just did IPN eval

catsmeow1972, BSN, RN · Oct 30, 2017

I hate to say it but I can almost guarantee that the "recommendation" will be 3 months of PHP AND IOP, especially if there is cash to be sniffed out. Also if you have some kind of insurance that might pay for some of it. I cannot truthfully say that this is the most ethically run place. Generally speaking the outfits that have any kind of "treatment facility" attached to them tend to recommend whatever "treatment" their facility oh so conveniently offers. I am sorry you went there. While i don't have too much to compare, I wound up with evaluations at more than one place for reasons i don't need to go into to and to be blunt this place lied to me and manipulated my family in so many ways. They don't care about your needs, only about your bank account. My family happened to have substantial funds so i got the full on "deluxe package" at straight cash. i have spent the last several years crawling back from that awful experience with the help of a fantastic therapist and psychiatrist. I was put through the mill of "treatment" for problems i did not have while the problems (mental health/bipolar) I did have were soundly ignored. I had physical health problems that i pleaded to be monitored and was refused. I titrated my own blood pressure meds. Inpatient here is dangerous.

If you are able, i would seek your IPN evaluation elsewhere. Definitely do not go there for any kind of treatment. Another evaluation may not change the stipulation of your contract but at least what is sent to IPN to make that contract will not be a pack of lies and what ever treatment is recommended may be focused on you and not your wallet.

Yes i am bitter but that experience did me a world of damage. Helping even one person avoid that will go a long way towards making me less bitter.

In regards to IPN, they are not your friend. They are a business and you are a number in a file folder. No matter how "nice" your case manager or who ever might be, they do not know you from Adam and they don't care.

This forum is a good place to get some decent info and put to rest a lot of the rumors that you might hear. There are a lot of people that are going through this and have been through it.

Once you have i think it is 15 posts, you can private message. When you get there feel free to PM me and we can talk further. I am happy to do what I can. This is a rough experience but a lot of us have gotten through it and you will too.

Invincible summer · Oct 30, 2017

Thanks for responding. I don't have any money to be sniffed out, does that mean my recommendation will be different? Do you have any recs for ethical places?

SpankedInPittsburgh, DNP, RN · Oct 30, 2017

I'm not from Florida. However, I'm in a nurse monitoring program and a frequent flier of this site. All of these programs seem to have some differences in the way they are run. However, one thing remains constant and this is the rehab industries hooks into the monitoring boards and their ability to get cash out of broke nurses who cannot work. I was sober for 3 months at the time of my initial evaluation after getting a DUI last July. At my evaluation in October the evaluator (who worked for the rehab I was sent to) recommended inpatient then outpatient rehab. Long and short of it I was in "rehab" and couldn't work from October - February. I was only discharged from these facilities when my private insurance stated that no more treatment was called for nor would it be paid for. This is an expensive and painful process involving, rehab, "support group" meetings and urine testing all of which are paid for by the Nurse. At the same time work restrictions are imposed severely limiting the ability to make ends meet.

You have to determine if your Nursing License is worth subjecting yourself to all this expensive nonsense. If its not by all means don't jump on this ship of fools and get on with your life. If it is be prepared for a rough few years emotionally, financially and professionally. I'm 55 and need my license to support myself but if I was a little older and could retire early or younger and changed my career choice I would have done it. The very best of luck to you!!!

catsmeow1972, BSN, RN · Oct 30, 2017

I doubt the "recommendation" would be any different. They only way I saw anything change was when people stomped their feet about not having the money and threatened to leave once they were there for a while. I guess that made them sound "compassionate and magnanimous" to other's. Yeah, whatever. Like what Spanked said, it's all a money mill. When your evaluation is done by the owner/employee of a treatment facility, where do you think their allegiance lies. 'I'll give you a hint. It's not with you. That place in Tampa gets most of its business from IPN and PRN (the doctors version of IPN.) If not for that, they would not be in business.

If you can swing the funds, I would push for IPN to allow you to get another eval from someone NOT affiated with any kind of facility. They will refuse to let you pick your own evaluator. Sadly, that's part of the conflict of interest inherent in these programs.

Invincible summer · Oct 30, 2017

Do you know of any evaluators that aren't affiliated with a center? I'm in north central Florida but willing to travel. Thank you

catsmeow1972, BSN, RN · Oct 30, 2017

You will have to push IPN to give you more choices to pick from. It s not a fair process by any stretch of the imagination. The most common seem to be the hell hole in Tampa and Gainesville. Gainesville runs a treatment center too but I think in comparison might be a bit better. Otherwise you will have to research the few choices you can squeeze out of them.

You can choose any other "addictionologist" but they will likely refuse the eval and you will have wasted your money. Like I said. Not a fair process.

Invincible summer · Oct 30, 2017

The one in Gainesville is pretty similar and the MD who runs it is not ethical. Friends of mine have firsthand experience

catsmeow1972, BSN, RN · Oct 30, 2017

I was referring to the treatment part. My experience with Tampa is that the only credential that most of the staff had was that they had a history of addiction issues themselves. No education, no professional experience, no nothing.

In regard to the evaluation, yup, no ethics whatsoever. I have never heard of anyone who went to one of these evaluations without coming out with some kind of contract. The lingo seems to be "***** does not appear to have a substance use problem but would benefit from a monitoring period of no less than 24 months." Boom! Contract, replete with overpriced drug testing.

If you've actually got a substance use issue than perhaps some kind of treatment may be beneficial but it should be someplace where your insurance is able to be used, not some ****hole that gets referrals/kickbacks from IPN thereby is able to hold your license/livelihood hostage.

Invincible summer · Oct 31, 2017

I expect a contract and Ive accepted that. I'm just afraid I'll get php which I cannot afford since I had to borrow the $$ to even get the eval in the first place. Even IOP will be a major hardship but I am willing to do the work. I am uninsured at the moment so php will be impossible. The director at the gnv place was a pediatrician who lost his license bc of cocaine abuse and now practices addiction medicine. The gnv community is very small and my fiend who works in psych says that sometimes if an MD actually loses their license the only option to get it back is to practice addiction Medicine.

catsmeow1972, BSN, RN · Oct 31, 2017

I lived in Gnv for about 10 yrs. Your friend is correct on both points. In that Tampa nightmare, my understanding is that (at least at the time that I had the misfortune of being there) the physician posing as a psychiatrist (I say posing because I don't think there was a psychiatry residency to be had) had lost their license also due to cocaine abuse. Sadly, appears to be pretty common.

I have heard of IOPs that work on a sliding scale. The catch of course is getting IPN to okay it. Then while we are discussing third-hand information, I have also heard of these programs pretty much doing what they want, despite an evaluators' recommendation (that one is not verifiable but would not shock me)

My experience with them has just not been very positive. There's nothing good I can say that they've done for me. The only reason I have not told them to stick it is because I am too dang stubborn.

SpankedInPittsburgh, DNP, RN · Oct 31, 2017

Yes success born from spite is what keeps me going