The Virginia Health Practitioner's Monitoring Program (VA HPMP) switched to Recovery Trek at the beginning of November. Recovery Trek is supposed to be less expensive and make it easier to send in the various forms that have to be submitted on a monthly basis. Since there was no formal orientation to Recovery Trek for participants that had been in the VA HPMP already; it has been a learning experience. I will share what I know about Recovery Trek at this moment and will add to this post as I learn more.
First, Recovery Trek is a monitoring company based out of Virginia Beach, Virginia; which I was slightly excited to know that they are in the same state (Affinity seemed to have been based out of Canada, which the people who work there had no knowledge of anything in Virginia).
Check Ins
The check-ins are some what the same as Affinity, a person can call in or check in online. In order to check in online, you need the program ID; username; and password. Once logged in, the participant clicks the test status button. The result is a clear 'Yes, selected for a test' or 'No, not selected for a test' with the 'yes' result in red and 'no' in green. The only down side I have found is that if you are a person that will not remember if you checked in that day, you will definitely have to write down the confirmation number they give to confirm check in. The reason is because the result does not remain on the screen like when a person checked in with Affinity (i.e. I could log out with Affinity and log back in and I could not check in again; with Recovery Trek, I can.)
If you choose to check in by phone, the number to call to check in is (757) 414-6039. It will ask for a ten digit number, which is birth date and last four of social security number. After, it asks for a pin number. At this point, I have no idea where the pin number comes from. I am going to call Recovery Trek next week and find out.
If a person is selected for testing, it will give the panel letter/number for test and the cost of the test. In Recovery Trek, the participant does not have to select a site before hand. They just look at the list of sites/type in the city and show up at the site with the chain of custody (COC). The cost of the test is not taken out until the result of the test is sent/received by the monitoring program. For me, the cost of the tests have been between $35-$49 per test. It does not seem that there are collection site fees as there are with Affinity.
Chain of Custody
The chain of custody is the drug test form that the participant takes with them to the site. The COC has the participant information, panel ID that is selected, and the stickers to seal the bottles. The participant must have the chain of custody with them when they go to the site, including Lab Corp locations.
On the COC, the participant fills out their social security number (Affinity used to give an authorization number to use in lieu of social security number. Recovery Trek uses the participant's social security number); name; telephone number; the panel selected for; date of birth; and date of test.
VA HPMP Forms
As of right now, the monthly forms are still mailed or faxed in to Virginia HPMP by the 10th of the following month (i.e. October 2016 forms are due November 10, 2016). Once it is set up on the Recovery Trek site, the forms will be submitted online and there will be the ability to contact a participant's assigned case manager through email. The participant will save money on faxing/mailing the forms, if they are not employed; if they are employed, it will save the headache of having to repeatedly fax the forms. Sometimes, it takes a while to get them to go through from the massive amount of faxes the VA HPMP receives.
Overall, I think once everything is available to VA HPMP participants, I think Recovery Trek will be a better monitoring company than Affinity. Again, as I learn more about Recovery Trek, I will update this post.
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