Hello - After a rather depressing 2016 which saw 60% of my client base retire, or leave their practice, 2017 has been a just the opposite. I've added 5 new providers in just 3 months, for a total of 12 (5 full time) this is good news of course, but since I'm a one man show, I'm struggling to play catch up, and will soon need help. I work from home now, but I'll be looking to rent a small office, and add an employee at the end of this year (right now I'm building up cash reserves) So...
* Once I make the jump to office space, how do I go about finding a good employee?
* What part of the workload do I delegate, and what should I do myself?
* How should I evaluate my employees performance?
* What type of agreement should I have to protect my business from employee lawsuits (It seems one can be sued for almost anything)
* Should I have a separate bank account for payroll, or would my business account be sufficient?
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Quote from: williamportor on April 05, 2017, 04:57:25 AMHello - After a rather depressing 2016 which saw 60% of my client base retire, or leave their practice, 2017 has been a just the opposite. I've added 5 new providers in just 3 months, for a total of 12 (5 full time) this is good news of course, but since I'm a one man show, I'm struggling to play catch up, and will soon need help. I work from home now, but I'll be looking to rent a small office, and add an employee at the end of this year (right now I'm building up cash reserves) So...CONGRATULATIONS! So happy to hear that things have turned around! Quote from: williamportor on April 05, 2017, 04:57:25 AM* Once I make the jump to office space, how do I go about finding a good employee?Finding a good employee is crucial. One bad employee can really wreak havoc in your business. However finding the right employee is not always easy. You should make a list of questions for your interview. The questions themselves are not always the important thing, but that you are getting the person talking in general. Our interviews usually last close to an hour. The decision you are making is huge so you need to spend some time with the person. We watch a lot of things from what time they showed up to the interview, their appearance, their body language, etc. We also listen closely to all answers for any clues as to the personality. Another good thing to do is to ask them if they have any questions. Good questions from an interviewee is a good sign. We don't go by experience. Experience is nice but work ethic and personality are a little more important in our eyes. You can teach medical billing, but you can't teach work ethic and personality. You also can't teach common sense which is important in this business. Quote from: williamportor on April 05, 2017, 04:57:25 AM* What part of the workload do I delegate, and what should I do myself?I would start with the more simple tasks such as data entry. We start with entering patient demographics. Depending on the person's experience, we may start with claim entry. But we check everything they do prior to submitting any claims. We also start with working aging reports because that gets them accustomed to the PMS and the whole process without giving them a job that could be "messed up". Again we go over everything. We don't usually have them enter anything into the PMS until we look at it with them. We have them do claim status checks on the web, automated systems, or by phone calls, then we go over what to do with each answer. It's a bit of extra work in the beginning but you must know what they are doing and if they are doing it right.Quote from: williamportor on April 05, 2017, 04:57:25 AM* How should I evaluate my employees performance? In the beginning we evaluate by how they are picking up what we are teaching. Are they taking notes? Do they ask good questions? Are they open to learning (or do they already know everything!)? You will get a feel for it as you are training. As they go on, do they remember what they were taught? Are they making less errors (while you are checking their work) as time goes on? Are they starting to get faster? Balancing speed & quality are key.Quote from: williamportor on April 05, 2017, 04:57:25 AM* What type of agreement should I have to protect my business from employee lawsuits (It seems one can be sued for almost anything)In 23 years we have not had any issue with this. Just do things right (fair) and you shouldn't either.Quote from: williamportor on April 05, 2017, 04:57:25 AM* Should I have a separate bank account for payroll, or would my business account be sufficient?We pay our payroll from our business account. We only have the one.Quote from: williamportor on April 05, 2017, 04:57:25 AMAny suggestions would be helpful. So excited for you!