Class 111
Thank you Michelle Walker, Senior Director for Human Resources and Tom Tiemeier, CFO, on taking the time to share on the topics of hiring, firing, outside contractors, and other personnel issues.
This week we are thinking about the professional and hourly staff that we plan to have in our office. Don't forget to take into consideration any outside contractors you plan to use. You will want to keep in mind the hours and days of the week you plan to be open. The template - Page 8, has 3 employees listed but feel free to insert other columns. You will want to change the headings: Employee 1 to a position name - example: front desk am. You will want to have your narrative as well as your spreadsheet completed.
"Odd" Teams comment by December 13th.
This week's topics to comment on are:
- what are three interview questions you would use when hiring a front desk person
- what type of services might use an outside contractor for and
- what are the pros and cons of using an outside contractor - be specific
- do you plan to accept insurance in your practice; why or why not
Have a great week. Alexis
Group 19 --I will blog this Sunday
ReplyDeleteBob
Team #11
ReplyDeleteWith hiring a front desk person, I want to make sure that the focus of the interview is able to reveal pertinent information about the candidate. The questions that I ask will mainly be open-ended in nature so that the candidate's strengths and weaknesses are revealed. Three interview questions that I will use are: 1) What are 3 personality traits would qualify you to become an outstanding front desk employee? 2) What are 3 personality traits that would make this job challenging? 3) If you have been in a customer service job before, can you tell me about that experience? (With this question, I am looking for what that candidate learned. I want to find out if she had specific experiences with confrontation and how he/she handled it.)_
In a chiropractic office there could be a list of outside contractors such as: DC Independent contractor (IC), Doctors in other lines of work, massage therapist; acupuncturist, nutritionist, billing company, cleaning service, accountant, lawyer and credit card machine provider.
The biggest benefit to outside contractors is the financial savings. You may pay more/hour than your in house employees; however, you don't have to pay employer-provided benefits, office space and equipment. With "in house" employees, you will have to make certain required payments on behave of your employees, such as your share of the employees' Social Security, Medicare taxes and workers compensation insurance premiums. If the cost of these payments came to 7.65% realistically speaking, all together it would increase your office costs by about 20-30%.
Another benefit is the flexibility and control in the sense of staffing the project. When the project is done, you know that worker will be gone. The potential of legal trouble of firing or laying off an independent contractor verses an "in house" employee is greatly diminished.
The efficiency of their work often times is better, just for the mirror fact that independent contractors specialize in that particular area. There is no time and cost spent in training.
Independent contractors are not as protected under as many state and federal laws in comparison to "in house" employees. Therefore, lawsuits are less likely.
Even though it may seem like independent contractors are the way to go. There are some significant draw backs. The bottom line is you have less control over an independent contractor verses an employee. With an employee, you can micromanage them to your hearts content and supervise them unlike an independent contractor.
With independent contracting, the job is usually short term with different people coming and going. The different work from different people coming and going maybe: disruptive, less dependable and uneven.
Whatever is in your written contract could potentially limit you in your ability to fire your IC. Workers compensation does not cover injuries of IC; therefore, the chance of the chiropractor being sued is higher. Also, the chiropractor is more of a target in being audited because the IRS receives less money in taxes and insurance from IC; and because, it is easier for IC to hide and/or underreport income.
I do plan on being a provider for a select number of insurance companies; however, I will have the patient pay in full at the time of service but will curtsy bill. This will allow the patient to to take the super bill, that we provide, and mail that directly to their insurance. In return, they are directly reimbursed from their insurance.
danielle - team #11
Team #11
ReplyDeleteWith hiring a front desk person, I want to make sure that the focus of the interview is able to reveal pertinent information about the candidate. The questions that I ask will mainly be open-ended in nature so that the candidate's strengths and weaknesses are revealed. Three interview questions that I will use are: 1) What are 3 personality traits would qualify you to become an outstanding front desk employee? 2) What are 3 personality traits that would make this job challenging? 3) If you have been in a customer service job before, can you tell me about that experience? (With this question, I am looking for what that candidate learned. I want to find out if she had specific experiences with confrontation and how he/she handled it.)_
In a chiropractic office there could be a list of outside contractors such as: DC Independent contractor (IC), Doctors in other lines of work, massage therapist; acupuncturist, nutritionist, billing company, cleaning service, accountant, lawyer and credit card machine provider.
