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IS THERE A JOB DESCRIPTION FOR AN OWNER OF A HEALTH CARE OFFICE?

July 29, 2010 By 1 Comment
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Clients new to Silkin Management Group often don’t have job descriptions for the various positions in their office. And, for certain, if they have some job descriptions they never have one for the owner of the practice. In fact it usually has never crossed their mind to have one.

The owner of the practice is the most important person in the practice. He/she is the one who sets the goals and is ultimately responsible for everything that goes on in the office and the success or failure of the office.

We provide all Silkin Management Group clients with an extensive office policy and job description manual covering all positions in the office INCLUDING the owner.

Here is some of the key points any owner should have as part of his/her job description:

PURPOSE:

To set the direction and the pace of the practice and demands the products of the organization are achieved.

To establish the practice and see to it that written policy is applied so that the purpose of the practice can be achieved.

To keep the group solvent and functioning.

PRODUCT:

Utilization of his/her Office Manager to obtain those products through proper alignment of actions which bring about continued prosperity and well being of the practice and its staff.

STATISTICS:

• Number of Active Patients
• Cash to Bills Ratio

If you would like more information about our copyrighted 400 page Job Description and Office Policy manual, contact us at info@silkinmanagementgroup.com. You can also find out more about Silkin Management Group by visiting our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com.

Bill Hickey
Silkin Management Group Consultant



Filed Under: Management Tagged With: , , ,

FURTHER DATA ON THE NEW REGULATIONS FOR EXISTING HEALTH CARE PLANS

June 24, 2010 By 1 Comment
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We’ve written recent articles on the problems small businesses may soon experience with existing health care plans as a result of the new guidelines put out by the Obama Administration. You can read these previous articles on two of Silkin Management Group’s blog sites: http://practicemanagementblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-rules-for-existing-health-care.html & http://silkinmanagementgroup.blogspot.com/2010/06/more-information-on-new-rules-for.html

The following is a short summary of this issue for anyone who hasn’t read what we’ve previously written and/or who is unfamiliar with this recent turn of events for small businesses with existing health care plans.

Under the new regulations, any business that has an existing plan will be able to keep their current plans as long as they don’t significantly cut benefits, raise co-insurance charges, or increase co-payments by more than five dollars. Such plans also will lose their status of being “grandfathered in” if deductibles are raised appreciably or if employers reduce their payments to employees’ premiums by more than five percent.

As mentioned in our previous blogs noted above, we are keeping an eye on any further updates and information about these new regulations as it affects Silkin Management Group clients with existing plans. Today I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that I thought I should pass along to any Silkin client or small business owner reading this site. You can access this article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703513604575311013340405940.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

This article points out another aspect of these new regulations that is not helpful for small businesses with existing plans. These new regulations could easily end up limiting what an employer can do about his plan costs and, at the same time, prevents him/her from getting a new plan at a lower cost because he/she would then lose the benefits from the “grandfathering” rights of existing plans.

As the article points out, “Many small businesses would like to keep their grandfathered status but can’t afford the premium increases. Benefits consulting firm Mercer LLC says increases are averaging about 10% in 2010, and a Deloitte LLP estimate puts the range between 11% and 15%.”

With premium increases happening now, small businesses are forced to make difficult decisions to control their costs, many of which may not comply with the new regulations and which could then result in losing their “grandfathering” advantages. Truly a lose-lose situation.

I suggest all Silkin Management Group clients read the attached article, as well as the previous articles noted in the blogs sites referenced above in order to stay on top of this issue.

Dave McKevitt
Silkin Management Group Consultant

For information about Silkin Management Group, visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com



Filed Under: Legislation Tagged With: , , , ,

WHY ARE SOME STATES SUING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OVER THE HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL?

June 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Anyone who has been reading our various Silkin Management Group blog sites knows that we’ve been writing for months about various aspects of the health care reform bill and its effects on small business. (Silkin Management Group clients are all small businesses.)

Many of you may be aware that some states decided to sue the federal government in the attempt to get this legislation thrown out. Some of my Silkin Management Group clients were curious about this suit, whether it had any merit and, maybe most importantly, what the basis behind the suit was.

Along those lines today I found an interesting article that covers the basic philosophy behind the suit. I found it quite fascinating and wanted to pass it along to our readers. I think you’ll find it interesting whether you agree with it or not.

