As a doctor, you will rely on your nurses, aids, receptionists and billing professionals to keep your practice running. You simply can not do all of the support work in addition to providing patient care.
When you hire workers to join your new medical practice, their talent can help you grow your business. Unfortunately, their mistakes or misconduct could have an equally powerful negative impact on your prospective business. What training you provide for your workers can go a long way toward protecting your business and limiting the liability that occurs when you become an employer.
What workplace education will take some of the risks out of bringing on new staff?
ANTI-HARASSMENT ANDDISCRIMINATION TRAINING
The way that your employees engage with one another can lead to financial liability for you as the business owner. If they are abusive toward each other, especially if one of them complains to you and you fail to intervene, you may ultimately be liable for the hostile work environment those employees create.
Requiring that your employees treat each of your patients with respect regardless of their background is also important, as patient complaints could damage your reputation. Sensitivity training can help you in both of these areas.
PRIVACY TRAINING
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) creates a lot of privacy requirements for medical facilities and employees. It is crucial that you communicate those basic standards to your employees and provide them with the necessary training so that they can avoid potentially expensive infractions.
From limiting how they talk about work on social media to using secure systems for storing files, there are many steps your employees will need to take to help ensure that you are HIPAA compliant.
BILLING AND INSURANCE FRAUD TRAINING
Even if workers will not play a role in billing, if they input data into patient records at all, they likely need at least a little education on what constitutes insurance fraud. Teaching your staff about unbundling, phantom charges and upcoding can help ensure that no one at any stage within your practice makes mistakes that could lead to fraud allegations against the facility.
Providing your staff with the right training will play a major role in protecting your medical practice and ensuring that it is profitable.