The biggest benefit to outside contractors is the financial savings. You may pay more/hour than your in house employees; however, you don't have to pay employer-provided benefits, office space and equipment. With "in house" employees, you will have to make certain required payments on behave of your employees, such as your share of the employees' Social Security, Medicare taxes and workers compensation insurance premiums. If the cost of these payments came to 7.65% realistically speaking, all together it would increase your office costs by about 20-30%.
Another benefit is the flexibility and control in the sense of staffing the project. When the project is done, you know that worker will be gone. The potential of legal trouble of firing or laying off an independent contractor verses an "in house" employee is greatly diminished.
The efficiency of their work often times is better, just for the mirror fact that independent contractors specialize in that particular area. There is no time and cost spent in training.
Independent contractors are not as protected under as many state and federal laws in comparison to "in house" employees. Therefore, lawsuits are less likely.
Even though it may seem like independent contractors are the way to go. There are some significant draw backs. The bottom line is you have less control over an independent contractor verses an employee. With an employee, you can micromanage them to your hearts content and supervise them unlike an independent contractor.
With independent contracting, the job is usually short term with different people coming and going. The different work from different people coming and going maybe: disruptive, less dependable and uneven.
Whatever is in your written contract could potentially limit you in your ability to fire your IC. Workers compensation does not cover injuries of IC; therefore, the chance of the chiropractor being sued is higher. Also, the chiropractor is more of a target in being audited because the IRS receives less money in taxes and insurance from IC; and because, it is easier for IC to hide and/or underreport income.
Continued Team #11...
ReplyDeleteI do plan on being a provider for a select number of insurance companies; however, I will have the patient pay in full at the time of service but will curtsy bill. This will allow the patient to to take the super bill, that we provide, and mail that directly to their insurance. In return, they are directly reimbursed from their insurance.
Group 23a
ReplyDeleteWhen interveiwing a potential front desk person, it would be my goal to find out whether they understand what would be expected of them and to determine if they have the abilities to fulfill the tasks outlined in the job description. The following are three interveiw questions that I would ask: 1. What do you feel would be your main responsibilities as our front desk person? 2. Please describe what would make you a good fit for this position?
3. What qualities do you posses that would help you successfully fulfill all the tasks outlined in the job description while still effectively representing our clinic in your interactions with the public?
In my practice I will use outside contractors to do my accounting and taxes and to cover any legal matters that may come up. I will also have independant contractor DCs and therapists sharing my office space.
The advantage of having outside contractors is that you as the business owner have no responsibilities to them other than paying their fee or percentage. The disadvantage of having outside contractors is that you cannot have control over how they complete the task that they are hired to do. This may be a problem if you desire to have only certain techniques done in your office for example.
I do not plan on accepting insurance in my practice because it is too complicated and I do not want my life to be ruled by paperwork. I will provide my patients with a superbill that they can send to their insurance if they choose but I will require payment at the time of service.
Group 21--
ReplyDeleteThree questions I would ask a front desk person are as follows:
1) Would you say you do your best work in the morning or in the afternoon? This is important because some people are in a bad mood in the mornings and this is not someone I want at my desk at the opening of the office each day. Other people are great in the mornings but get sleepy as the day goes in - this person would make a great opener each morning.
2) What could you bring to this office that you feel makes you a better candidate than the next person? This question offers the interviewee the opportunity to discuss a broad spectrum of the qualities that they feel would make them a good employee, and offer me a chance to really get to know the potential employee.
3) There are times when this office will be slammed with patients and may require you to stop any paperwork or billing and help out as much as possible, would you be willing to come in after hours or on the weekend to catch up on the work you had to put aside? Even though I would rarely, if ever, require someone to come work during their time off - this question shows how committed the potential employee would be to the office.