There are several points to the argument, but the most basic seems to be the following, as pointed out by the author of the article:

“At the core of the lawsuit is the requirement that all individuals purchase qualified healthcare or face a fine. Forcing individuals to purchase something simply because they are alive is unprecedented, and we believe ultimately unconstitutional. The military’s draft is the only exception to this, and Congress’ authority to enact the draft is explicitly provided for in the Constitution, unlike this mandate.”

I suggest Silkin Management Group clients and anyone else reading this blog site read the article and form your own opinion about this suit. The full article can be found here: http://njtoday.net/2010/06/16/why-small-business-joined-the-healthcare-lawsuit/

Bill Hickey
Consultant for Silkin Management Group

For more information about Silkin Management Group visit our website at: www.silkinmanagementgroup.com.



Filed Under: Legislation Tagged With: , ,

HOW DOES THE HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION AFFECT GROUP HEALTH CARE PLANS?

June 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Part 2

Yesterday, on this Silkin Management Group blog site, which you can link to here: www.silkinmanagementgroup.blogspot.com, we discussed some of the aspects of the new health care legislation relative to how it affects group health plans. All of Silkin’s clients are small businesses and many of them have group plans. Therefore wanted to relay the information we have found on this aspect of the legislation.

Here are 5 additional points that are important to know if you have a group health plan:

1. You insurance company should provide you with a summary of benefits as you are required to distribute such a summary to all employees covered under your plan.

2. There are some preventative care benefits that are required to be covered 100 percent. Which ones? That is still being figured out although vision and dental exams for children might be included. Any plan “grandfathered” will have the same preventative care benefits until 2014.

3. Any employer with 25 or less employees with an average wage less than $50,000 per year may be able to use the tax credit to deduct up to 35% of the premium payments from their taxes.

4. Employers with 2 to 50 employees may be eligible for a federal grant program to help with providing wellness programs for their employees. The details of this are still being figured out.

5. Emergency services (the definitions of which are still being figured out) will be paid at the in-network level whether or not the provider is preferred or non-preferred. Grandfathered plans will continue with the same emergency services benefits until 2014.

Bill Hickey
Consultant for Silkin Management Group

Please visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com for more information about Silkin’s services.



Filed Under: Legislation Tagged With: , , ,

MORE INFO ON THE INTRUSIVE PAPER WORK HIDDEN IN THE NEW HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION

May 25, 2010 By 1 Comment
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On several of our Silkin Management Group blog sites, we’ve posted articles about what was once a hidden and unknown portion of the health care legislation that has nothing to do with health care. This hidden stipulation requires all businesses to file 1099’s for every purchase of over $600 with any and every company they deal with.

Besides the fact that this has absolutely nothing to do with health care, why the heck was this slipped into the legislation behind everyone’s back? The simple answer is that it is the government’s next attempt to find more money. Unfortunately for the government, this little “move” is no longer hidden and is causing quite an uproar.

In our past articles we’ve discussed a variety of ways that this activity will cause greatly increased administrative burdens to both small and large businesses. As Silkin Management Group clients are all small businesses, we felt it important to keep everyone educated on this matter.

Today, I read maybe the best write up of how intrusive this legislation will be. You can link to this article here: http://www.naturalnews.com/028854_1099_small_business.html

As the author points out, “Remember: The new law will require 1099s to be issued to both individuals and corporations. This means that a musician who buys an expensive new guitar will have to send the retailer a 1099 at the end of the year for that purchase. A florist will have to send 1099s to each of her suppliers as well, including the flower growers, the ribbon company and even the place where she buys tape and scissors if those purchases exceeded $600 throughout the year.”

“Can you imagine having to track and tally every single business purchase you make throughout the year and send 1099 forms to all of them? How about having to collect names and taxpayer identification numbers from every vendor or payee that you dealt with? Can you imagine how long it would take on the phone with Wal-Mart customer service to try to obtain the company’s tax ID? Multiply this by the other five hundred companies you do business with, and you start to get an idea of the new burden this is going to place on small businesses across America.”

Read the whole article and you’ll find it eye opening, or should I say eye popping.

You can be pro-active about this by writing your Congressman and Senator about this absurdity. Maybe someone will listen.

Jack Hennessy
Silkin Management Group Consultant

For more information about Silkin Management Group or Silkin Management Group’s services, visit our website at: www.silkinmanagementgroup.com and/or email us at: info@silkinmanagementgroup.com.



