Go to our Intake Forms and Questionnaires page for a step-by-step guide.
The intake is the beginning of the assessment process, and also an opportunity for you to ask questions and get oriented to the different services that may be helpful to you. Your intake worker will ask questions to get a clear idea of what questions and concerns you have that you’re hoping an evaluation can help with. The other goal of an intake appointment is for us to get a broad perspective on your life, both past and present. When working with a child, we explain the process to both the parent(s) and the child. When appropriate, we will also meet with the child to understand the child’s perspective about their issues and concerns.
During the initial intake appointment, your clinician will make recommendations on which of our evaluations can be most helpful. You will then have the opportunity to discuss insurance coverage and out-of-pocket costs that may be associated with our services. The current out-of- pocket fee structure is as follows:
Initial Intake Assessment: $90
Clinical Intake Assessment: $175
Basic Psychological Evaluation: $2,500
Neuropsychological Evaluation with a Focus on ADHD $3000
Extensive Psychological Evaluation $3500
Neuropsychological Evaluation with a focus on ADHD and ASD: $5000
Extended Neuropsychological and Extensive Psychological Evaluation: $6000
Educational Evaluation: $1,200
Speech and Language Evaluation: $950
Summary meeting, to discuss testing results: no charge
Consultation Services: $200 per hour
IEP/504/ Report Review Meeting Attendance (60-90 min): $250 per provider
*Note: your insurance may cover some or most of these appointments. Please refer to the lists below for insurances that we do or do not accept.
Aetna
Boston Medical Center (Beacon)/BMCHP
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (We are in-network for some out-of-state Blue Cross plans but not all of them. We will let you know once we have received your referral/personal information form and reviewed your insurance cards.)
GIC/Unicare
Harvard Pilgrim
Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership (MBHP)
Tricare/Humana
Tufts Health Public Plans
UMR
United Behavioral Health/Optum
United Healthcare/Optum
Cigna
Commonwealth Care Alliance
Health New England
Medicare (this is NOT the same as MassHealth or Medicaid, which we do accept)
Tufts Health Navigator, and other Tufts commercial plans US Family Health Insurance
If you have any of the above insurances as your primary insurance, services will likely not be covered at Learning Solutions. Even if you have MassHealth as a secondary insurance plan, they will not cover visits here if your primary insurance is not accepted.
Some plans that we do not accept (particularly, Cigna) may have good out-of-network benefits. This means that they will reimburse the client (you) after the client pays for services themselves. In such cases, the out-of-pocket costs listed above will be due on the date of service; receipts will be provided, for the client to obtain reimbursement from their insurance company directly.
If your health care or mental health care provider has referred you for an evaluation, we find it very helpful to have a letter that explains their reasons for the referral. This helps us coordinate care more effectively. MassHealth plans managed by the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership (MBHP) require a referral letter before authorizing psychological testing services. It is best if Learning Solutions has this letter by at least three weeks prior to the client’s evaluation date (so we can obtain a prior authorization from your insurance company, to provide coverage for the testing). If providers have questions about referral letters, they can be directed to call our office at (413) 584-0265.
Our billing office will be glad to assist you if you need to make financial arrangements for an existing balance or upcoming expense. For payment arrangements or questions, please contact our office at (413) 584-0265, and we will direct you to the appropriate person.
We urge all our clients to be effective consumers and ask questions about fees and insurance coverage for our services. Evaluation services are time and labor intensive, and thus costly to provide. We will work to give you basic information on your insurance coverage, but we also strongly encourage you to contact your carrier directly and inquire about coverage.
Our evaluations are in-depth and thoughtful, and therefore take a considerable amount of time. Our team members spend at least a full workday on each evaluation they do. Late cancelations or failure to show for an appointment has a significant impact on our ability to provide services. If you think you might need to cancel or postpone your evaluation, we ask that you provide us with five business days' notice. This gives us the opportunity to fill that appointment time.
As independent evaluators, we can provide you with recommendations that can help in building your child's IEP or 504 Plans. Learning Solutions can also offer you guidance on how to effectively collaborate with your child’s school around our findings. However, we do not directly write IEP goals or independently determine accommodations. Instead, our evaluation may be used to support the need for certain goals or accommodations.
If needed, for an additional fee, Learning Solutions can attend a IEP or 504 meeting with you. We can also offer you guidance and outside resources to answer your questions about the IEP and 504 Process.
We strive to establish a collaborative approach to working with schools, with the mindset that everyone has children's best interests at the forefront of their decision-making.
For Speech and Language and Educational evaluations, please take your prescription medication as you normally do. For Neuropsychological evaluations, our recommendations vary depending on age, the medication, and what tests will be administered. Please call our office for guidance.
You or your child will only be scheduled for only those evaluations which are appropriate to help address your questions and concerns. During the intake, a clinician will explain the various evaluations offered by Learning Solutions. The clinician will then discuss which of those evaluations are recommended, their purpose, and how they can be helpful.
An assessment of how your child produces sounds (articulation) is only one small part of a speech and language evaluation at our clinic. A comprehensive assessment will formally evaluate multiple aspects of your child’s communication skills (including vocabulary, grammar, receptive and expressive language, and auditory language processing). We will also assess your child’s abilities to use these language skills to carry out complex tasks, (such as reasoning, problem-solving, social pragmatic communication, and storytelling). A speech and language evaluation can identify or rule out the presence of a language-based learning disability. It can also reveal specific areas of weakness that may impact your child’s ability to use language effectively, both in academic settings and in social situations. Language weaknesses in many of these areas often go unnoticed, or are mistaken for other conditions, particularly among children who may be well-liked, well-behaved, or otherwise "well-spoken."
A social pragmatic language evaluation assesses the skills needed to comprehend, navigate, and participate in social interactions. These include direct skills such as reading nonverbal cues (including facial expressions), engaging in conversations appropriately (including topic maintenance and turn-taking), taking the perspectives of others, and understanding non-literal, abstract, and figurative uses of language.
Language skills that are adjacent to and correlated with social communication are also assessed. These include metalinguistic skills such as inferential reasoning, problem-solving, predicting, and using context to make reasoned judgments and decisions, as well as to make educated guesses. Academically, metalinguistic abilities are needed to understand the different steps required to carry out assignments, formulate hypotheses, complete higher-level reading comprehension tasks, and interpret word story problems in math.
Individuals who struggle with social communication but whose deficits do not rise to the level of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may meet the diagnostic criteria for a Social Pragmatic Communication Disorder. A social pragmatic language evaluation can provide targeted recommendations and interventions for individuals who struggle with any aspects of social communication or higher-level reasoning and problem-solving.