Psycho-Educational Diagnostic Assessment: Why is Testing Expensive?
No matter why you want to get a psycho-educational diagnostic assessment, the most common reasons being for dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, ADD/ADHD, or high functioning autism, there’s little question that the cost is high. In fact, for many people the assessment cost is a major reason why they are unable to get a firm answer whether they have dyslexia or other learning challenges.
Of course, there’s little denying that a psycho-educational diagnostic assessment, although expensive, can open the door to opportunities. Depending on the age and abilities of the client, being identified as having dyslexia or dysgraphia can help access special education services, vocational rehabilitation, special job training, accommodations at work or school, and government benefits. These items do have monetary value, whether it’s the value of services, benefits, or the preservation of jobs and relationships.
With that in mind, why is psycho-educational testing expensive? To answer this question, we’ll consider the price of assessment. Then, we’ll examine different costs associated with testing, such as personnel, materials, and overhead. Finally, we’ll look at different ways to pay for testing, such as insurance and government agencies.
How much does testing cost?
Before we consider the factors that make testing expensive, let’s quickly look at how much testing can cost. For the sake of our discussion, we’ll assume that you are paying for testing at a private psychologist’s office, whether for-profit or non-profit. That’s because private testing costs are what most people find expensive.
With that said, there’s a range of pricing that depends on the examiner’s qualifications, type of testing, and other factors. As a rule, there are two basic types of testing: relatively brief screenings, and comprehensive workups. Your goals for testing will likely help decide which type to get: for many accommodations or disability-related benefits, you’ll often need the workup. If you’re curious, the screening is plenty. Pricing-wise, we’ll convert local currencies into British Pounds.
Screening or brief assessment
The first type of dyslexia testing is best described as a screening or brief assessment. Here, the evaluator will usually do a clinical interview and then give brief assessments. These don’t go into a lot of details, such as finding your specific language-based strengths and weaknesses. And because of this, not all organizations will accept them for disability accommodations or services. An exception would be the workplace, however, or you could leverage these assessments to get tutoring on your own dime and other lower-level services.
Whether it is a private clinic, a public university, or an online platform, there are many alternatives that you can search online that do brief assessments. These rates generally range from approximately £450 to £750. These assessments usually include brief reports, and basic testing that doesn’t include intelligence testing. In other words, they assume that their client has intelligence in the normal range and assess based on a pattern of strengths and weaknesses.
Comprehensive psycho-educational assessments
Of course, a brief assessment isn’t suitable for everyone. In many situations, such as educational accommodations and special education, vocational rehabilitation, or when applying for government benefits, you’ll need a comprehensive evaluation. These are much more thorough, and accordingly, far more expensive. You’ll want to find out what kind of assessment is needed. Some agencies have specific requirements for an assessment. The most expensive evaluation of all is one that doesn’t meet your needs and needs to be redone.
These assessments can range anywhere from a brief assessment that might only look for dyslexia rather than a full spectrum of potential challenges at an approximate price of £600 to more comprehensive evaluations that can cost £820 to £1860 to £3725. Here, your total cost depends on what you need to know, and who your evaluator is writing the reports for. In addition, there can be consultation fees as needed, especially for educational and vocational goals. This is quite a price swing, though, to be fair the highest prices are likely in high-cost cities and involve lots of other medical services.
Why so expensive?
While costs vary widely based on your location and the level of assessment you need, there’s little question that it’s a significant cost. That’s especially true for people in the United States, where medical costs are infamously high. And unfortunately, those high costs even extend to psychoeducational testing. With that in mind, what determines the price of dyslexia testing? Generally speaking, it’s a combination of professional services pricing, materials, and overhead. Let’s break these down.
Professional services costs
No matter where you’re located, the primary cost for dyslexia testing is professional services. Depending on the level of testing, you might work with speech pathologists, specialist teachers, psychologists, and others. That’s because, in some situations, the evaluation will include input by professionals that can rule out other causes for the academic challenges faced by each client. For example, someone with a speech-related challenge might struggle with some parts of standard dyslexia tests.
And, each type of professional involved in the evaluation can have a high salary and costly education. For instance, in the United States, a doctorate in Psychology costs $98000-$132000 (£73000-£98000). They also take upwards of four years to complete, beyond an undergraduate university degree. In other words, these professionals have spent at least 8 years beyond secondary school to become a psychologist. Then, they need to gain and maintain a professional license in most jurisdictions. This is expensive, and the price of services needs to account for it.
