IOP psychiatrist schedule

[nexus73]

Our health system currently has mental health IOP (one 12 person group) and chemical dependency IOP (two 12 person groups). I'm the psychiatrist attached to the program. I agreed to do this to be helpful a few years ago when it was starting up. I staff with the social workers for two separate hours (one MHIOP, one CDIOP) per week. I don't see any of the patients. I'm close to leaving my job, but would be open to staying on as a contractor for IOP, but want to be more involved and actually see patients while they're in the program. I would not want to contract for 2 hours a week just to staff with social workers.

What is the typical setup for the psychiatrist in an IOP?
Does psych see patients all day back-to-back like in clinic? Or is the day less structured? Sit in on groups? Staffing? Running some groups? How frequently do you staff patients?

Does anyone have a reference for how an IOP should be run, how many hours of psychiatrist time? How is it broken down? Etc.

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[Merovinge]

IOP's actually do not need any medical component. This is why you see therapists starting their own IOP treatment programs, as they can get them off the ground without an MD. This also helps keep costs lower given the lower reimbursement than PHP.

That said, if you are going to be attached, I would certainly recommend seeing the patients. We typically see patients every other week at the IOP level and this will make a large difference in your ability to meaningfully staff the patients. 36 patients total or 18/week plus staffing is a significant role that you will want to be well compensated for. It's significantly more work having patients at HLoC as they are by definition more acute than a standard OP case (while only billing the same way and 99215s will be rare, so mostly 99214's). I would do this work by the hour or salary rather than on billing as there is zero advantage to doing it by just billing other than having a captive group of patients.

I'd say it's quite rare to have psychiatrists in or running groups, but nothing would stop you from doing this if you wanted to. Patient's should be staffed weekly, 5 minute time slots would be 3 hours for the 36 patients. You can either give the patient's a schedule with when they are meeting you or pull them in whenever it bests fits your schedule, it's not quite IP convenient as there are rare absences, but it's pretty close. If you actually want to be involved in how the programming goes and have a leadership role, you will need time for that as well.