Woodside Family Practice

Archive for the ‘Medical Group’ Category

Most health care managers spend a good portion of their day dealing with patients both directly and indirectly. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed it’s the comfort that consistency brings to their medical experience. By that I don’t just mean having a doctor they can trust, but also nurses and office staff they know and can depend upon.

I was reminded of this as I read a recent Medical Group Management Association article about rewarding a good staff as a means of keeping them in your employment:

”One way leaders minimize turnover is by rewarding employees for helping the practice succeed. The clinic also gives staff members a voice in the practice’s operations…Employees can have a direct effect on practice operations in several ways. Because they serve as liaisons between patients and clinic leaders, employees use a feedback box to capture comments they hear from patients. Those submissions are reviewed monthly at staff meetings so all employees and providers are aware of issues and can help provide solutions.”

Of course, this requires that everyone put their egos aside for the benefit of the overall practice, and in places where there is an established hierarchy it can be difficult to share information so freely. However, giving every employee a voice and rewarding their effort increases their commitment to the work they do, and patients intuitively know when the people who care for them are truly involved.

At our office, we offer year-end bonuses and increased vacation time for ideas that save money and time. In a small work environment where advancement opportunities are limited, it is our way of keeping people in the fold. It helps make it a place that I look forward to going into every morning, and props up morale.

I’m lucky. The office I manage is able to pay a competitive wage, which is invaluable in both attracting and keeping a high quality staff. However, it’s been my experience that while a satisfactory paycheck is vital, it’s not the only way to keep office morale high.

One of the main things I do is recognize achievement. When someone does something noteworthy or makes a valuable suggestion, I make note of it and during the next office meeting, I take the time to mention publicly just how grateful I am to that particular person. Praise, when legitimately given, is a terrific way to make an employee strive for excellence.

I also will send out the occasional complimentary email for the whole office to read, or even something as personal as a post-it on someone’s computer. I’m careful not to go overboard or say too much, but I’ve found that people really appreciate the fact that their deed was remembered. Granted, we’re all professionals, and should routinely be doing outstanding work, but that doesn’t mean we don’t like getting complimented for it on occasion.

Another thing I do with everyone in the office is plan small events like a dinner out together or even something informal like a bowling party. Nothing reinforces the sense of working in unison like bonding outside of the workplace. It also helps break down the barrier between doctors and office staff, keeping everyone approachable and on good working terms.

Sometimes I jokingly refer to our office as a lifeboat. We sink or swim together. It isn’t necessary that we like or care about everybody on board, but it sure does help.

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Offering Small Group health insurance plans in California to your employees can include some pitfalls as you can imagine when dealing with something so valuable and multi faceted. As we point out some of the hurdles Employers often face we are happy to show you creative ways to solve the issues.

Choosing The Right California Health Insurance Carrier

Choosing the wrong company to do business with can be a disaster. Make sure your carrier has a strong AM Best rating, has posted their insurance license number on their website, and has current Provider contracts with your doctors, medical groups, and hospitals of preference. The insurance industry can attract fraudulent businesses because there is so much money at stake. Make sure you go with a leading California health insurance carrier and not some fly by night operation with a deal too good to be true.

Information Overload

You will quickly discover one of the biggest favors you can do for yourself and your employees is to narrow the options to the best available and provide highlighted information for comparison, plan selection, and enrollment . The subject often confuses your employees quickly which makes them anxious and frustrated. We will assist you in providing condensed information which contains only the specifics your employees will need to make choices crucial to their health care and pocketbook.

Plan Choice

State of California regulation AB 1672 requires the regulated California health insurance carrier to offer qualifying Small Businesses coverage, and they also must offer all the plans marketed to all business. In other words they can’t hide any plans from you. Once qualified for coverage the plan choice can be tricky. A single plan is not going to meet the needs of all your employees.  We suggest you offer more than one plan choice but not too many. Less is more. Most commonly an HMO and a PPO plan to make sure low out of pocket on expenses and flexibility of doctor choices are available. Getting the employees to agree on the right plan for everyone is not always easy, but with a little flexibility any group can be satisfied.

Employee Participation

As discussed in our overview on employee participation you may have a problem getting enough employees to participate in the group insurance plan you are offering. This can be a tricky one to solve as it’s almost always a matter of dollars contributed from you, the Employer. The obvious fix is of course to offer to pay a greater amount of employee premiums. More creatively understand part of the problem is that historically your employees may not have had to pay a percentage of their premiums. As costs have risen year after year and Employers split the premium costs with employees there is an adjustment period where your employees realize that health insurance is not free.

In offering your benefits package to your employees there will be some hurdles, but utilizing an experienced Group health agent can clear up the confusion and jump the hurdles as they arise.