I had moved to AZ from CA & had been seeing a pain Dr. There for 5 years. I drove an hour from where I live because they take my insurance. Dr. Pico was nice, but thought I should get off all the meds I was on for the past 2 1/2 yrs. 1 of which was Methadone 10mg QID. For those of you who don't know, that's 40mg a day, & Methadone is THE hardest to stop ( harder & takes longer than Heroin) owing to its 72 + hr half life, & how it gets into the fats & muscle tissues of you're body.... Not that he or that self righteous NP of his bothered to tell me that. ALL the neg. reviews I've read about that NP (nurse practitioner) sound completely true to me. Patients should at least feel included in their care. Also, it was a stroke of luck, that I saw the Dr. Anyway-it was that disgusting NP who came in & stated "I'm an NP! You're appt. is with ME today, & I'm going to decide how your treatment will go!" is what she said when I asked when I would see Dr. Pico. I thought it was a nice touch that she decided to bring a trainee into the room without my permission... HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) violation? Made me uncomfortable. My medical history is private. That's what the law states. DOCTOR PICO.... Do something about this! 4yrs. of undergrad, 4yrs. Med. School, 4yrs. Anesthesiology Residency, on the Liver Transplant team, 1yr. Pain Management Fellowship issued very recently in Sept. of 2013, Board Certified, by the American Board of Anesthesiology, meeting MOC requirements..... Tell me, why do you put up with her? It won't be long before people start to blame you. I almost wanted to, but you were nice to me... Weather genuine or not, I suppose I'll never know. You're only as good as you're weakest link. & BTW, you couldn't possibly have had the note from my pain dr. Your NP claimed she had, because my Dr.'s office thought I was picking it up... It never made it to you're office. You couldn't have read it. So what letter were you reading then? What a mess. Terrible. Not nice.