Empirical support for psychological assessment in clinical health care settings

Psychologists in health care settings today find it increasingly difficult to obtain authorization and appropriate reimbursement for psychological ass essments from 3rd party payers. Authorization and reimbursement denials oft en are based on allegations that empirical support for the utility and vali dity of psychological tests is nonexistent or limited. This article reviews a sample of the considerable empirical support that exists for the utility and validity of a variety of psychological tests for a wide range of clini cal health care applications. Informed by data such as these, psychologists should become more effective in their abilities to seek authorization and reimbursement for assessment and overturning denials.