One interesting office we have visited uses an outside marketing rep. The office is very high volume and pays the marketing specialist $40,000/year to assure that there are at least 50 new patient visits per month that can reference this contractor as the person whom referred them. The pros of something like this are that it saves the chiropractor time dealing with screenings and health talks that attract new patients. This also provides a more relaxed mindset for the chiropractor because they are assured a good number of new patients monthly. One major con to this contractor is cost. $40,000 per year is very high cost if the contractor does not follow through with their end of the bargain. Another con is that having this person that is not a chiropractor out speaking on your behalf and answering questions is a risk. If the person makes false claims or does something inapropriate, the doctor could possibly be held responsible or portrayed in a negative light.
We have ultimately decided that we will accept insurance in our clinic. One reason we have decided this is because there is simply too much business that would be lost if we did not accept insurance. We plan to open in a residential area about 30 minutes outside a major city. The majority of people in the area make between $30-60k/year and would be looking for a chiropractor that accepts health insurance to help cover costs. Although we do plan to try and put our patients on a family wellness plan that would have a set cost for either a half or full year, we would initially treat them and accept whatever payment type they wish to use - including insurance.
Group 1
ReplyDeleteI consulted with the office manager and the primary doctor at the office I am currently at to see if there were any specific questions she/he generally asks during the interview process. The three main questions she/he usually asks during the initial or second interview are the following:
1. "What did you like and dislike about your previous job(s)?"
According to the DC I am interning with, questions about the interviewee's previous job(s)were an important indicator if that person would be a good fit for the office. He stated that he likes to ask about what they liked and disliked about their prior jobs to see how their attitude toward the job may affect the current job. Are they upbeat and optimistic or were they negative and blamed all the problems on everyone else? Was the reason for leaving the previous job financial, due to scheduling conflicts or was it because of inter-office conflict?
2. "How do you handle multiple people making requests of you at the same time?" (Are you able to prioritize, delegate, ask for help?)
Whether there is only one doctor or multiple doctors in the office, the front desk staff is usually responsible for checking in and out patients, answering phones, escorting patients around the office, answer billing questions, etc etc. and sometimes the front desk person is responsible of doing all of this at once. If the person working at the front desk gets overwhelmed easily and cannot handle all of their duties at once, the whole office may suffer.
3. "What would you bring to (insert office name here) if you were offered the job?" This question will give insight to the office manager/doctor WHY the person wants the job. Is it the only job they can find? Are they really interested in chiropractic and want to be involved with the profession? This question allows the person interviewing to present their strengths and how they would contribute to the office.
Any business may use an outside contracting service for placement of many jobs. An example of jobs include clerical, administrative, data entry and technical support.
PROs of using an agency include:
-the agency will deal with the application process (screening, interviewing, reference checks, placement, drug test, etc)
-"try before you hire"
-only qualified applicants are placed in your office
-contract employees can become full time/long term employees
-can be used for "filling the gaps" in the office (ie. maternity leave, vacations, etc).
CONs of using an agency include:
-can be costly (flat fee or percentage of the salary)
-you may have a contract with the staffing agency (so you cannot seek out your own applicants)
-you may miss qualified applicants if they are not contracted with the agency you are using.
The office that I am currently precepting and plan on returning to for an associateship upon graduation DOES accept insurance. I consulted with the primary doctor in the office and asked why he decided to accept insurance (especially since insurance can be so difficult to work with). His response was that even though there is more paperwork, denials, re-submitting of claims, etc etc...the office collects "almost 2x more than a cash practice." He simply stated that the "payout is higher". Also, with the enconomy being the way it is right now, people that have insurance want to use their insurance. Most insurance companies that we deal with in this office only offer 10-24 visits/year for chiropractic. Therefore, most people do need to switch to a cash account after their insurance runs out. After their insurance has been exhausted, pre-payment plans and fee for service discounts are given to make the financial aspect easier to handle. Another precept doctor in our group said that he is going to be out of network with an insurance company next year, therefore the patient's copay is going to be higher than the time of service discount. By giving them the TOS price, the patient will be saving $9 a visit.
