The Evaluation Process
At Oceanside Evaluations (OSE), the team spends an average of 13 to 17 hours per evaluation. We work together and sometimes even have more than one practice member working with a client to provide a multi-disciplinary approach. Our staff has collectively evaluated hundreds of children over 15 years of practice, providing you with the best clinical expertise.
Oceanside Evaluations does NOT accept health insurance for testing, with the exception of Tricare. This is because almost all health insurance companies severely limit psychological, psychoeducational, and neuropsychological testing to “answering” one question. This means that the insurance company dictates what we can do and limits us to a “yes or no” response rather than allowing us to use the testing process to “explain” a child and what they need for success.
Here are some things that help us stand out:
Private Pay clients who are unsure that they need an assessment or how involved an assessment is necessary may schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation with one of our doctors. After that session, you can decide how you want to move forward.
Tricare clients need to book an intake appointment, at which time it will be determined if testing is medically necessary.
Private Pay clients are often (more than 80%) reimbursed by their insurance company for at least a portion of the testing. This is called a “superbill.”
All clients participate in an Intake Session/Clinical Interview to review background information and discuss more specific concerns. These are usually about 50 minutes.
Our assessments are done in person and designed specifically for you. The evaluations administered are not chosen by an insurance employee who does not know you. We try to complete all testing in one day to help limit the time away from school/work. Depending on what all needs to be evaluated and the individual testing, the assessment session(s) can take from two to eight hours.
If there is a concern noticed during testing, we can change what assessments are given to answer the new question. (Insurances do not allow us to do this.)
Questionnaires and surveys help us understand the client outside of the testing situation. These are usually sent to important people in the child’s life (teachers, parents, grandparents, family friends, coaches, etc.) via email and allow us to understand the child in additional contexts. These are also “norm-referenced,” meaning they provide us with statistically sound data about the child.
The evaluation process involves more than just the time we spend with the client. It also involves scoring all tests, reviewing all documentation, and interpreting the results along with the background information to generate recommendations specific to you.
We offer diagnoses for all of our reports; not all psychologists are licensed to do that.
A diagnosis is not required and, therefore, does not have to go on a medical record. It is necessary to create a superbill, however, if you hope to be reimbursed by your insurance company.
A 50-minute Feedback Session is part of the evaluation process, unless otherwise noted.
A full report with strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations that you may share as you see fit is also provided. The report is written after the feedback session and goes through a peer-review process before you get to review it. We welcome your feedback!
We are part of your team! We also offer follow-up as needed.
Tricare clients have the option to add on services that Tricare does not cover (such as educational testing that is not billed to Tricare). Otherwise, we will limit our evaluation to the referral question only, as required by Tricare.