Likewise, it’s expensive to become a speech pathologist. Estimated costs, including a Master’s degree, are about half of the psychology degree. However, that’s still plenty of tuition, fees, studying, and even living expenses to pay. Costs vary from one country to another, but speech pathologists tend to be highly paid professionals. Special education master’s degrees run about the same as speech pathology programs, even though they don’t generally get paid as much. Once again, the price of services needs to fairly compensate the professional.
Assessments are time consuming
Here’s the thing. Most people think about the time commitment that clients must make to the assessment. In most cases, clients will only spend 4-5 hours with their evaluators. Comprehensive testing can take longer, especially with non-psychologists involved, but this is still less than a day total. However, this is only part of the story. As one clinic in Australia points out, a complete assessment with intelligence testing and academic strengths tests takes 10-15 hours of a psychologist’s time. In other words, it takes up to two working days by the time a report is written.
By the time you add up all the professional hours, both client-facing and behind the scenes, that’s a lot of money. While the assessment and report process often take place over weeks, you can easily see that each psych can only produce an equivalent of 2-3 of these each week. Clients need to pay for all of this time.
It costs money to purchase and administer assessments
While the diagnostic interview only requires staff time, the assessments involve materials costs. For a thorough workup, the psychologist generally gives a wide range of psychological tests. These tests help rule out other problems and identifies each client’s unique set of strengths and weaknesses.
Another psychologist in Australia expresses the materials cost as a combination of purchase price and ongoing fees for client-specific materials. Just an intelligence test, for example, costs thousands of pounds. Then, they usually pay over a hundred pounds more in those per-client costs. Assessors all over the world will have to pay for test books and materials all over the world, so this isn’t unique.
Evaluators often have significant overhead
Finally, each evaluator is likely to have significant overhead. These costs are lower in some circumstances, such as universities, and higher in expensive geographic locations. However, this is a quick overview of what psychology offices need to pay to stay in business.
Rent and utilities
Probably the biggest expense for most offices is rent. In most places, rent for clinical spaces is rather high. In addition, an office of this type has a relatively large area relative to the number of people occupying it. And, whether the utilities are included with rent or paid separately, it’s literally necessary to keep the lights on.
Support staff
Generally speaking, there will be a receptionist or office manager of some type. Then, there are people who process insurance claims, patient billing, and bookkeeping. Cleaning and other staff are sometimes needed, too. Costs include wages, taxes, benefits, and insurance for each employee.
Professional and liability insurance
In most jurisdictions, psychologists need professional liability insurance. This pays claimants in case of malpractice, negligence, and other failures in professional responsibility or ethics. Likewise, there should be liability protection on the practice as a whole.
Compliance costs
Finally psychology offices need to worry about compliance with all regulations in their jurisdiction. This can include practice-related reporting, taxes, and professional licensing fees. While these all vary widely by location, in many cases the costs add up quickly.
Paying for your dyslexia testing
Now that we understand the costs associated with dyslexia assessments, let’s look at ways you might be able to pay for some or all of the costs.
Health insurance
Often, health insurance won’t pay for purely education-related psychological testing. But, there are exceptions to the rule. In addition, if there might be a medical explanation for the reading difficulties, such as premature birth, they’ll sometimes pay.
School systems
In some jurisdictions, schools help to pay the cost of testing. Sometimes the testing is performed by a school psychologist, for example. They’re also a great source of referrals for potential funding sources, too.
Charities
Check in with the dyslexia associations for your area. Often, they’ll have access to resources and referrals that can help with the price of an assessment. For example, some children’s charities will help with high healthcare costs, including psychological services.
Government agencies
The United States has a network of vocational rehabilitation agencies. These are statewide, and their mission is to help adults with disabilities enter, re-enter, and remain in the workforce. Often, part of this process is assessments to determine what each client’s strengths and weaknesses are. Services are paid for primarily through government funding.
Financing
Finally, you might be able to get some form of healthcare financing. While this might not be the ideal solution, if you can afford to pay the loan, you’ll at least get the testing you need.
Psychological testing of all types is expensive. That’s especially true for dyslexia and other learning challenge assessments. However, the cost is justified when you consider the costs of professional services and overhead. Luckily, for many people these assessments open the door to whatever kind of support they need, or at least answer questions about their past struggles.
Lexicon Reading Center also offers Psycho-Educational Diagnostic Assessments. Learn more here or, to receive our advice based on your self-assessment, please download our free checklist below:
