WHAT IS NEUROPSYCHOLOGY?
Neuropsychology is a unique discipline within the field of clinical psychology that relies on objective standardized measures of cognition, personality and emotional functioning to evaluate and diagnose neurological and psychiatric disorders. A neuropsychologist relies on information from clinical interview, standardized testing and a review of relevant psychiatric and medical information to provide diagnosis and treatment recommendations. Because empirically validated testing is used to evaluate cognitive and emotional functioning, diagnoses are based on sound scientific methods. In some cases, such as assessment for educational accommodations and disability for worker's compensation or legal proceedings, this is not only beneficial, but imperative.
WHEN IS A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION APPROPRIATE?
A neuropsychological evaluation is appropriate when an individual, family member or professional (i.e., doctor or attorney) believes that problems with thinking or emotional difficulties are interfering with one's ability to function in daily life. When people are having cognitive difficulties, they commonly report that they are experiencing problems at work, school or in their personal lives. For example, people often report that they have difficulties remembering conversations or to complete important daily tasks. Individuals also commonly experience difficulties meeting professional or academic demands because of difficulties with time management, multi-tasking or solving everyday problems. In their personal lives, they may notice difficulties communicating with others because they struggle to express themselves or find it difficult to keep up with conversations. Neuropsychological evaluations are often used to identify the areas of cognitive weakness that are causing these daily struggles.
what does a NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION entail?
A neuropsychological evaluation consists of a series of structured tests and questionnaires designed to examine all aspects of one’s cognitive functioning, emotional status and personality. Performance and responses on these measures are compared to individuals of similar age, gender, ethnicity and educational attainment. Patterns in performance across measures are used to identify dysfunctional thinking patterns and behaviors that may cause problems in personal, occupational and academic settings. Certain patterns are commonly observed in different types of neurological and psychiatric disorders. As such, the neuropsychologist uses this information to diagnose disorders and provide appropriate treatment recommendations.
What is Cognitive Functioning?
Cognitive functioning refers to all aspects of your ability to think and learn. This includes basic abilities such as motor functioning, language and visual perception. It also includes other more complex processes, such as attention, concentration, learning and memory. As you can imagine, cognitive functioning effects everything you do. When people experience weaknesses or impairments in their cognitive functioning, they often have problems with daily living.
What can cause cognitive impairments
Cognitive impairments can be caused by a variety of things including both neurological and psychological illness. Common causes of cognitive impairments include: neurological illness, neurodegenerative disease, traumatic brain injury, depression, anxiety, psychosis, excessive drug and alcohol use, pre-natal toxin exposure.
What is the difference between a psychologist and a Neuropsychologist?
A neuropsychologist is a clinical psychologist with specialized training in evaluation and diagnosis of neurological and psychiatric disorders. A psychologist typically relies on a clinical interview and self-report of symptoms to evaluate emotional and learning difficulties. However, advanced training in neuropsychology is required to accurately assess cognition. Accurate assessment of cognitive difficulties is necessary for diagnosing learning disabilities, neurodevelopmental disorders (Intellectual disability, ADHD) and any other psychiatric or neurological illness or condition that impacts cognition.
What is the Difference between a Neurologist and a Neuropsychologist?
Both professionals provide diagnosis of neurological illness but rely on different methods to formulate their opinions. A neurologist relies on a physical exam, review of relevant medical records and diagnostic imaging (i.e., brain MRI and CT scans). While a neuropsychologist may review medical records and imaging to confirm diagnosis, they typically rely self reported symptoms, and objective assessments of cognition, emotions and behavior. This enables the clinician to provide an accurate estimate of current functional limitations and determine effective lifestyle modifications or treatment recommendations to improve daily functioning. Neurologists often refer patients to neuropsychologists to get a better understanding of how neurological illness and emotional difficulties are impacting daily functioning.
Is insurance accepted?
Regrettably NeuroAnalytics, LLC was recently forced to make the difficult decision to go out of network. Dr. Perrin fully appreciates that the people with the greatest need for care are often the ones who have the hardest times accessing it. This is why when she started the practice eight years ago, she had such a strong desire to do everything in her capacity to ensure that people of limited means have the same access to services as people from affluence. This is what inspired her, in spite of considerable advice from her mentors and colleagues, to establish contracts with several national insurance providers and to help students and others with limited financial resources to identify strategies to meet their co-pay requirements. This is also what inspired her to devote considerable staff time and resources to addressing the challenges to obtaining reimbursement.
Over the last two years, the practice lost an egregious amount of money because hundreds of our insurance claims were denied; often with no justification provided, making it impossible to address. Insurance challenges became increasingly difficult to overcome and started to interfere with our ability to provide exceptional care to our patients. Staff time that should have been devoted to working with patients had to be devoted to addressing insurance denials, resulting in lengthy wait times and delayed correspondence. Despite the considerable time, effort and money devoted to addressing the issues, to date, most of the claims remain unpaid.
It is standard practice at NeuroAnalytics to confirm eligibility before scheduling or providing care to our patients and in the past, we rarely had difficulties getting reimbursed. As such, the insurance issues were unanticipated and for a long time, we remained optimistic that we would be able to resolve the issue. However, in light of the financial difficulties caused by the outstanding claims, several providers were forced to seek employment elsewhere. The financial loss nearly devastated the practice and certainly disheartened the practitioners. Through this experience, Dr. Perrin realized that her unwavering dedication to her individual patients was compromising her commitment to the practice and her ability to serve the surrounding community. As such, she was forced to make the difficult decision to resort to private pay.
NeuroAnalytics will continue to help our patients identify strategies to cover the cost of the services and evalutions and we are hopeful that the individual consumer will have more success addressing the insurance reimbursement issue. Prior to the initial appointment, we will provide the required documentation to verify coverage and a receipt will be provided at the initial visit, which can be submitted to request reimbursement. Coverage and reimbursement policies vary by insurance carrier, so it is highly recommended that you contact your insurance company in advance to determine coverage.
Like many of our patients, we are in the process of recovery, but we are very optimistic that we will continue to provide excellent care to our patients and serve our community because of our unwavering desire to do so.
What is The cost of a Neuropsychological evaluation?
The cost of the evaluation varies depending on the presenting issues and purpose of the evaluation. Prior to scheduling, Dr. Perrin or Dr. Fabius will briefly discuss the nature of your concerns and the primary objective for testing. Following this discussion, we will provide an estimate of the final cost, as well as the relevant procedural codes necessary to apply for insurance reimbursement. There is no charge for the initial consultation.