Group 19 Robert, Frankie, Erin, Joohye, Nichole
ReplyDelete1. Besides asking about previous work experience, the first question should find out what the potential front desk person's expectations may be. A good question to see if the potential employee understands the breadth of experience and skills that are necessary for the job is: Explain what you think the duties and responsibilities of a front desk person in a
Chiropractic office are and what skills you think are necessary to perform those duties.
A good second question should give a case scenario that may typically occur within the office and ask for details on how they would handle that case. This will show whether or not the potential employee has the right critical thinking skills and attitude to handle particularly difficult patients, vendors, co-workers or other challenging situations that may arise.
Familiarity with billing, asking for payment and how they will meet and greet everyone is a good third question and can also be asked in the form of a case scenario--How would you handle-------
2. For a new office, with the advent of digital films it may be cost-prohibitive to take X-rays in house. Building a good relationship with a local radiologist has some benefits for a new practice. The negative is that the office will not be making the profit from the X-rays, but the positives may outweigh this negative, especially for a start-up practice.
Referring films out will lower liability because the Rad report will be done by another professional. Having an outside contractor read and take films will open up more time for focusing on patient adjustments. The relationship you build with an outside radiologist will not only make the office seem more professional, but it can help generate referrals. The main reason for farming out this service is that it will help you lower your start-up costs. A digital set-up may take years to pay off.
Cleaning services, snow shoveling, interior decorating, landscaping are all additional services that make sense to have an outside contractor--its great to be a "Jack of all trades" but primarily we are running a chiropractic office and we will do best when that is our primary focus.
3. Insurance---The idea of a cash based practice sounds really great but in many places it may be unrealistic. If you are in a town where a great number of people are insured by their employer then it may be necessary to accept insurance and at the very least make sure that your paper work is compatible with what the insurers will cover. It should not be difficult for patients to be covered by their insurance. The more impediments our office can remove the more our patients will appreciate what we can do for them. New health care laws and different plans to pay for healthcare are part of the future, our office needs to be ready to deal with those changes--some will benefit us and others may require much more work on our part. With the new changes to healthcare and insurance it is important to do a cost-benefit analysis when deciding on how we are going to be compensated for our services.
Group 27 says...
ReplyDelete1. We would ask a variety of questions pertaining to the individual applying for the job. Obviously, we would ask about previous employment, their background and most importantly "what if scenario's..." Many people can study questions and rehearse what they want to say. However, it's important to make sure the potential hire can think fast, effectively, and on the spot.
2. Possible services for an outside contractor are a massage therapist and a acupuncturist. Both of these are important and possibilities.
3. The pros of hiring an outside contractor are potential clients and sky rocketing profit. The cons are possible confrontations.
4. Yes, I plan on taking insurance. By taking insurance, I will have more patients and more traffic flow.
Group 23B
ReplyDeleteWhat are three interview questions you would use when hiring a front desk person:
1. What are some qualities you have that would help the clinic grow?
2. When presented with a stressfull situation, how would you deal with the pressure? (For example: an upset patient)
3. What other job(s) have you had where you had to deal with people?
What type of services might use an outside contractor for:
Billing company, cleaning service, accountant services, lawyers, building contractors, and independant contractor Chiropractors
What are the pros and cons of using an outside contractor:
Advantages are not having to worry about withholding for taxes, reduced taxes, worker's compensation, social security, medicare, and unemployment compensation. Also, using independent contractors allows an employer to have additional personnel when needed, without having to pay full-time employees.
Disadvantages are not being able to control what they do. The individual can, for example if independant contractor is a Chiropractor they can use techniques that you may not want them to do or may use physiotherapy or give out nutrition advice when you refer out to a nutritionist.
Do you plan to accept insurance in your practice:
Yes, potential to lose patients
Group Nine
ReplyDeletewhat are three interview questions you would use when hiring a front desk person?:
1. Can you be a positive and uplifting influence on our patients?
2. Are you a team player?
3. How enthusiastic are you about chiropractic?
what type of services might use an outside contractor for and
what are the pros and cons of using an outside contractor - be specific?
