Help please - Need advice on dealing with Michigan HPRP

By now you have probably resolved your problem. If you are confident that you do not have a drug problem have an evaluation by a board certified addiction psychiatrist who is an HPRP provider. Do not tell him you have already been reported to HPRP. Do not tell HPRP you are having the evaluation done. If you do not have a drug problem the evaluation by the psychiatrist will reflect this. If HPRP states that you must have an evaluation or they will turn you over to the state board, you will ALREADY have had an evaluation done by one of their own certified doctors showing that you do NOT need treatment. If they continue to pressure you to enter the HPRP treatment and monitoring program, ask to have your case turned over to your state medical board. The state medical board will order another evaluation at it's own expense, but since you already have an evaluation that does not show an addiction or impairment problem the second doctor is very unlikely to reverse the first doctor's opinion. Ray Garza is in charge of the administration of the Michigan HPRP and can be very helpful.

By now you have probably resolved your problem. If you are confident that you do not have a drug problem have an evaluation by a board certified addiction psychiatrist who is an HPRP provider. Do not tell him you have already been reported to HPRP. Do not tell HPRP you are having the evaluation done. If you do not have a drug problem the evaluation by the psychiatrist will reflect this. If HPRP states that you must have an evaluation or they will turn you over to the state board, you will ALREADY have had an evaluation done by one of their own certified doctors showing that you do NOT need treatment. If they continue to pressure you to enter the HPRP treatment and monitoring program, ask to have your case turned over to your state medical board. The state medical board will order another evaluation at it's own expense, but since you already have an evaluation that does not show an addiction or impairment problem the second doctor is very unlikely to reverse the first doctor's opinion. Ray Garza is in charge of the administration of the Michigan HPRP and can be very helpful.

Since this is an old post you have probably resolved your problem. I am also having difficulty finding my response, so if this shows up twice I apologize.

Of course you can always hire a lawyer, but that will not necessarily help you. I would recommend that you see a psychiatrist with certification in addiction medicine that is a registered provider for Michigan HPRP. Do not tell the doctor that you have been reported to HPRP and do not tell HPRP you are getting the evaluation. HPRP should be able to provide you with the names of ALL of their addiction medicine certified psychiatrists. Some are Lawrence Domino, Mark Buzzard, Bobbie Kelly, __ Niven and Ronald Bradley (this list may not be current). If the evaluation shows that there is no evidence of substance abuse, misuse, or impairment and HPRP insists that you have an HPRP evaluation, present them with the evaluation you have already had. If they continue to pressure you to enter their treatment and monitoring program, ask to have your case referred to your state board. The state board will then ask you to have another evaluation with another HPRP doctor at the state's expense who is unlikely to disagree with the opinion of his or her collegue. If there is nothing in the second evaluation that supports addiction, abuse, misuse, or impairment, your record will be cleared. Ray Garza can be very helpful when you have to deal with HPRP.

Ray Garza is NOT helpful. I had a similar problem and finally had to hire a lawyer who *knew* Ray Garza and we were successful in altering the stipulations somewhat. However, Garza has put a *permanent* probation note on my license at mich.gov instead of having it go away after the program is completed. I did not have a substance abuse problem and was not on any medications. I will now have to re-hire the lawyer to fight that. BTW, this lawyer specializes in this area and is excellent. If anyone wants his name feel free to contact me.

Good luck with your issue.

Get a lawyer that deals with labor laws IMMEDIATELY!!!
What happened to you is wrong on so many levels. ;(

Ray Garza is not the one who is responsible for censuring licensees. That is solely the responsiblity of your state board. He is the government employee who administers the HPRP program among other things. He was very helpful getting information to me about how the HPRP system worked, how the appeal system worked, what licensee rights and options were. With the information he provided, I was able to negotiate the system without the help of a lawyer and achieved a favorable outcome with the state board.