Health Services Use and Costs for Americans With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A National Analysis.

Fujiura et al. (2018) pulled national health-surveys and insurance claims for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities. They compared every doctor visit, pill, and dollar to adults without IDD.

The goal was to see where the money goes and why some costs run higher.

Adults with IDD had mixed bills—some higher, some lower—than the general group. The big ticket was prescription drugs for chronic conditions like diabetes, seizures, or mood disorders.

These meds, plus the illnesses they treat, drove most of the extra spending.

Li et al. (2018) used the same national data and added body weight. They found obesity alone adds about $2,500 a year, stacking even more on top of the drug costs T et al. flagged.

Friedman (2023) updates the Medicaid picture: waiver spending reached $47,000 per person with IDD in 2021. That figure now includes the pricey prescriptions T et al. spotted, showing the trend keeps climbing.

Eussen et al. (2016) zoomed in on one drug class. In a single medical-home network, 60 percent of members with developmental disabilities were on antipsychotics—likely a big slice of the medication bills T et al. saw nationwide.

If you write behavior plans or advocate for funding, target chronic-condition and medication lines first. Ask for collaborative medication reviews, nursing consults, or diet programs. Small cuts here free up waiver hours for skill teaching, job coaching, or parent training.