anyone doing or done prison telepsych?

[Igor4sugry]

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Considering telepsych 1099 position, doing this from home, $150/hr. Don't have to be in the state where the prison is, need medical license in location of prison. Get paid for clinic time, whether patients are there or not.
Anyone have experience with this type of setup? Any specific things to ask upfront? What is the average new vs follow-up time you get for patients? What is salary range you have been offered?

 

[Shikima]

Pretty good deal as long as they're covering everything. See if you can get benefits too.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Pretty good deal as long as they're covering everything. See if you can get benefits too.

As a 1099 position, I think it's impossible to get benefits. It would need to be converted to W2 which would lower the hourly pay.

I certainly would look into patient caps. The prison I worked in would basically have an assembly line and try to cram as many patients as possible.


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[nexus73]

Hopefully they have a decent emr you can access remotely.

 

[Jules A]

I'd run it by your malpractice company to ensure you are covered and also be aware/comfortable with the high risk of litigation in corrections. I believe prison<jails but suicide is a major cause of death in that population and you will likely be asked to see someone for 5 minutes on camera and determine if they are safe to be removed from suicide watch.

 

[psych md jd]

Been there, done that, but I had to go to a "tele-center" location and was an employee of the state.

As a 1099, you will likely be an independent contractor.

Depending on your jurisdiction, sovereign immunity may or may not extend to contractors.

IME, this model works best if there is a staff person at the far site with the inmate.

Regarding scheduling, the length of appointments is variable, usually on the long side. You basically get a list of who needs to be seen on the yard that day. Inmates have little human contact with the outside world and usually have to pay for medical, but not for psych appointments, so this is their chance to "socialize." As a result, you will see a fair number of malingerers. You may also get a lot of inappropriate consults: pt refuses to take heart meds, please evaluate; or pt calling sex abuse hotline to get help filling out paperwork not related to abuse, please evaluate; patient hearing voices, please evaluate [a new consult in a patient seeing psych for schizophrenia for the last 12 years].

For liability issues, see Prisoner Suicide

 

[PistolPete]

A close friend of mine saw psychiatric patients in the prison via telepsychiatry (he went to an office off site that had the computers set up and apparently only ever had to go to the prison once a month), he had good pay and technically was a state employee, but he ended up leaving because he was bored out of his mind.