Any service that involves direct interaction with patients should be in house. Independant contractors can muddy the brand you are trying to protray to your patients. Having complete direction over your clinic allows you to pursue the most beneficial avenues with out excess bagage.
do you plan to accept insurance in your practice; why or why not?
Absolutely. People with insurance will utilize chiropractic more often than cash patients. The paperwork isn't that hard and staff does it for you anyways. And if you are truly good those that don't have insurance will pay cash.
We feel that having the right staff can greatly determine how successful a practice will be. An interview gives you one of the few opportunities to interact with the potential employee to determine if they are the right fit for your practice or not. Three questions we feel can help gain insight:
ReplyDelete1) What traits do you posses that will make you a successful member of this team?
2) Working as front desk staff you will often be the first person the patient comes in contact with in our practice. How can you make this patients experience the best it can possible be?
3) How do you feel that chiropractic fits in to the health care system?
This last question can help you gain knowledge about the applicant in a couple different ways. It allows you to get some insight in to their experience with chiropractic as well as possibly put them in to a slightly uncomfortable situation so you can observe how they will react.
Some services we may possibly use an outside contractor for include accounting, legal advice, building maintenance, cleaning services, and a radiologist. We feel the biggest advantages to contracting services from an outside source are lowering overhead by having less employees, and opening up more time to focus on patient management. The biggest disadvantage is not having direct control over the contractor's job performance. We feel that properly selecting your outside contractor's through a thorough selection process can alleviate much of the worry about the contractors performance.
In our practice we will accept insurance. By accepting insurance you extend your services to a much larger potential patient population who would otherwise not seek out your chiropractic services. Also, if we practice in an area driven by industry and a few large companies, accepting the companies insurance that it offers to it's employees can be a large source of new patients. Many new patients could be generated by well designed marketing efforts for that specific target market.
The previous comment was for group 3.
ReplyDeleteSeth, Danielle, Mike, Jess, and Jeff
Group 7
ReplyDeleteWhen hiring front dest personnel we would first observe how they present themselves such as appearance and how well they can communicate. We would ask the potential employee simple questions: What is your previous work experience? How well do you work with others? We would also ask them what they know about chiropractic. The right office staff can make or break your practice because they are the first and last people our patients see during their time at our office so we would look for more outgoing, intelligent, and personable people.
Some services for an independent contractor could be a massage therapist or a nutritionist. They could be a very valuable asset to our clinic and provide even more incoming patient potential and allow our patients to achieve thier optimum wellness. Some cons to an independent contractor could be that thier personality and work habit doesnt meet our offices standards.
Yes, we plan on accepting insurance in our office to allow a greater patient flow, but we will offer patients a discounted price if they pay cash up front. We would like to work to minimize the amount of insurance and progress to a cash based practice in the long run to have a smoother running office with less paperwork.
Group 13 [Adam Van Gessel, Dan Synowicki, Eric Carpenter, Rachel Berent, Jeff Elmore]
ReplyDeleteFront desk interview: When hiring a front desk person, we feel that it is very important to hire someone who has the same philosophy that our office does. Finding that perfect fit may be the difference between someone who just works there 9-5, or someone who can really help your business flourish and run efficiently. First off, we would sit the person down and explain to them all the services we provide in the office, why we do things the way we do, and explain the culture of the office. Once they have a clear understanding of the office and its philosophies, we would ask them if our office environment and structure fits in with their personality. If not, then we get to have a short interview and can move on to the next candidate! After that initial “screening,” we would then ask them a couple of other questions, such as any if they have had previous experience working in a medical/chiropractic clinic, or if they have worked with insurance, billing, taking calls, etc.
Outside contractors: We feel that we would like to keep many services in-house when we start our practices because it is one way to save on costs. However, once we get too busy to handle all of those responsibilities, then we feel that it would be cost effective to begin to contract out a few services. Some of the services we would consider contracting out would be x-rays, insurance billing, payroll, and the company’s financial books.
