Counting Assessment Hours

[Grenth]

At the practicum site I'm at I assumed I would get few assessment hours which is fine because I wanted experience with interventions with this setting/population and plan to have an assessment heavy practicum site next year. The way it's set up there is that when patients check in they do 10-30 minutes of screeners on a computer that include a mix of required self-report measures and self-report measures that can be selected by the provider. A typical patient would do a PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL-5, and an ISI. I review the results for a minute before I start the session and then review with the patient at the start of the session. I always include the results in my notes as part of tracking progress and also if there were any red flags or patient concerns.

All that to say is my supervisor mentioned I should/could be counting this as assessment hours. I have not been counting them because I don't want to look like I'm trying to pad hours with these self-report measures versus true assessments that I could use for an integrated report. Also so it's clear I would never ever try and spin these into an integrated report which I've heard some students do (not at my site). What would you recommend I do in this situation, count or not count?

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[WisNeuro]

I'd read the updated APPIC rules, but I would not count these as assessment hours. Even if APPIC says it's fine, I would not consider these as assessment when looking at internship apps or interviewing candidates.

 

[Grenth]

I'd read the updated APPIC rules, but I would not count these as assessment hours. Even if APPIC says it's fine, I would not consider these as assessment when looking at internship apps or interviewing candidates.

Thank you. That was my inclination (because I spend too much on this forum). APPIC is vague just saying "Summarize your practicum assessment experience in providing psycho diagnostic and neuropsychological assessments. You must enter the estimated total number of face-to-face client contact hours administering instruments and providing feedback to clients/patients. Do not include the activities of scoring and report writing, which should instead be included in the Support Activities section.". My TD did not have a clear guideline for me either and said that he's seen it both ways. Ultimately, I'm fine on hours so counting them wouldn't help too much if at all and I don't want to risk looking bad.

 

[WisNeuro]

If you are doing a full diagnostic assessment and measuring psych symptoms, sure, count it. If you are briefly keeping track of symptoms in the normal course of therapy, it's just part of the intervention.

 

[Grenth]

If you are doing a full diagnostic assessment and measuring psych symptoms, sure, count it. If you are briefly keeping track of symptoms in the normal course of therapy, it's just part of the intervention.

That makes sense thank you and that's what I will do. The reason this topic came up in the first place is I was just taught it is department policy to code these sessions as both 90837 for therapy and 96127 for emotional/behavioral assessment and I started wondering what the difference was between the coding definition and the APPIC definition as I would never have considered these as assessments the way I think of them.