posted 02-22-2008 11:45 PM            

In dealing with therapists for PCSOT exams is this normally contractual or a case by case basis?

Same question for governmment agencies?

In conducting exams for law firms is there a recommended standard contract?

Before committing to an exam, is payment using PayPal the way to go? Or a faxed signed contract?

How are the rates determined?
Is it simply whatever the market will bear? Or as a profession do we attempt to establish a norm perhaps based by region or state?

I know this may seem amusing to the veterans, it's just that I see such a disparity across the country, and I would like to hear from examiners in different parts of the nation.

posted 02-23-2008 10:12 AM            

I tested in all districts in Indiana, and regarding the state wide contractor Liberty Behavior (DOC only), the rates are set----and there s no wiggle room. By the way, those rates are pathetic for a traveling examiner, and just before I started pcsot in Indiana, they paid for mileage.In probation (county testing) the rates are up to you----but I caution you that although you will make more lettuce, the competition amongst examiners can get ugly. I had a rather nice and very fair arrangement with a large mental health provider----did great work EVERY TIME----only to have another examiner come and low ball the tests so much so that it was obscene ($50 a test !!!!)---compared to my $225. The provider, in typical riot fashion where decision are made without a singlular responsible figure to answer for such aweful business practice (riot behavior) cancelled thousands of dollars of tests in the 11th hour---leaving me broke for 2 weeks, and without the opportunity to counter-bid. In their defense, I could not have sharpened my pencil more than a shaved $50---as my traveling costs were too large for such a discount.

So, in those two models, you have non-examiners setting price, or you have a state-contractual agreed price (which is also set by non-examiners.)Both modalities, from a pure business standpoint, are far from ideal.

In Kentucky however, there is a bidding war between examiners----and I am told it is ugly in that to compete, examiners are either charging obscenely low rates, or are having to make verbal deals (always a mistake) to insure a bulk of tests.

posted 02-23-2008 10:40 AM            

A similar bulk deal can be made with institutional providers---big facilities that treat volumes of offenders, but are staffed with underpaid therapists---who are more inclined or tempted to make under the table deals.

It's ironic that people use the words "contractor" and "subcontractor" willy nilly when the reality is that you will be hard-pressed to see any REAL contract agreement between examiner and sex offender coordinators---being that work is ferreted out via verbal agreements. Liberty Behavioral in Indiana is a rare exception of a state-wide contract entity, as in most states testing opportunities are arranged in clumps of providers and districts----and it is common to see modalities completely ignorant of one another, standards discombobulated, and isolation of practice the norm.

It was always my dream that examiner(s) could have more power in the realm of testing, rather than examiners being a vendor of sorts for therapists----therapists being a sort of critter that outwardly supports our work, ut secretly sees us as a necessary evil if not an incohesive, argumentative back-stabbing group of clowns with silly toys.

I am impressed that in(again) Texas, examiners are their own entity and answer directly to the municipalities rather than professionals who have a limited amount of appreciation for our peculiar profession.