Autism Assessment for Adults

I have sutter health insurance so I did my son’s assessment with their pediatric developmental physician. He saw Dr. Brian Tang at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. Since the school already assessed him to have autism his medical assessment was pretty straightforward since the doctor agreed with the school’s findings.

The UCSF center for ASD and NDDS was very comprehensive and have continuing support programs if you are diagnosed there. It looks like the waitlist is currently closed, but you could ask your primary care doctor about it and confirm that the website is updated, and be a squeaky wheel to try to get on their waitlist as soon as it opens: https://autism.ucsf.edu/welcome-ucsf-center-asd-and-ndds 

We also got on waitlists at Stanford and UC Davis. Be prepared to wait a very long time; we waited for about 7 months to get a call to set up an initial evaluation with UCSF, which was the first place to reach out. Stanford and Davis both sent us some resources while waiting which were somewhat helpful. Ideally you don't want to wait long, but you also want to make sure you get a good assessment. 

I think you can go through your pediatrician who will refer to a in-network Autism Diagnostician. I know UCSF children’s hospital is one such spot. Or KP has an Autism Center as well.

(I’m a psychologist with a school district) 

We had ours done by Stanford Developmental Pediatrics in Sunnyvale (even though it's pretty far from us) and they took our Anthem insurance. Our pediatrician said their wait times are  long because they are one of the few that do take insurance. For us, the wait was about 6-8 months, and they accurately estimated that when we first got the referral. Possibly Cortica is another place that takes insurance? But I don't have any experience with them. 

In case you are wondering about the experience of the evaluation, the way it worked for us (with our 7 year old) was that we parents filled out a lot of questionnaires--which actually did help me notice and consider some new things; then we had a meeting where our kiddo talked with the doctors (Dr. Barrington and a resident, both very nice) and did some little activities while we hung out in the background; and then we finished up with a video call between us and the doctors in which they shared their thoughts and diagnosis. From what I understand, a full neuropsychological assessment is  more intensive and might produce more new insight into your child's particular mind; but of course, it is also very expensive. By the time we did our evaluation, I was pretty sure my kiddo was autistic, and the evaluation mostly served as validation/confirmation of that fact. But after struggling a long time to figure things out (since my kiddo doesn't have the classic presentation people used to think of as autism), that validation was very nice to have. I also want to say that understanding that our kiddo is autistic (and of course, learning more about what that means) has been such a positive thing, for him and for us. It really helps us work together better, with more understanding and less frustration when things are hard. 

Good luck on your own journey, and I hope this helps!

I think you will need to check with your insurance and get a referral from a doctor. The school district may also be able to do some sort of assessment. We opted to do it privately because the wait at UCSF which our insurance would have covered was over a year. This was during the pandemic so hopefully things have improved.