2023 ADHD Fast Track Protocol

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airplanegeek20023

Filing Flight Plan
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Scooby95
Hello! I was wondering if anyone had any insight on the new ADHD Fast Track Protocol and how that would be affected by a denied 3rd class medical on record from 11ish years ago under the old proctocol where everyone got deferred and denied or survived the neuropsych gauntlet and got the golden ticket. I am working with a HIMs Psyd right now getting the fast track done and so far everything is good under the new protocol. Only caveat is I have a third class medical application that got denied 11ish years ago since I didn’t do anything more with it after a letter came back asking for thousands and thousands of dollars of tests to be done. I had better things to spend my money on like towards a college education. I talked to my AOPA medical people and they are stumped too and are investigating. We are trying to figure out if the AME can issue the medical certificate the same day or everything gets deferred again, or the AME can call the Aerospace medicine office and get oral authorization. Talked to a few AMEs who weren’t sure either and didn’t know much about the new ADHD process yet.
 
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This is a formalized retreat to the FAA policy of a decade ago. If your ADHD diagnosis is old and you have succeeded in life without medication, they begrudgingly admit that you were caught up in the ADHD over-diagnosis change.

If you were denied by cause in the review process, this change doesn't affect you. If you just failed to complete the neurosych eval (rather than failing it), then it might help.
 
flyingron said:
This is a formalized retreat to the FAA policy of a decade ago. If your ADHD diagnosis is old and you have succeeded in life without medication, they begrudgingly admit that you were caught up in the ADHD over-diagnosis change.

If you were denied by cause in the review process, this change doesn't affect you. If you just failed to complete the neurosych eval (rather than failing it),
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That makes sense. Yeah it is an old diagnosis from 2006/2007ish.
Last letter from the FAA in 2012ish stated something to the effect of “We are unable to determine your eligibility at this time please do x,y, and z.” I left it at that then and moved on to the field of medicine and surgery for school.
 
Sometimes "x,y and z" are mere formalities to retrieve existing documentation, and sometimes they are hopelessly complex requirements for new documentation. In your case, it seems the critical feature is knowing where you fall (or fell) on that spectrum. Certainly a 15+ year interval with no interim diagnoses or treatments is likely to work in your favor.
 
airplanegeek20023 said:
That makes sense. Yeah it is an old diagnosis from 2006/2007ish.
Last letter from the FAA in 2012ish stated something to the effect of “We are unable to determine your eligibility at this time please do x,y, and z.” I left it at that then and moved on to the field of medicine and surgery for school.
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Those FAA guys better hope they never end up in your operating room! ;) :D
 
If you most recent medical certificate was denied, revoked, or suspended, you AME will be obligated to defer your exam. The computer system won't allow them to issue.

That said, you can probably have your deferred applicated evaluated on an expedited basis if your AME is willing to engage the FAA on the topic. That changes if you had a prior neuropsychiatric assessment that raised any questions. The fact that you just walked away from their request for more information makes "pseudo" fast track option possible.

You'll still need a current assessment from an appropriately qualified psychologist or neuropsychologist. That might save some money over the full HIMS battery, but will still be somewhat expensive. The real benefit of the ADHD Fast Track system is that it authorizes your AME to issue a certificate at your exam; not that it significantly changes the evaluation requirements or saves you money.
 
Did you ever find a HIMS AME comfortable with / understanding the newish Fast Track system? Seems the lack of AME knowledge of / comfortability with the Fast Track system is negating its purpose (in other words, AMEs just defer regardless because they think that is what they are supposed to do)... Ugg.
 
CRS said:
Did you ever find a HIMS AME comfortable with / understanding the newish Fast Track system? Seems the lack of AME knowledge of / comfortability with the Fast Track system is negating its purpose (in other words, AMEs just defer regardless because they think that is what they are supposed to do)... Ugg.
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Looks like he hasn't been back to the forum since October.
 
bbchien said:
We get this one all the time on the phone approval……
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Hey Doc, could you explain this further? The new fast track seems to be generating a ton of varied answers and you seem to be the expert in the area.
 
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