Filed Under: Legislation Tagged With: , ,

WHO DO YOU TRUST?

May 4, 2010 By 1 Comment
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Who do you think are the most trusted institutions in America? Or the least trusted? (Unfortunately, attorneys are not considered an “institution” or else we’d all know they’d be at the bottom of the list.)

What’s your guess? Do you think the entertainment industry rates higher or lower than the news media? Do people view the Obama administration as having a more positive or negative effect on the country than technology companies? How about small business versus big business…who do people trust more?

As Silkin Management Group consults and trains small businesses on management, we are proud to see that the most trusted institution in the country is small business according to the recently released study by the Pew Research Center. And who’s at the bottom? It’s banks and financial institutions with Congress right on their heels. You can read about this study in the following article from USA Today: Small Business Pew Survey.

As noted by the author of the article and according to Carroll Dougherty, Pew’s Associate Director. “At a time when a lot of institutions are viewed negatively, small business is viewed very positively. What’s really interesting is that large corporations are viewed almost as negatively as Wall Street. The contrast between large corporations and small business is enormous.” And this was a very bi-partisan response – 70% of Democrats, 72% of Republicans and 73% of Independents concurred.

Read the article, you’ll find it very interesting. Silkin Management Group clients who read it found it very supportive of the work they do. Below is the chart given in this article and taken from the Pew study. I think you’ll find it fascinating.

PUBLIC’S NEGATIVE VIEWS OF INSTITUTIONS

Effect on the way things are going in the country (in percent)

Positive Negative Other/Don’t Know
Small Business 71 19 10
Technology companies 68 18 14
Churches & religious orgs 63 22 15
Colleges & universities 61 26 13
Obama administration 45 45 10
Entertainment industry 33 51 16
Labor industry 32 49 18
Federal agencies and depts 31 54 16
National news media 31 57 12
Large corporations 25 64 12
Federal government 25 65 9
Congress 24 65 12
Banks & financial inst 22 69 10

Pew Research Center March 11-21. Figures may not add to 100% because of rounding

Silkin Management Group consults and trains small business owners, primarily in the health care field. If you’d like more information about business or practice management or about Silkin Management Group and its services, visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com or contact us at: info@silkinmanagementgroup.com.

Larry Silver
President, Silkin Management Group



Filed Under: Legislation Tagged With: , ,

MORE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NEW HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL

April 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Small Businesses Still Have Many Unresolved Issues

We’ve been continuing to research and write about the ramifications of the new health care legislation on our various Silkin Management Group blog sites. Since all Silkin Management Group clients are small businesses, we find it vital to keep a close eye on how this bill will be implemented and how that will affect not only our clients, but all small businesses.

Today I read an interesting article which you can access here: http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/04/26/making-sense-of-the-new-health-care/?test=latestnews. This article covered an event put on by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in which a panel of experts discussed the legislation.

This article points out the following key issues:

• Employers are confused about adding dependants to existing policies and how much that will cost them.
• Tax guidelines for employers and employees are unclear.
• Employers who have to make decisions about their health care coverage for the next year are in a precarious position as the Department of Health and Human Service has not yet issued many needed guidelines to facilitate the decision making process.
• Yearly caps on benefits are not resolved.
• What changes plans grandfathered from the new law will have to make to maintain exempt status.
• Tax reporting requirements for small businesses will add costs for small businesses.
• Requirements for tax credits are very limited.

The article also gave a great example of how a business could use the new law to stop paying health care insurance for its employees and save a large amount of money. But, by doing so, it will increase the federal government’s cost and, if enough companies do this, it could result in another underfunded government program. Here’s the example given in the article:

“Monday’s event included the release of a study sponsored by the Chamber analyzing the impact of the new law which its backers said would insure more Americans while containing costs. The report cited a small Philadelphia trash company that has 55 full-time employees and spends $600,000/year on health care costs. In 2014, if the company decided to drop its health plan, it would pay $50,000 in fines. In other words, the study shows, the company will save $550,000 by not offering its workers health insurance and forcing them to find insurance on their own.”

We will continue to research up to date articles and information about this legislation in the attempt to keep Silkin Management Group clients and anyone reading our Silkin Management Group blogs informed about the latest questions and answers regarding this massive piece of legislation.

Dave McKevitt
Silkin Management Group Consultant

For more information about Silkin Management Group and our services, visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com. You can also contact us at: info@silkinmanagementgroup.com.



