Contact Alberta Balance Centre

Do I need a referral?

NO. You do not require a referral to book an assessment and are welcome to book your own appointment using the “Book Appointment” tab at the top-right of the screen.

What is the cost of a comprehensive assessment, and is it covered by Alberta Health?

The cost for a comprehensive assessment is $895 and includes any/all available testing as required for your specific case. Our services are NOT currently covered by Alberta Health. There is a public neurovestibular unit at South Health Campus in Calgary that offers similar testing, which is covered by your provincial health plan. You can request a referral from your family doctor or audiologist, but our personal experience from having previously referred patients there for 10 years, and from speaking to current patients at our clinic who have been referred there more recently, is that wait times are now in excess of 2 years in many cases – if they are accepted at all.

We reached out to AHS in an attempt to initiate discussions on whether/how we might be able to help with their excessive backlog by contracting our services and having your assessment covered by your provincial health plan. Unfortunately, they indicated that is not something they are interested in pursuing or discussing any further at this time. Officially, they claim that there is no excessive wait time for neurovestibular testing and that it is offerred at multiple locations throughout the province. We are not aware of any AHS facilities other than South Health Campus and the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton that have dedicated neurovestibular units offering truly comprehensive assessments (some units may have a set of VNG goggles, but that does not constitute a comprehensive neurovestibular assessment), and we continue to hear from patients every week that they are facing 2+ year wait times, or that their family doctor is not even able to get a referral to South Health Neurovestibular Clinic accepted.

In any case, we are just as frustrated as anyone that people are suffering for so long without answers to their life-altering balance and dizziness problems, and that this is such a neglected area of health care, which was exaclty the motivation behind opening this clinic in the first place. While we would love for our services to be covered by AHS, the only way we are able to offer them currently is through private pay.

Why does the assessment cost so much?

While we genuinely want nothing more than for our services to be accessible, there are a number of reasons why we have to charge what we do. The bottom line is that it is the only way we can sustainably operate the clinic and continue offering the much needed services that we provide. Our primary purpose is to help people who are suffering from a wide range of vestibular disorders by providing world-class diagnostic testing that is woefully lacking/not reasonably accessible publicly, and there are substantial costs associated with doing that, including:

• Extremely expensive equipment and software: A truly comprehensive neurovestibular assessment cannot be performed with a single piece of technology. It requires an entire suite of highly specialized medical equipment and associated analytic software, all of which carries a high cost.
• It is incredibly time-consuming: Just the clinical component of your assessment is 3hrs long, and there is a roughly equal amount of time that goes into detailed data analyis and reporting after your appointment. We can only see a maximum of 2 patients per day, and the clinician is dedicating approximately 6hrs of focused time to each patient. 
• Your audiologist is a highly trained specialist who has dedicated an immense amount of time to developing the required skills and experience to be able to perform advanced neurovestibular assessments, competently intrepret the data, and put it all toegther into a coherent picture of how it relates to your specific symptoms and history. They have 8 years of university education plus additional post-graduate training and certifications in  advanced vestibular diagnostics.
• There are also numerous other operating expenses associated with any medical clinic, including high insurance premiums, professional and regulatory fees, and a various administrative costs. 

We recognize that the cost of assessment is substantial, but we believe there is tremendous value in what we provide and that it is a very worthwhile investment in your overall health and well-being. We greatly appreciate you putting your trust in us to help you get to the bottom of your balance and dizziness problems, and hope to be able continue serving patients for many years to come. 

A helpful analogy that many people may be able to relate to is this: Paying for a private neurovestibular assessment at our clinic is like paying for a private MRI. While MRIs are covered by AHS, you may have to wait a very long time to get one. In the meantime, you may be needlessly suffering and unsure as to what treatment path to pursue because you can’t get an accurate diagnosis until you have the MRI. So, you pay to get one completed quickly in order to get yourself on the most appropriate treatment path as soon as possible. Our comprehensive assessment is priced similarly to a private MRI,  and can actually give you far more valuable information about the overall function of your entire vestibular system. As with private MRIs, there is very little wait for our services and we can typically see you within 1 week. 

Will my insurance cover this?

More and more insurance providers are beginning to recognize that audiology is more than just hearing aids, and includes vestibular practice as well,  but we cannot get pre-determination of coverage on your behalf so you must contact your insurance provider directly yourself. They typically require the following information:

Clinic Name: Alberta Balance Centre

Phone: 403-764-3787

Name of Service: Diagnostic Vestibular Assessment

Cost of Service: $895

Service Provider: Aaron Byrnes, M.Sc., R.Aud

Designation: Clinical Audiologist (Registration#: 4648)

Some insurers are still confused as to what a “Diagnostic Vestibular Assessment” means, because there are so few dedicated vestibular audiology clinics in Canada. We are working hard to educate insurers and advocate for better coverage of this important branch of audiology. In the meantime, the key point to communicate with your insurer is that you are seeking an advanced “audiologic assessment”, which is being performed by a “registered audiologist”. Audiology is a fully recognized and regulated health profession that all insurers should be aware of. 

We are not able to direct-bill your insurance provider at this time, so you will have to pay out-of-pocket and submit for reimbursement. You will be provided with a detailed invoice/reciept containing all of the necessary information for reimbursement.

What about the cost of treatment?

Treatment recommendations depend largely upon what is found during the assessment and can vary significantly. One common recommendation is vestibular rehabilitation therapy (VRT). If VRT is recommended, we typically give you an initial set of home exercises as part of your comprehensive assessment. Subsequent VRT sessions are $150 each. Our goal is to make your treatment as home-based as possible so you don’t require repeated in-clinic visits, and most people only require 1-3 follow-up sessions. If it seems you would benefit from more frequent and intensive VRT performed in-clinic, we generally refer to excellent vestibular physiotherapists with whom we work regularly. 

Do you offer specific tests in isolation?

Yes. Typically we only do specific tests in isolation if it is being requested by a specialist such as an ENT or neurologist, but there are certainly some other circumstatances where you may only need cetain tests. For example, some people may have had VNG completed somewhere, but they haven’t had VEMPs and/or vHIT. We are always happy to accommodate special circumstances and help in any way we can. Please get in touch with us if you require specific tests in isolation. 

I am a healthcare provider and would like to refer a patient – How can I do that?

Thank you very much for your referral. You can use the “Referrals” tab at the top of the screen, or send a fax to 587-962-5787