Please help? Is this the norm?

[forgivenfaith119]

I am new to case management nursing. I wanted the opinion of other nurses in case management. Please tell me if this is normal.

I work for an agency that staffs in home field case managers for an insurance company. I was told when I accepted the job that I would only have members close to my home. I asked because nurses don't start getting any gas money until 3 months after seeing members, which is $5 per visit and then at 6 months it's $10 per visit.

Well, they gave me 15 members at once, many more than 30 minutes away and some as many as 40 minutes away. I live in San Antonio, Texas. So, as you can imagine, it can take a lot of time to get to some of my members. 30%-40% of my income is for gas. Luckily my husband is able to take care of our bills but it is really tough right now. Let's not get into the wear and tear on my car.

Right now I make under 30,000 per year. In a large city. It will be closer to 40,000 once the full gas stipend kicks in. I suppose I always figured if I didn't have case management experience, if I wanted that experience I would probably have to accept a job that probably wasn't the best so I could gain entry into this type of nursing.

Otherwise I enjoy my job. I work from home and have a flexible schedule. I am not as stressed as before.

Please advise.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

If they aren't paying you mileage by the IRS rules, you can deduct all that from your taxes; that will help when refund-time comes around.

2014 Standard Mileage Rates

With a Prius, I actually made money on my driving-- the gas was, of course, negligible, and at (then) 55cents per mile reimbursement, I made my car payment plus maintenance just about every month on mileage alone.

[d'cm]

What is not normal is paying 30-40% of income on gas. Rough calculation is

$45-50 a day. OUCH. You really need to ditch your F250 and get something a little greener. I get .55 a mile starting from first visit and I usually can make most of my monthly car payment on that. I would keep very good record of expenses as you may have deduction even with the reimbursement.