Hiring an outside contractor for services like these is beneficial to a busy chiropractor because it will free us some valuable time that you can use at your discretion (family time, more patients, educational talks, etc.) These services may also allow you to save some money that you would have to spend on office staff. This includes not only their salary, but also medical expenses or training that you may have to pay for. Hiring outside contractors also would allow you to save on other overhead costs, such as paper, ink, film and chemicals. Lastly, when you hire an outside contractor, you ensure (hopefully) that those services are professionally done, such as payroll and bookkeeping. When you do them as the doctor, they won’t be quite as nice!
The cons to using outside contractors include a couple of things. First, you will have to pay for these services, which may or may not be cheaper than doing them yourself or having a staff person do them. Services like insurance billing take a percentage off of the top, which affects your business’s bottom line. For something like x-rays, if you hire them out they may not be done exactly how you wanted them done. You will also have to delay treating those patients because you must wait for their schedule to open up for your patient and you must also wait for the results.
Insurance: To accept and suffer, or not accept and suffer? That is a real key question that many of our classmates have wrestled with during our time at Palmer. With all the issues going on right now with national health care and insurance costs, it seems like steering clear of that whole mess would be a great idea. However, we as young doctors have a hard enough time starting up a practice from scratch, let alone when we narrow down our potential clients by not accepting insurance. For the purposes of practice start-up, we have decided to bear with the mess that the insurance industry is and accept insurance in our practices. We feel that this gives us the best opportunity to grow our business quickly and start breaking even sooner. Also, by providing great patient education and teaching our patients about what a lifetime of chiropractic can do for their health, we feel that we can turn many of our “insurance” patients into wellness patients. Besides, as our businesses grow, we can slowly start rejecting insurance and move to a cash patient model.
Group 25 (Brady, Carrie Jo, Ryan, Josh, Tom)
ReplyDeleteThree interview questions we would use to help hire a front desk person are:
1) How has your previous job experience prepared you for the role of a front desk person/receptionist?
2) How would you describe chiropractic care to a potential patient?
3) What are three of your personal strengths and how will they be used to positively benefit this clinic?
Uses for an outside contractor: Accounting/payroll, lawyer, insurance billing, cleaning staff, building/parking lot maintenance, IT/technical support for a website and electronic health records, transcriptionist
+PROS: Less responsibility for employer, easier to hire/fire due to fewer personal interactions, less overhead (no health benefits, sick leave, work comp, etc), reduced exposure to lawsuits
-CONS: Less quality control of job performance, less loyalty to employer, cannot multi-task because outside contractor is hired to perform one specific task where as a hired employee can be cross-trained in office procedures
For our practices, the advantages of accepting insurance outweigh the disadvantages. When accepting insurance, it legitimizes our care and puts it on the same level as other healthcare providers (MDs, DOs, Dentists, Optometrists, PTs). Also, accepting insurance opens our services to people who otherwise could not afford them- especially in today's economy. Even though insurance companies cut reimbursements in half or more, it is better to get 50% of something rather than nothing at all. Also, once the patient can see the health benefits of chiropractic care, they may exhaust their insurance coverage and then choose to pay out-of-pocket for preventative care.
Group 15 (Kristen, Curtis, Krystal, Joe)
ReplyDeleteThree interview questions you would use when hiring a front desk person
1. What is your previous work experiences and how would that apply/help you with this type of office job?
2. Ask them to describe their reaction to a stressful situation at their previous job; typically how they react in the past will determine how they will react in future situations.
3. What is chiropractic and how would they articulate it to potential patients. This is important because the office as a whole has to be able to project the same passion and philosophy.
What type of services might use an outside contractor for
- Billing/insurance, cleaning, x-rays, payroll, lawyer, massage, fitness trainer, nutritionist
What are the pros and cons of using an outside contractor
- Some pros of using outside contractors are allowing the DC to focus on being a chiropractor and not having to worry about book keeping, billing etc. and utilizing resources and sustaining a healthy economic balance within the community
- Some cons would be the cost of hiring contractors and having to make sure each contractor is producing quality work and staying on schedule.
