Kind of off topic but a important question Would like serious honest opinion

[Msladyajw]

I wont add to this I wont take away from it, I am going to explain it EXACTLY how it is,

I taught a friend how to do medical billing to the best of my ability. Later on she lands a job at a company that is like 2 companies in one. The husband owned the investigation side for pre employment background . The wife owned the clinics already where they do pre employment and DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION DRUG TESTING,  So they combined their business when they got married. When covid hit the wife decided to do covid vaccines, She had never billed insurance before. Fast forward my friend gets a job there in October, Over hears wife talking about all claims have been denied for over a year,

Friend opens mouth and says I can help with that, Never asking for a dime, Doing it on her own time, Now with in 2 months claims denied have had payment decision reversed for a total deposit of 30, 721.85.

She did tell my friend thank you in an email and asked her how she did it, Told her she will give her a percentage but then withheld money from her paycheck, What is a fair % ? TO me 30 grand in 2 months proves she is doing something right compared to every claim before was denied, And for petty reason like no NPI on file NO TIN  so what would be a fair % to you guys if that were you

100% truth, It took her hours upon hours she had to redo each claim open projects with United health finally all was completed those payments were made to the owner, Then my friend got mercy care to pay, after a years worth of rejected claims, Keep in mind this is not her day job . Now she needed surgery on her jaw took 2 days off she is contract not hourly.

You guys as providers if this were you would you have docked her those 2 days she already gets paid the lowest of any in her area with same job title,I just want to hear other providers how would you handle if someone got 30 grand paid to you, would you withhold 300 from their check? I want my friend to see others opinions, Not all providers are the same .

[kristin]

There is a lot going on in your post. Here is my 2 cents...

If your friend is contracted with the company, she only gets paid for the hours she clocks in on, regardless of what she is doing for them off the clock, how much income she brings in for them, and if she takes time off for a medical procedure. Basically, all of her hard work is paid based on when she is clocked in. Why she chose to do all of the work she did off the clock is beyond me, but she should not have done that. If you say you are working on your own time, you will not get paid, unless you have an awesome person you are working for, who will be willing to pay you for that work, for some reason.

Counting on the company she works for to do the right thing, and compensate her for the income she brought in by working the denials...regardless of whether it was in writing or not...not ideal. She clearly got screwed.

I am not quite understanding the part about her getting docked for two days. If she is a contract employee, she is paid when she is working, she can't get docked. So why is she getting docked $300?

I can also tell you this...every one I have ever worked for, be it contracted or on payroll, if I did what she did, I got a huge bonus for doing it. If I bring in $30,000 of "lost" income, I have always gotten a percentage of that income. Because that is the right thing to do.

Bottom line, your friend works for a**holes. They are greedy and unappreciative. She needs to bail, ASAP.

[Msladyajw]

YOU ASKED THE SAME EXACT QUESTION I ASKED,  Why is she getting docked on hourly but yet they just issued her a 1099. She has to clock in and clock out for lunch and clock back in, I was under the impression a 1099 worker works on their own time. But i have not researched that to much, I do know she just got her 1099 , Thank you I appreciate your response ,

There is a lot going on in your post. Here is my 2 cents...

If your friend is contracted with the company, she only gets paid for the hours she clocks in on, regardless of what she is doing for them off the clock, how much income she brings in for them, and if she takes time off for a medical procedure. Basically, all of her hard work is paid based on when she is clocked in. Why she chose to do all of the work she did off the clock is beyond me, but she should not have done that. If you say you are working on your own time, you will not get paid, unless you have an awesome person you are working for, who will be willing to pay you for that work, for some reason.

Counting on the company she works for to do the right thing, and compensate her for the income she brought in by working the denials...regardless of whether it was in writing or not...not ideal. She clearly got screwed.

I am not quite understanding the part about her getting docked for two days. If she is a contract employee, she is paid when she is working, she can't get docked. So why is she getting docked $300?

I can also tell you this...every one I have ever worked for, be it contracted or on payroll, if I did what she did, I got a huge bonus for doing it. If I bring in $30,000 of "lost" income, I have always gotten a percentage of that income. Because that is the right thing to do.

Bottom line, your friend works for a**holes. They are greedy and unappreciative. She needs to bail, ASAP.

[RichardP]

... they just issued her a 1099. She has to clock in and clock out for lunch and clock back in, I was under the impression a 1099 worker works on their own time.

A 1099 worker is responsible for paying their own taxes.  The employer just pays the 1099 worker for time worked and deducts no taxes.

Given that, how will you know what to pay a 1099 worker if you do not track their hours.  Hence, the time clock.

You may be thinking of the difference between exempt and non-exempt employees, or the difference between hourly workers and salaried workers.  The definition of a salaried worker is that they do not work by a time clock, whereas hourly workers do.

[kristin]

Regarding clocking in and clocking out for lunch/breaks...when I was 1099, if I wasn't working more than 10 minutes (such as the amount of time it took me to prepare lunch), I was clocked out. But I would clock back in and eat my lunch while I worked. I was never required to clock out for a certain amount of time each day for lunch/breaks. That is not how being a 1099 employee situation works.

Basically, I was told by my employers that if I had to do something that required me to miss at least 10 minutes of work, to clock out. So that is what I did. Just how it worked for me.

[Msladyajw]

... they just issued her a 1099. She has to clock in and clock out for lunch and clock back in, I was under the impression a 1099 worker works on their own time.

A 1099 worker is responsible for paying their own taxes.  The employer just pays the 1099 worker for time worked and deducts no taxes.

Given that, how will you know what to pay a 1099 worker if you do not track their hours.  Hence, the time clock.
You may be thinking of the difference between exempt and non-exempt employees, or the difference between hourly workers and salaried workers.  The definition of a salaried worker is that they do not work by a time clock, whereas hourly workers do.

 I agree you have to track their hours. Even gig work hours get tracked on platforms like upwork . You are correct, But no I do not have the 2 mistaken. You can track the hours worked by your 1099 worker, BUT you can not force specific time frames in which they must work, They work on their own time.

You can not set a clock and tell a 1099 worker you have to be here at 8am and you can not go home until 5 pm, Dept of Labor is very clear about 1099 workers set their own schedule.

With that said the job she does has a turn around time of 72 hours, meaning reports have to be returned to the client who ordered them by the end of 72 hours. Not including weekends.

 She took Friday off and Monday all reports that were ordered on that Friday she had them returned by the 72 hour mark because she logged in late Monday night and completed those reports, SO just because she was not there during the day Monday she still worked the same hours,

SO if I was a 2099 worker you can track how many hours I worked you can not track when I worked those hours , If I agree to work 25 hours in a certain amount of days, Then as long as I work that 20 it does not matter when I work them..

The point of my post is legally hours can not be deducted just because it was not the hours you wanted the work to be done.

You are assigned a job, A part of that job says when a report comes in it must be worked and returned to the client within 72 hours, If she wants to work the report at 3 am that is her choice, Nothing says she can not, She met her end of the deal the reports were returned in 72 hours pay should have never been deducted, Luckily they have been made aware of this and fully agree, Apparently the manager did not inform the assistant manager who did the payroll that pay period, They have now fixed this and the hours were paid. They also informed her to expect her bonus for the extra work and getting the claims paid.