ADHD Reconsideration Request

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htwedt

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Holly T.
My daughter (17 years old) was denied a medical certification due to being previously diagnosed with ADHD. She has never been on (or needed) medication, is a 4.0 student, tutors underclassmen, works a full-time job, and currently taking private pilot license training. A large number of her "symptoms" are non-issues now.
We received the letter on Dec. 22nd, which was dated Dec. 14th. It states we have 30 days to submit a written request to the Federal Air Surgeon. I presume this needs to be provided to them no later than Jan. 14th. With the holidays, this puts us in a bit of a bind. They would like us to become familiar with the FAA ADHD Document checklist, Personal Statement Guidelines, Standard Track FAA ADHD Eval General Information, and Report Requirements which are listed on their website (www.faa.gov/go/adhd). Are they expecting us to complete all these items/tasks within the 30 days? One of them indicates a need neuropsychologist appointment, which certainly cannot be done within this 30-day window, followed by an appointment with her AME. Do we send them a request letter and indicate that we are working through the steps? Do I call and ask for an extension? In July we sent them a large amount of information including written statements from the doctor that originally diagnosed her and her therapist, but it seems they want us to continue to jump through more hoops.
Has anyone navigated this process recently that could help?
 
No, they are not expecting you to complete that in the 14 days remaining. They expect you to accept the denial.

Practically, what you do is accept the denial, regroup, and reapply with what all you need.
If there is no other psychiatry illness, you still need a clincial psychologist. If she has no other psychiatry illness in her history; a community pscyhologist will do. But you may want to use an aviation pscyhologist (Phd).

You can't get into either short of eight weeks.

B
 

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It states, "In the event no application for reconsideration is made within 30 days of this action, you will be deemed to have acquiesced in the denial and to have withdrawn your application for a medical certificate". Wouldn't that cause more delays?

We've selected an FAA HIMS Neuropsychologist (Maida G. Gunther) but have not been able to make an appointment due to the office being closed for the holidays. So, do I just wait until that appointment and then reapply? We really don't want to cause any major delays. We also have a local AME. Should I meet with him first?

What is frustrating is that in July we had a pretty solid case that this previous diagnosis does not impact her. What they asked for, we provided, plus some. It feels like no matter what we were to provide we would have received the same generic response. I would have rather been told to meet with a Neuropsychologist initially in order to prevent another 6+ months of waiting.
 
Yes. Get the appointment and then reapply.
Dr G does thorough work…but if the thinks she need the FAA medical record, unless she’s on “HUDDLE for Government” that is a long process. So provide her the demand letter, and Everything You provided FAA , apply when you have her report.

FAA is “tired” of, “oh that doesn’t apply to us”….sigh. You’re right, and I do counsel many that in a time vs $$s situation, you just go and get the evaluation…as in last summer.
 
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bbchien said:
Yes. Get the appointment and then reapply.
Dr G does thorough work…but if the thinks she need the FAA medical record, unless she’s on “HUDDLE for Government” that is a long process. So provide her the demand letter, and Everything You provided FAA , apply when you have her report.

FAA is “tired” of, “oh that doesn’t apply to us”….sigh. You’re right, and I do counsel many that in a time vs $$s situation, you just go and get the evaluation…as in last summer.
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WAit. Dr. Chien. I am concerned about my own certification now that you say this. When you say FAA is “tired” of, “oh that doesn’t apply to us”….sigh. I don't know much about her daughter's situation, but if I for example, contact the relevant authority in the FAA for permission to do X instead of what the letter says and I get the "ok", it's written on my record and another member of the FAA is aware of it, will I be getting a letter saying it's not sufficient after doing this the way I told him I would?
 
N_A_M_E_24 said:
WAit. Dr. Chien. I am concerned about my own certification now that you say this. When you say FAA is “tired” of, “oh that doesn’t apply to us”….sigh. I don't know much about her daughter's situation, but if I for example, contact the relevant authority in the FAA for permission to do X instead of what the letter says and I get the "ok", it's written on my record and another member of the FAA is aware of it, will I be getting a letter saying it's not sufficient after doing this the way I told him I would?
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I don't think there's enough information in your example to know. Did you get a letter from the FAA saying "you can do X instead of Y" or was it a verbal phone call? Was the alternative recorded in your file? If you got a letter, you can depend on it. If you just asked someone, you have no proof that you don't have to do Y.