Do you plan to accept insurance in your practice; why or why not
- I plan on accepting insurance because it would allow me to reach a larger group of people. For those that do not have insurance, an affordable payment plan can be utilized and those that do have insurance can either choose to use it or not. I feel that it is important for the patient to be in control of their health and money choices, so accepting insurance would allow my office to do that.
Group 31 Johanna, Kyle, Catherine, Dan
ReplyDeleteThe chiropractic office i do my preceptor-ship with has had trouble to find the "perfect" front desk staff until they realized that they never really asked the question of why people actually wanted to work. Work as in work in general. They had 2 younger front desk staff in their early twenties and they were working to make money for a living, they worked because they had too, they had the life-trouble that the twenties bring with and they brought that trouble to work, conscious about it or not.
The DC's realized that they needed someone to work at their front that loves to work, loves to be busy and loves to be challenged, and uses work to be busy during the day.
When they started to look for people that wanted a new, part time job, that they would get to meet and greet people, do some computer work, phone calls and accounting, they suddenly found a whole new group of possible employees. From over 24 females in their forties and fifties that responded to a post on "CRAIGS LIST", most of them with the kids gone and the husbands at work, really excited about working 50% in a family office, they chose two after asking them questions along the line of why they were looking for a job to work, if they like people, if they are comfortable making phone calls and asking for money, if they had experience with budgeting etc. They also had them act out 1 of 3 different situations on how to handle 1)a patient that never shows up on time coming in at a very busy moment, 2) phonecall to a patient that missed an appointment, 3)asking for an outstanding balance form a patient. The two ladies are a great addition to the office and have been with them for over 4 years now.
You can find an outside contractor for anything that you need to provide you or your patients in your office. It really depends on whether or not it is monetarily worth having that service. We all can do our own billing, but it may be a time constraint where we could see that many more patients while having someone else do this. This may be the case in opening a new practice and having much more time on hand to handle it while the office is smaller and there isn't as much money on hand.
You can get an outside contractor for everything from services, massage therapist, billing/insurance, cleaning, fitness trainer, physical therapist, and so on...
Pros would be to free up your own time to care for your patients, increase your own volume, and focus on the Chiropractic side of your clinic. If you need to have other things in and for your office, then an outside contractor would be a good idea. Having an OC means you would have to keep them on track and honoring their work. It would be easy for them to slack off if they want to.
No insurance. The office i work with is in the process of getting rid of their last insurance blue cross blue shield. They have had less trouble with patients accepting care and following through with the recommended care plan if they were not "blinded" with limited visits covered by their insurance. People are also more likely to accept chiropractic as a wellness treatment for them selves rather than a patch up process for a one time illness.
Also the office i work with sees a lot of kids and parents usually have no doubt about their kids seeing a chiropractor if they are patients for "wellness" care rather than for insurance covered care, since they seem to easier accept that chiropractic is for healthy growth and health benefits rather than just intensive care for adults.
Group 17
ReplyDelete1.) What is your previous history with front desk work or heath care in general. How would you describe chiropractic to a person that has had no previous knowledge of our profession. What is something that you feel like you would need to work on personally to become a better front desk person.
2 & 3). A possible services for an outside contractor to me would be a massage therapist. The pros of hiring an outside contractor are freeing up more time while caring for more people, and the possible exchange of client tell. The cons could be the fact that an outside contractor can only perform his duty IE: massage therapist could not take x-rays or do physical therapy modalities thus limiting him to just massage work.
4.) Of course I don’t want the hassle of dealing with insurance companies but first and foremost I don’t want to lose patient numbers due to not accepting patients who can only afford my services via insurance.
Groupd 23B Jenelle Bourgeois and Jenny Li
ReplyDelete* 1. what are three interview questions you would use when hiring a front desk person
What is your weakness and asses?
have you worked with customer service before? What was your experience?
Why do you think you will be a good candidate for this position?