Filed Under: Legislation, Small business Tagged With: , , ,

HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION

April 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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What Is Going to Happen to Costs Between Now and 2014?

I’ve been wondering, as have some of our Silkin Management Group clients, what is going to happen to health care insurance premiums between now and 2014. Most of the regulations on costs and the implementation of health insurance exchanges don’t take effect until 2014. So what is to prevent, over the next 3 years, the continued escalation of premiums that we all have been experiencing over the last many years? Nothing, at this point.

A bill was recently introduced in the Senate by Dianne Feinstein to give the secretary of health and human services the right to review premiums and block any unreasonable rate increases. More legislation on this is being looked at as well.

At the same time, the insurance companies are stating that rate increases are caused by unchecked increases in prices that hospitals and other health care providers are charging, so limiting premium increases without addressing the underlying cause will be harmful.

If you or any Silkin Management Group clients are interested in learning more about this, I suggest you read the following article that was in today’s New York Times concerning this. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/health/policy/21health.html?th&emc=th. This article gives a good overview of what is being debated on this subject that can and will affect us all.

Jack Hennessy
Silkin Management Group Consultant

For more information about Silkin Management Group, contact us at: info@silkinmanagementgroup.com and/or visit our website at: www.silkinmanagementgroup.com. You can also call Silkin Management Group at 800-695-0257.



Filed Under: Legislation Tagged With: , ,

ANOTHER GOOD SUMMARY OF THE HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION

April 13, 2010 By 4 Comments
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On our various Silkin Management Group blog sites we’ve written summaries of the effects that the new health care legislation has on businesses as well as provided links to other articles that help clarify this 2500 page piece of legislation.

I recently ran across another article from USA Today that was an excellent summary of the legislation and covers the following points:

• Insurance Exchanges
• Subsidies
• Medicaid
• Mandatory employer provided coverage
• Mandatory personal coverage
• Pre-existing conditions
• Adult children
• Lifetime limits
• Preventative care
• Taxes
• Cadillac plans

As Silkin Management Group is a practice management consulting and training company, we try to keep abreast of these issues, but we also know that we certainly are not experts in the area. Therefore we are always looking for well presented written articles by experts to pass along. This was one and can be found here: http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/columnist/abrams/2010-03-26-what-health-care-reform-means_N.htm

We will be presenting information on these various areas over the next week to more closely inform any readers of the specific details on many of these areas. In the meantime, this article should be very informative to anyone wanting a good summary of the legislation.

Bill Hickey
Silkin Management Group Consultant

For more information about Silkin Management Group and its services visit our website at www.silkinmanagementgroup.com and/or email us at info@silkinmanagementgroup.com.



Filed Under: Legislation Tagged With: , ,

DOES THE HEALTH CARE BILL REALLY HELP SMALL BUSINESS?

April 6, 2010 By 2 Comments
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What Are The Facts?

There’s been a lot of talk about how the new health care bill affects small businesses. We’ve written many blogs on the various Silkin Management Group blog sites about this, trying to present the facts as we see it, based upon research done by experts.

Since Silkin Management Group clients are all small businesses, we feel it is important to stay on top of the facts regarding this and filter through the various opinions and hot air presented by people and politicians on both sides who have vested interests.

I recently ran across an excellent article written by the South Carolina director of the National Federation of Independent Business (the country’s leading small business association). You can access this article here: http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20100403/OPINION/304030005/1004/NEWS01/Health-care-bill-will-hurt-small-businesses

I suggest you read this article in full, but here are some of the highlights that the author points out:

• For many small businesses, the new bill is more of a tax increase than health care reform.
• Heath insurance costs are likely to increase rather than decrease for small businesses.
• The small business health care tax credit is very limited in size and scope and provides a dis-incentive for a small business to grow.
• The increase in payroll tax for Medicare will hit many small business owners.

Read the article and decide for yourself how the new health care bill might affect you as a small business owner. Knowing how this bill works is an important management activity for any small business owner. We recommend to all Silkin Management Group clients to know all about this law and its potential ramifications for their business.

Dave McKevitt
Consultant for Silkin Management Group

For information about Silkin Management Group visit our website at: www.silkinmanagementgroup.com or email us at: info@silkinmanagementgroup.com



Filed Under: Small business Tagged With: , ,
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