Welcome Specializing in the assessment for: • DYSLEXIA • ADD/ADHD • LEARNING DISORDERS • EXTENDED TIME & ACCOMMODATIONS FOR STANDARDIZED EXAM Tele-Neuropsychology Evaluations Through Zoom All evaluations are conducted at your home through HIPAA compliant Zoom video conferencing, which are the same evaluations that are traditionally conducted in offices. This means that Dr. Smith can conduct evaluations for anyone who is anywhere in Michigan. Dr. Smith is a licensed psychologist and neuropsychologist and is a consultant for the Michigan Dyslexia Institute and provides comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations for Dyslexia, ADHD and other Learning Disorders at the Michigan Dyselxia Institute Abrams Teaching Laboratory in Lansing and at the Michigan Dyselxia Institute Detroit Metro Center in Berkley Michigan. Dr. Smith does not submit bills to or participate with insurance companies. Payment is expected on the day of service, which can be made online through Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover cards. Dr. Smith will provide you with an itemized statement with applicable procedure and diagnostic codes needed for you to submit a claim to your insurance company. Most insurance companies allow you to consult non participating providers and allow you to submit a billing statement for reimbursement. Many insurance carriers reimburse the cost for part or all of evaluation services, even from non-participating providers. Please check with your insurance company prior to the appointments to determine reimbursement. If You Are Seeking Accommodations Make Sure You Read This • The scrutiny and documentation requirements required when applying for accommodations requires added time to complete an evaluation, which increases the cost of doing such an evaluation. This is especially true if you are a high school or college student and have not previously been diagnosed with a learning disorder or ADHD. • Adults and teens with learning disabilities or ADHD may be able to qualify to receive additional time for tests at school or in high-stakes testing situations ( SAT , ACT , MCAT , LSAT , GRE , GMAT , USMLE etc). • The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal civil rights law intended to make many locations and activities more accessible to people with disabilities by requiring reasonable accommodations (modifications) that help people to compensate for their disability sufficiently to perform their job or take a test that will accurately show their true ability. People with learning disabilities in reading (dyslexia), writing or math and ADHD are recognized disabilities under the ADA. • Remember, that trying to qualify for services or accommodations is a legal matter as much as it is a clinical matter. • A doctor's diagnosis and recommendation does not guarantee you will be granted the requested accommodation. • Also a diagnosis alone is not enough to be covered under the ADA. The ADA also requires that the individual be "substantially limited" by their disability in order to qualify for protection under the ADA. • Each organization such as a school or an organization that administers high-stakes standardized tests has their own consultants who review the written evaluation report and other documentation and these separate organizations then make their own decision whether the individual qualifies for accommodations. The decisions made by these organizations may or may not review the evaluation or interpret the law correctly when deciding whether an individual qualifies for accommodations. • Sometimes an organization will deny an application for accommodations by challenging the accuracy of the diagnosis that has been made. At other times an organization may accept the diagnosis, but challenges whether the individual is disabled enough to be considered "substantially limited" under the ADA. • Remember though, that these decisions are matters of opinions about the diagnosis or the interpretation of the ADA law, which are not always accurate or fair. The individual who is denied ADA accommodations may appeal the decision. Remember though that the appeal will be reviewed by the same people who made the original denial. Sometimes organizations are fair, while other organizations use unreasonable criteria in their review of accommodations requests. Consequently, individuals may have no alternative, but to hire a lawyer and engage in a prolonged and expensive legal process in order to try and get a fair review of their request. Some of these organizations have been repeatedly sued over their review process. • The written report of an evaluation used to request ADA accommodations must try to anticipate as much as possible the objections and challenges that an organization may use to deny a request. Therefore a written report used for request ADA accommodations is much more extensive and takes much longer to write than a typical clinical written report. Consequently, evaluations being used for this purpose cost much more than typical clinical evaluations. Michigan Dyslexia Institute