Service

© 2022 Social Work Helper, PBC

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
    • News
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Politics
    • Criminal Justice
    • Social Work
    • Education
    • LGBTQ
    • Poverty
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Virtual Summit
  • Career Center
  • Download App
  • Login
  • Sign Up
  • Cart

© 2022 Social Work Helper, PBC

Welcome Back!

Sign In with Facebook
Sign In with Google
Sign In with Linked In
OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Sign Up with Facebook
Sign Up with Google
Sign Up with Linked In
OR

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Good Things Happen When
You Subscribe

Subscribe
Go to mobile version
 

    %d bloggers like this: