Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment cost of IQ & achievement testing

Hmm. Interesting. The first time dd9 was tested, her GAI qualified for DYS, but the doctoral student who tested her didn't even put the GAI in his report. I just looked it up online b/c I knew enough to realize that scores at or above the 99th percentile for both PRI and VCI and avg scores for WMI and PSI were likely to invalidate the composite IQ score he put in his report. He, too, was overseen by a licensed psych at the uni but I assumed that the scores were kind of worthless in terms of using for anything.

Our psychologist we found (we have to travel about 2.5 hours to get to her) does testing for $250.00 for each test and that includes a written report and meeting afterwards to discuss the results of any/all tests. We called several other psych/testers and were given rates of between $575.00 to $1500.00. We were amazed at such a HUGE spread in costs!

I was just going to ask a related question... We are also looking for someone to test my DS10 so we can figure out whether we apply for DYS. Someone told me that healthy insurance should cover psychological evaluations, but when I called my insurance they said there is no coverage unless it is for the diagnosis for mental disorders. Is this the generally the situation?

I wouldn't expect insurance to cover iq testing.

Insurance often pays for IQ testing as part of evaluations for developmental delays, ADHD, Asperger's, etc.

Our insurance didn't cover the cost of dd9's second testing b/c her pediatrician didn't feel that she needed an eval. In order for them to pay, she would have had to have been referred by the ped, had significant delays, and the eval would have needed to turn up a dx other than gifted, which it did not.

Insurance paid for our child's IQ and acheivement testing. He had significant developmental delays and was referred by the pediatrician. I agree that makes sense. However, the last condition (having to turn up another diagnosis) seems very odd to me and I question if that is correct. Wouldn't that be like telling someone if were tested for anemia but turned out to be just fine you'd owe the insurance the money back for the blood test.

The average rate in the Boston area for a full neuropsychological evaluation is between 2500 and 3000. This would include WISC, achievement testing and other cognitive testing.

Some testing centers such as Mass General, Children's and Leslie College may be able to provide the WISC and Achievement only for less money. Commonwealth Learning Center might be another option.

I kind of got the impression from our insurance that they weren't going to be paying and were trying to find a way to make sure that they didn't have to pay. I didn't pursue it b/c it just seemed like it wasn't something that we were going to get our $ back on regardless of the dx. Also, there seemed to be a bit of difficulity with the psych in terms of getting her to play by their rules in terms of making the paperwork look like something the insurance would process.

What the insurance co. said was that they needed an ICD-9 code to even process it as a claim and the psych said that she couldn't put a diagnostic code on the bill when she didn't dx her with anything. The insurance said that, in the absence of a diagnosis, there would be nothing to process -- like a dr's office sending them a bill for $1400 with no code, just what tests they ran.

In any case (and re the original question), as I mentioned, we paid $1400.

We have a large HMO and our pediatrician said he was willing to refer us for testing but that we'd have to be willing to say we were trying to rule out ADHD. At that point, I didn't want any mention of anything in his medical records because we knew his teacher was off her rocker. That was the only way the ped said he was able to get it done.

We paid out of pocket for IQ (2x) and achievement (1x). Our total, including a private consultation with the tester each time the IQ was completed was about $900. Our tester has a very small private practice and is also a school psych for a very large school district near us. She had plenty of experience testing gifted children and did a fabulous job.

Our University charges $75 for a GT evaluation (IQ only). It's hit or miss if you'll get a good tester, someone who has experience with little kids (ours did not) or someone who is even interested in gifted issues, let alone has tested a gifted child before.