Bariatric psychological assessments should be completed by fully licensed mental health providers, including psychologists, clinical social workers, counseling professionals, marriage and family therapists, or mental health therapists. According to the ASMBS: It is also expected that evaluating clinicians hold a professional license that authorizes them to formulate a clinical diagnosis according to DSM-IV criteria. Additionally, their license should authorize them to conduct psychological evaluations, perform psychotherapy or counseling of adults with an Axis I or Axis II clinical diagnosis or other psychological conditions that may be a focus of clinical attention as outlined in the DSM-IV, and administer and interpret psychological tests.

ASMBS does not endorse nor require this training to be able to conduct bariatric psychological evaluations.

4 one one-on-one, hour-long, coaching sessions concluding with detailed step-by-step plans on what to complete in between sessions to optimize time, and get your practice launched in 8 weeks, versus months of coaching commitment. 

Unlimited email communication. Run into an issue or have a question in between coaching sessions? No problem, email me, and we’ll make a plan.

Online self-paced training for bariatric psychological assessments. Included in this training is 3-4 hours of educational content related to bariatric psychological assessments, including assessment of readiness for surgery, how to complete a biopsychosocial evaluation and a surgeon’s letter, and education for the client that includes a patient-facing PowerPoint and scripting. You will also receive templates for the surgeon’s letter, biopsychosocial evaluation, and client questionnaire. You will also receive documentation examples for the documents listed above. The goal of this training is for you to go from little knowledge of bariatric psychological assessments to being able to perform your first evaluation once you complete the training.

Marketing plan and strategies, marketing scripts and templates. 

Support (and cheerleader!) by an industry expert in the field of bariatric therapy.

Just 8 weeks! No long-term coaching contracts or commitments, you’ll only need 8 weeks to get your practice off the ground or add this niche to your established practice.

The majority of my referrals come straight from bariatric surgeons. It is important to find the bariatric surgeons in your area and contact them to find out if they have internal evaluators. Even if they do have someone conducting evaluations internally, they need to find someone to use for second opinions or conflict of interest cases. Some clients will find me on their own through Google searches. I have a separate website dedicated to bariatric evaluations, so I am easily found. Lastly, I get referrals from other therapists who do not conduct bariatric evaluations.

This varies depending on the area, the number of providers who provide this service, and the wait times for those who are providing these evaluations. You will need to figure out your market tolerance. Many clients have a hard time finding providers who provide bariatric evaluations, so they are more tolerant of higher prices to get them done correctly. Some clients might have already seen a provider who stated they could do the evaluation and then submitted them without the letter, making them unusable. At the very least, it should be 2 hours of your regular therapy rate, as these evaluations can take up to 2 hours.

Yes, though there is not a separate code for these evaluations. You would bill with a normal intake code. You can also charge a fee for the letter to secure additional funds that cover the time these evaluations take while still staying inside your insurance contractual agreements. Many clients are used to using insurance for the other aspects of the bariatric process, so they often expect to be able to use insurance for these evaluations.

Yes. Many clients are eager to get their evaluations done quickly and are often willing to pay to get them done quickly and correctly the first time.

Do you find any ethical concerns when providing these evaluations?Like in all therapy, there are ethical concerns. This is why consultation is important while conducting bariatric evaluations. It ensures you are conducting yourself in a way similar to other providers who provide this service. However, know that these evaluations are only saying that you do not believe any concerns would heavily impede the client’s post-surgical success (and this knowledge is solely based on what clients tell us). You are not saying the client is a good candidate for surgery or that you believe the client should have surgery. That is for the surgeon to decide.

Anyone can sue you for any reason at any time, so it’s best to do what you can to protect yourself. Only practice in states in which you are licensed to practice, do not allow your liability insurance to lapse, work to fulfill best practices as set by the ASMBS, seek consultation to ensure you are conducting these evaluations as others would, and work together with surgeons and their teams for high risk or concerning clients to liability share.