Healthcare utilization among children with early autism diagnoses, children with other developmental delays and a comparison group.

To describe healthcare utilization patterns among children with autism (n = 1821), and compare these patterns to children with other developmental delays (DD; n = 12,336) and a population comparison (PC; n = 18,210) cohort. Retrospective study of administrative billing data. Children with autism had roughly six-times more annual outpatient visits as PC children and twice as many as children with DD.