Psych Evaluations

Hi Everyone,
I hope you are having a blessed day. ! The sun is shining brightly here even though it got down into the sub freezing temps here this morning.
  Well, last week I went for my  "psych evaluation". I had to take a Psy. in Morganton because she was one of the few who were accepting new patients before the date I hope to have surgery. What an experience !
I was wondering if mine was anything like the ones the other people here  have gone through ? First of all this Psych. said we had to pay upfront 450 bucks for the evaluation and she would file my medicare... she said her fee was actually higher than the 450 she was going to charge upfront, but we had to assign payment to her. Next she said she "liked to do her evaluations in 3 parts". The first part was she talked to you one on one for about 30 minutes or so. Next you had to take 3 different psych tests which in total took about 4 hours(true false questions)
Next you had to send to her the last 5 years of your medical records and when she scored your tests and looked over your medical records she would call you to make an appointment for the last part , which was to go over tests  and talk to you about her recommendation. She was pretty high on her haunches about how they wouldnt touch me to do the surgery unless she gave the go ahead. That Medicare looked at her recommendations very seriously before they would ok the surgery. She warned me not to lie on the test... that it would show up on the test and look bad on me.... I felt like a criminal who was being given a lie detector test . Anyone who has taken these tests know they are true /false and open to interpretation. None make a lot of sense. I dont know about anyone else , but I find it odd that she can demand my medical records along with all the other things she has already done. I feel violated, I dont feel it is really much of her business  what the medical aspects of my records say.To me it feels as if she is judging me by what is in my records..as to if I am just a fat person lying about being fat and needing help to get rid of the fat to live longer. She also mentioned that sometimes she makes it a part of her recommendations that you might  "have to do something she requires"
To me if feels like she is saying, " I have you by the balls. You will do as I  tell you to do.  Somehow I can see  somewhere down the line maybe a few more extra visits with her might come into play somewhere down the road before she will write this recommendation" This is where I will blow my stack. Pad your own pocket book huh?
 Pay upfront the 450.00 which isnt much to me as a Psych...if you dont have it to pay now then go home and save it up till you do. Now Im gonna be secretive about exactly how much I do charge for my services. Just pay me the 450.00 plus you must know I charge a 100.00 charge for materials fee( which is  several sheets of paper on which you color true/false in on. The booklets for the tests are used over and over again. I will file  your insurance for you and maybe be able to get a little of it back, ...but of course you are required to assign this payment to me, even though you have paid the 450 upfront. I will say I charge the 100.00 materials fee so I figure that is what your insurance will pay back, so then I can keep it all. Not exactly her words.....but you can see the reasoning behind them. I sure can.
  Im not sure if others have had the same experience with the Psychs they visited or better quicker visits without such strict requirements. If I had known she required a copy of my medical records I could have had them in hand when I walked into this visit. Now I got to take the time to get them once AGAIN.... Im sure my providers will grimace when they see me coming wanting something else from them. I know I will when I have to approach them to ask again to send my life history to this woman.
 Somehow I feel like I have paid someone that doesnt really have my best interests at heart to screw me over literally and figuratively. Can any of you tell me what your visits were like with your psych eval? Sure would be nice to know there are kinder, gentler ones out there. I had to vent a little on this, it has been bothering me all week. Hoping you day/week is going better.
Hugs, Sandra

Doesn't exactly sound like a pleasant experience! Almost like she's looking for you to buy her recommendation. Mine was nothing like that. I talked for an hour with a very pleasant young woman, then took two quite strange true or false exams. Whole thing took about 2.5 hours, maybe. Got my recommendation within 2 weeks. Weird for you. Maybe she should be reported. Sounds like an evil witch! Sorry you had that kind of experience. Like it's not hard enough? Mare

Glad to see that I am not the only one who seemed to think this whole thing was wierd. Did you have to provide your medical records to the Psych? If she comes up with some other off the wall BS I will def. see into  reporting this. Im sure I haven't been the pnly one she has done this to. I sure didnt feel like she was on my side whatsoever....or that she was working for ME....the one who PAID her.   I dont  expect her to cover for me if I clearly do not seem stable enough for the surgery...but coming right out  before we even begin and tell me all this .....something told me right off that this wasn't going to be a typical visit. Hmmmmmm Thanks for your reply loose cannon !

 Sandra

Hi again Sandra,      I certainly did not have to provide her with my medical records. Don't know what that has to do with your psych eval. I would mention this to your surgeon *****commended her also. I wonder if he's aware of this. Good luck, friend. Mare

Sandra~
You had a terrible experience! Mine was nothing like that at all! My Doc had me meet him on a Sunday (yep he works on Sundays).. chatted for about 30 min and then gave me the test and told me not to laugh too hard.. some of the questions were hilarious and I finished them in about an hour and then he faxed over my recommendation and that was it. He also lumped both of my visits into one because he was a hour away from my house so I didnt have to drive back and forth two times. I also did not have to pay one dime for the testing, my insurance paid 100% of all Pre Op tests and the entire surgery (Thank you Tricare!!) I did not have to meet him like yours made you meet her to go over the test results. Im sorry you had such a rough time and what a real B**** she is!

