PLEASE HELP!! HOW MUCH DID YOUR PSYCH EVALUATION COST?

wow thats alot mine was 3 hours long and it was $300.00

Judi, I have to agree with everyone else, that is highway robbery!!! Mine sent me tons of questionaires to fill out , and I brought them with me to my psych eval. with the psychologist . We talked a little over an hour with him.(had to bring hubby w/me) my insurance was billed around $300, and all I paid was $15 copay. Of course thats the only thing my insurance has paid for so far-but thats another story!! Good luck to you. Tracee R.

Judi, that sounds extremly excessive, i live in NYC and i only paid 250.00 for 90 mins. you should perhaps choose some one else, Lord bless, Miriam

Judi, When the bill comes in, all you have to do is write a letter to the Psy Dr. stating that you were quoted $114.00 for the visit prior to making your appointment. That your insurance has already paid them $600.00 and due to this, you want her to write off the remainder of the bill. (No I feel or I believe, just state that you want her to do this.) I have done that before and they did. They can't give you a quote and them price hike you. Good Luck with that!!! Hugs, Ginger

WOW....In my opinion they are totally ripping you off! Now, I am in Alabama and rates here may be different than where you are from-- But the MOST I have heard anyone here pay for the psych eval is $300.00. I think you are most appropriate to question the charges and to mention this to your physician as well.

My psych eval was $250, I paid a $25 co-pay and BC paid the remainder. It was about 45 minute interview.

Wow! Mine was 50ish minutes, the insurance was billed $95 and I paid my $15 copay.

Thank you AMOS friends for your wonderful help and advice. UPDATE: My surgeon was not requiring psychological testing in addition to the interview, all he wanted was an okay from a psychologist or psychiatrist that I would be able to go through the surgery and be compliant to the regimen afterwards. While you all were posting your replies, I did some research, and here is what I found out: Psychiatrists (with an M.D. or a D.O. degree after their name) only charge between $193-$200 per hour and would only require 1-2 hours Maximum interview to assess me (no testing) so that would be a maximum from an M.D. or D.O. of $200-$400!! Another psychologist here in our area would charge $140 per hour for a maximum of 3-6 hours ($840 max) but that they would accept whatever the insurance paid. I have a call in to the administrator of the psychologist's office and am waiting for their reply. I am going to request that they accept what my insurance is paying and not charge over that amount. So far their "defense" has been that they have a sliding scale rate. Well, between my husband and I, I knew that we would not be eligible for financial discounts, and I didn't fill out those forms because it was just more personal information that would be given out. But IMHO, that is beside the point. An outrageous charge is an outrageous charge. Again, thank you all for your help. I also have written down the amounts that you all told me, including what state you were from and I'm going to mention those amounts to the administrator when he calls back. It seems like $200-$350 is the average here on the board and that is across the entire country. Thank you. You all have been wonderful! -Judi

You said he was not requiring testing but just wanted an okay that you would be able to go thru the surgery and comply with the program afterwards. Well, this is all they all want BUT the only way for the psych doc to tell them that is to TEST you. We have nearly 100% had to have the testing. The doc can't just look at you once and tell your surgeon you are okay.

Hi Delores, From what I'm able to tell from the board, people are about evenly divided between how many took psychological testing in addition to the interview and how many just took 1 or more interviews alone. Perhaps I'm mistaken (I've certainly been before!) but it seems to me from what I've read here and in the past, that this is about 50% on either side. Also, I would think that a good psychiatrist or psychologist doing a thorough interview and asking the right probing questions with the right followup questions should be able to determine if I was a suitable candidate for WLS. A really thorough initial interview might take 2 or even 3 hours, but apparently the personality inventory written tests aren't necessarily required to do make a judgment call on my ability to go through WLS. As a side note, my psychologist put on my written test that it was "False-positive" so evidently she was relying on the interview itself instead of the written exam. I didn't mean to imply that the psychiatrists or psychologists would just briefly look me over and make a snap decision as to whether or not I could go through WLS. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that. P.S. I'm still waiting for the admnistrator to call me back! -Judi