* 2.what type of services might use an outside contractor for and
I would use personal assistant and marketing assistant. If the chiropractor can focus on adjusting and providing patient better care and excellent experience within the office. The volume of the practice will go up. That means many resonsibilities need to assighted to a contractor or assistant. I know the personal assistant seems to be not realistic for many people but the personal assistant will take many major responsibilities and give the doctor more time and energy to focus on the patient care. Depend on the financial aspect of the practice, the personal assistant can also be the marketing assistant. Think about this, if you as chiropractor just need to focus on patient rather than insurance, calling patients, bills, answering legal questions, order magazine for the waiting room, etc. I would be more looking forward to start the day with patients rather than other misclellany.
3).Many important information will be given to the personal assistant to look over so yes the trust issue need to be put into consideration.
4). That's why hire part time staff to deal with filing details of information.
Group 5
ReplyDeleteThree questions to ask a potential front desk staff person would be if he or she has any prior experience as a front desk person in any other health care profession or if they have any similar experience dealing regularly with flows of people such as a cashier or restaurant server. Another would be if they have any experience with chiropractic and what their views on the matter are. Not that one should only hire those knowledgeable about chiropractic, but I have heard stories of those who got hired and caused problems stemming from a complete disbelief in chiropractic, but just wanted a job no matter where it was. Finally, I'd ask how they would react to a difficult or complaining patient at the front desk in two or three different scenarios.
The most common contractor I hear of is hiring a masseuse, though hiring physical therapists is also a pretty common one and both are done so that the chiropractor can spend more time adjusting rather than these other activities that often take a bit longer.
Contractors are helpful in the aforementioned way of freeing up time for the doctor as well as sometimes offering serviced that the doctor might not always be as qualified in which could increase the patient base, but one doesn't have quite as much of a say in what they do or how they operate as they would with an actual employee which could potentially lead to some problems.
No. Either way I'd have to work along the lines of insurance as many patients will want to be reimbursed for care if they have it and won't always know how to file it themselves. However, it still frees the office from a number of hassles and grants a bit more freedom in billing. Some patients will indeed be lost by it, but this can be at least somewhat diminished by a bit of additional patient education in regards to insurance as these days, often insurance isn't even particularly helpful anyway for chiropractic services after deductibles and co-payments are taken into account except for particularly difficult cases needing to come in more often than most (though I must admit these patients are the most 'profitable' yet the most likely to be lost).
Sending for Group 5
ReplyDeleteI feel the interview process is a perfect opportunity to ask those ‘off-centered’ questions that make the interviewee think on their feet and provide candid answers. For my front office staff, I want a person that is on their ‘A’ game every day, even when under stressful and challenging situations. This person needs to have a pleasant personality that displays compassion, sensitivity and professionalism required in a clinical setting. The questions that I would ask would be: 1) What experience do you feel you possess that would set apart from the other candidates applying for this position? This question gives the candidate the opportunity to ‘toot their whistle’ and highlight their unique or specialized skill set that may be ideal for my clinicial office setting. 2) How do you deal with stressful situations when they have arisen in the past? This question will give you an idea of exactly how this person deals with stress and how they will respond to any given situation. 3) Lastly, I’d ask them, what is a strength and a weakness that they possess regarding this position? This question will make the candidate really think…and you as interviewer can definitely tell if they are giving you a ‘filler’ type of answer or if they are honest in their response. This question is not intended to ‘trip up’ the candidate, it is intended to go outside the box a little and ‘test’ communication skills and articulation within their response. Regarding a contractor or independent contractor, this would be a weight-based ratio that must be scaled to determine feasibility for either monetary gains/losses and also for patient care and satisfaction. Contractors that are valuable to your office come in all types and costs, i.e., massage therapy, accupuncture, etc. The pro’s for hiring a specialized contractor would be increased patient care diversity and volume and also providing the DC additional time to concentration on patient care, him or herself. Con’s would be availability of those specialized services and additional wages. Also, patient loyalty may decline as well. Lastly, regarding insurance, I’d say, YES to insurance, as it would greatly enhance patient volume and minimize missed appointments. Although the paperwork is often cumbersome, I feel it worth the effort in order to embrace a larger patient base within my clinic.