What defines inpatient treatment

Persephone Paige, ADN · Apr 17, 2019

I was always told it meant not going home to sleep.

Partial hospitalization is spending all day at the facility, going somewhere else to sleep sponsored by the facility.

IOP is coming to facility during the day and sleeping at your home.

Inpatient for us was ordered when we either had to be detoxed and/or were very vulnerable to potential use or behaviors that were harmful.

Just my experience

dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN · Apr 19, 2019

On 4/17/2019 at 12:55 AM, Persephone Paige said:
I was always told it meant not going home to sleep.
Partial hospitalization is spending all day at the facility, going somewhere else to sleep sponsored by the facility.
IOP is coming to facility during the day and sleeping at your home.

Partial versus IOP is about hours in the program. IOP is usually a few hours a day, usually not every day of the week. Partial hospitalization is going to be all-day (I think anything over 6 or 7 hours but you don't sleep there is considered partial) but you can certainly go home to sleep. Some residential programs do get around insurance companies generally not covering residential treatment (versus inpatient) by billing for partial hospitalization and then having the patient pay to stay near by at a sponsored facility. Or they offer boarding to people who do not live near by to encourage stepping down to a lower level of care with their facility. But not always.

I had a lot of hospitalizations for anorexia as a teenager and into my early 20s and getting insurance to pay for them meant learning the lingo.

catsmeow1972, BSN, RN · Apr 19, 2019

In an ethical world it is about the hours spent in the program. Sadly, as with much about the recovery “business” (in my experience albeit limited, as it’s confined to what is associated with monitoring programs, ) it is about the semantics and how much money can be squeezed out of a person.

I recall being told mine was inpatient (why I was even there to begin with is still perplexing...oh yeah...cha ching$$$) when in fact it was partial hospitalization. They did not take insurance, unless it was the out-of-network pittance that some plans offered, but I would wager that they then balance billed.

Assuming one is not well acquainted with the “business of recovery” and many that get introduced to it through the machinations of the monitoring programs, it is not something that one would know. So your questions are very valid.

The slimy place I got bamboozled into claimed it was PHP but did not share the nugget of info that going home at night was a possibility. Supposedly billing for PHP was “cheaper.” Whatever. See what I mean?

What they were seemed to change with the situation and whenever it was convenient. I think that’s typical for the slimier parts of this business.

N377311 · Apr 19, 2019

I was given the option to do either IOP or weekly therapy sessions with addiction specialist. I chose the later. I’m in a small area and I only had one facility to choose from. the IOP was not something I felt I needed. Plus after my initial meeting I felt like I had already been judged. I wasn’t comfortable with the facility. I have been doing weekly counseling with a great counselor and weekly 12 step meetings that are biblically based.