Otherwise for the OP, the FAA medical system judges by tight standards and a "maybe" is a "yes" unless proven otherwise. If they say something applies to you, then it does even if you KNOW it doesn't...and you might be wrong. My example, I have a slight pulmonary stenosis, possibly made worse by weight. My cardiologist tells me that of the four valves in the heart, this is the one to be least concerned about a stenosis, it's probably been there my whole life and has no impact on me. We still monitor it to make sure, it's still stable. Next check is still several years off, but I'll be interested to see if the 60-70 lb weight loss has an impact on it.

The FAA hears "stenosis" and "it doesn't apply to me" becomes irrelevant. Multiple tests later, I had all the documents they were going to want in hand proving that it isn't a condition to be concerned with and my medical was given approval to be issued by a most excellent Dr Chien. Fortunately, for the flying I do now, Basicmed and hopefully Mosaic will do the job.
 
bflynn said:
I don't think there's enough information in your example to know. Did you get a letter from the FAA saying "you can do X instead of Y" or was it a verbal phone call? Was the alternative recorded in your file? If you got a letter, you can depend on it. If you just asked someone, you have no proof that you don't have to do Y.

Otherwise for the OP, the FAA medical system judges by tight standards and a "maybe" is a "yes" unless proven otherwise. If they say something applies to you, then it does even if you KNOW it doesn't...and you might be wrong. My example, I have a slight pulmonary stenosis, possibly made worse by weight. My cardiologist tells me that of the four valves in the heart, this is the one to be least concerned about a stenosis, it's probably been there my whole life and has no impact on me. We still monitor it to make sure, it's still stable. Next check is still several years off, but I'll be interested to see if the 60-70 lb weight loss has an impact on it.

The FAA hears "stenosis" and "it doesn't apply to me" becomes irrelevant. Multiple tests later, I had all the documents they were going to want in hand proving that it isn't a condition to be concerned with and my medical was given approval to be issued by a most excellent Dr Chien. Fortunately, for the flying I do now, Basicmed and hopefully Mosaic will do the job.
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It was an email to and from and @faa.gov address and then another email to someone else who knows about it. I'm likely fine, I think.
 
Sounds like it. If you have any doubt, you can request your record from the FAA and verify it's in there, but having the email from the official source should be proof?

Email feels so progressive for the FAA.
 
Holly….believe Dr Chien. He’s what we call a SuperAME and knows the FAA process and how to deal with it. Your daughter can continue training, she just can’t solo until the medical is issued.

You may want to put lessons on hold for a bit, however, to save $$$ while you’re going thru all this.
 
N_A_M_E_24 said:
WAit. Dr. Chien. I am concerned about my own certification now that you say this. When you say FAA is “tired” of, “oh that doesn’t apply to us”….sigh. I don't know much about her daughter's situation, but if I for example, contact the relevant authority in the FAA for permission to do X instead of what the letter says and I get the "ok", it's written on my record and another member of the FAA is aware of it, will I be getting a letter saying it's not sufficient after doing this the way I told him I would?
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Standards are standards. What is required to demonstate once you a person has been identified, is pretty cookie cutter. They're tired of folks saying "oh that's not me". Get the shovel and demonstrably meet the std. The sooner you, do the more quickly you get certified.

...."resistance is futile. you will be assimilated".....or whatever the borg used to say....
 
Thank you for the advice, Dr. Chein. Just to be clear, you think it is best not to send a letter, or call, them to advise that we will work with a HIMS Neuropsychologist? I wonder if it would make sense to let them know so they can keep her file open. But, then again, I also don't want them "reconsider" her until after we've completed the next steps.
Any advice on how she/we can prepare for the Neuropsychologist testing?
 
I addressed this before, Monday at 3:11 PM, in post 2 in this string, and at 6:33 pm.

If you appeal without having what they want, in hand, you only get denied by a higher authority, which means it has to go to that higher authority when you finally do have what they want (takes longer). You can write all you want but by reg they have to close the file....they will close it with a denial. The system is not designed to give you enough time to bring yourself up to standards. It is designed to determine it at the time of application the applicant meets stds. Don't fall victim to "it can't be it can't be it can't be....so it's not".

Gather what is necessary to meet standards and get it done. The alternative would have been to retain expertise, which you didn't do (last summer) and you sure didn't get much help from your AME (which is sad).

About the only prep that is helpful is a good night's sleep the night before. I can tell you becuase I have done this testing as a 55-65 y.o "normal".
And, Lumosity...which is good for understanding to what sorts of tasks she might be exposed...only make you good at lumosity.

(In this website, go to "settings" and turn on "see signatures" if you want to see the link where you can message me.....)
 
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