8:20 PM, a kitchen in Palm Beach Gardens. A woman we'll call Renee, 44, has three tabs open — three IV companies, three wildly different prices — and a browser history that reads like due diligence: "iv therapy legit?" "mobile iv who regulates" "iv bar horror stories." The horror stories exist. So do hundreds of excellent operators. Renee's problem is that all three tabs use the same stock photos, the same teal gradients, the same word "premium." Her question, said aloud to an empty kitchen: "How do I tell which of you is real?"
The ten-minute protocol
Four checks, in order of weight. One: who touches the vein. The answer must be a licensed RN or higher — placement is a nursing scope, and "trained technician" is a disqualifying answer. Verify in ninety seconds: Florida's license lookup is public and free; a legitimate provider will give you their nurses' credentials without friction. Two: who stands behind the protocols. A named medical director — a real physician you can search — whose oversight governs formulas and screening. No named doctor anywhere on the site is the quiet tell that there's no doctor. Three: what the screening refuses. Ask directly: "When do you say no?" A real operator has immediate, specific answers — conditions declined, medications flagged, the ER-not-us line. A provider who treats everyone is a provider who screens no one. Four: where ingredients come from. Licensed pharmacy sourcing, stated plainly. Vagueness here explains suspicious pricing there.
The single best vetting question is "when do you say no?" — because the cowboys have never once been asked a question they answered with a boundary.
The red flags, ranked
Walk away from: diagnosis-grade claims — "cures migraines," "reverses aging," "detoxes heavy metals"; real providers support recovery and talk in honest ranges; countdown-timer pressure — medicine doesn't do flash sales; prices far below market — licensed nurses and pharmacy ingredients set a real cost floor, and someone dramatically under it is economizing on exactly the things you're vetting for; "HSA-approved!" as a banner — no provider controls that; and credential dodging — any hesitation about who, specifically, holds the license that will be in your living room.
The tell that works in reverse
Here's the head fake of the whole exercise: the best filter isn't finding providers who pass the checklist — it's noticing how they react to being checked. Good operators light up under these questions; the interrogation is their favorite part of the sales call, because rigor is the product. Evasion, offense, or a subject change at any step is itself the answer. Ask everything. The real ones were hoping you would.
Ask us all of it
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Licensed RNs, physician oversight, real screening — we like these questions.
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Renee, tabs resolved
Two of the three answered everything — licenses, director, refusal list — in one email each. The third replied with a discount code. Renee's closing note, forwarded with the booking confirmation to the friend who'd asked her to investigate: "Vet them like contractors. The good ones show you the license before you finish asking. The bad ones show you a coupon." Ten minutes. That's the whole moat between you and the cowboys.
This article is for general education and is not medical advice. IV therapy at SurgIV is administered by registered nurses under physician-written protocols, with a health screening before your first visit. Talk to your doctor about what is right for you.