Darcie

Was this a psych that was reccomended? Most surgeons have psychs they prefer to use and who know how to handle the patients that are wanting to have surgery. It almost sounds to me like this person may be anti-WLS or is trying to make $$ by stretching out the psych eval process. While I feel most psych evals arnt good enough, this one sounds like its almost a little too much. My psych eval was a joke... it was less than 1 hour... I was in and out and the psych sent his reccomendation to my surgeon *shrug*

My psych evaluation was done by a doc on my surgeon's list.  He only asked for a co-pay.  He did not ask for my medical records.  The evaluation took several hours but was done in one day.  It included a consultation and the tests.  He even took the time to share the results of the tests with me.  It was not a horrible experience.    However, he did require me to delay my surgery by several months and get therapy (not with him) in the meantime.  I found a therapist and feel that it was a smart move.  While she is obviously on some kinda of power trip or just plain nasty, your psych doc was correct on a few things:  A lot of importance CAN be given to the psych evaluations.  You MAY be asked to do some things like attend a support group, delay your surgery, or get therapy.  And, it IS best to be as honest as possible on the tests -- they are designed to defeat unconscious and conscious subterfuge anyway.    I would find another doc since you are so unhappy with this one.  You may have to drive further or adjust the date you would like to have surgery, but it should be worth it.  Why give money to, or spend time with, someone you don't like, right? 

I'm soooo sorry to hear that you've had such a difficult experience. I hope it gets better. My psych eval was done through my program at Duke. They have two full-time staff psychiatrists there that specialize in WLS patients specifically and eating disorders in general. When I filled out my paperwork for the program at Duke there was a battery questions I had to fill out. When I met with the Dr., she talked with me about my perceptions of what would happen, how I would handle x, y, z situations, etc... We talked about the fact that I suffer from severe clinical depression and each of our concerns about how the depression might affect my WLS journey and how my WLS might affect my depression. We agreed that I should and would seek additional support. She had access to all of my medical records, but didn't ask to see them specifically. She had access to my physical and mental health providers. She did talk with them, with my permission of course.

I must say that I never felt threatened or subjigated. I felt (and still feel) that she was (and is) looking out for my best interests.

I also have medicare, but I use a medicare advantage plan. I have to call for a pre-authorization prior to seeing a mental health provider. Once I have that in hand, they will cover all but $45 of each mental health visit.

I hope that this information is helpful to you and I wish you all the best as you "jump through the hoops" necessary to get the procedure approved.

Wishing you all the best in your journey to a healthier you,

Barb

Thanks everyone for your replies. To answer a few questions   yes this psych was on the list of ones I could choose from. Unluckily she was the only one accepting new patients.  There were a few  I would have prefered to see in Hickory but they either didnt take Medicare, werent accepting new patients or wouldnt even let me self pay if they knew I had medicare I had to pay upfront before this woman would even talk to me.... Im not sure what everyone else had to pay for a psych evaluation.....be interedted to know what is normal in and around NC but I paid 450....and she was very vaugue as to what her total charges were simply saying " My charge is much more than the 450 you are paying upfront and BTW I  require you to pay 100.00 for  materials fee. ( The three pages I had to check true/false on) The booklets themselves were reused....so I guess I paid 100.00 for three sheets of paper.     I actually had 3 tests....2 short ones and the long typical MMPI 2 . It bugs me that I have to turn over medical records, which I feel are really none of her business. I am a private person and do not like to divulge information that I cannot deem as truly needed. To me it seemed as if she was checking to see if I was lying about my medical conditions. I had to provide all this one time before to the SWL Program...and if they are supposedly working together cant they share and look over my medical information that is in my file already. Sheesh !

  I'd love to be able to go to another  Psych but already shelled out the buck to see this one but I think I will ask Dr Cook exactly what the role of the  PSYCH is  their operation and if it is common for these things to happen. If not then maybe it will alert them to  what is going on.....and this one in particular will be questioned or talken off their  list of approved Psychs.  I hope no one else  has to go through this.  Take Care, Sandra

Sandra,

There are (in my opinion) some "red flags" in your post with this person.  I had an unprofessional psyc visit myself in Greenville.  I'm going to post about it (probably later tonight or tomorrow) so others can see what happened to me. I am PISSED at the host of false information and lies in my report and will be contacting my insurance company as to how to get this removed from my medical records.  I am probably also going to speak to someone at the Board about not only the unprofessionalism I experienced, but also about the list of inaccuracies in my report.  I will be copying Dr. MacDonald and his office as well as the doctor herself.  I went ballistic yesterday when I got and read the copy of what she "surmised" from our brief visit that she sent my doctor. You have the right to your records.  I suggest you immediately request and get a copy of EVERYTHING in your records with this person. 

And good luck!  If you have insurance he/she accepts, something is fishy about you having to pay all up front.  We have to be our own advocates and I am NOT going to let the "professional" woman who I had to experience put falsehoods in MY permanent medical records.  Just because she has a bunch of letters behind her name doesn't give her the right to record false and incorrect data.