The hottest topic for optometrists in the past few years has been health insurance and the Obama administration’s impact on ODs as providers.
But what about the optometrist and staff as patients? Should you as the employer offer health insurance for all of your staff members?
In our parents’ generation many employees working in optometric offices were married and covered under their spouses’ insurance policies. Today, the majority of employees are single and don’t have another source of health insurance. Through the new state exchanges, health insurance can be an affordable option for your staff and potential employees. However, I believe you as an employer are at a competitive disadvantage if you do not build health insurance into your compensation model at your office.
Most applicants are looking for positions that offer health insurance. It has become imperative that you structure your compensation model to include health insurance.
If you do not currently offer health insurance to your employees, here are some ways to include it.
- Controlled Benefit – As the CEO of your optometry practice, you choose how much money will be allotted for health insurance. For example, you may choose to put $250 per month for each employee who opts to have health insurance.
- Better Applicants – By offering insurance, you will immediately improve the quality and sheer number of qualified applicants for any position in your office. Applicants are concerned about hourly compensation, but they also want peace of mind. If you offer health insurance, whether fully or partially paid, you are offering peace of mind.
- Control Overhead Costs – Most of us are unwilling to include health insurance as a part of an employee’s compensation package because we are afraid of the increased overhead costs. Don’t worry. If you are adding health insurance, discuss the added benefit with your staff and explain the impact it will have on hourly wages. Most of your staff will be just fine with it because they are receiving the peace of mind of having health insurance. As the owner and operator of your practice, do the math backwards. If you usually pay 25 percent for staffing, include an amount towards insurance for each staff member and adjust other benefits so the re-allotment totals 25 percent of overhead. (Twenty-five percent is typically high for those of you wondering)
There are many good reasons to offer health insurance as a staff benefit. The most successful practices learn to adapt to what is important to employees and compensate accordingly. Remember, compensation alone is not the primary reason most employees leave their jobs. (Remarkable Leadership – Eikenberry)
Timely topic for me. How do you actually implement the controlled benefit though? I have been giving a “health care stipend” However, as of July 1st, this is illegal.:
http://www.nfib.com/article/suranc-69940/
The best way we have found is through a small business insurance broker. They are very knowledgable about how to implement plans and they shop the market for you. You can line item the health insurance dollar amount that you would like to give for each staff. If each staff member that takes health insurance through your office is compensated $250 towards the premium then you would put this as a line item and the staff member would pay the balance of their premium, if one remained. I hope that helps. Feel free to contact me at optometryceo@gmail.com for further dialogue.
25% is of the gross- not after adjustments correct?
Gross collected (all money that comes into your practice after write-offs, I like to call it “real money” and not “paper money”) I hope that helps. If you would like to dialogue more contact me directly at optometryceo@gmail.com.