Episode 45: Adding Benefits To Your Group Practice

It’s that time of year again! We are receiving a TON of questions about adding benefits to your group practice for your team members, and there are several factors that play in to adding benefits in successfully. Julie’s talking through the 5 most common benefits added to group practices and which benefits could be a great fit for your business! *Disclaimer: We always recommend consulting with an employment attorney to make sure you are meeting all requirements of your state before implementing benefits for your employees. Episode Highlights: Continuing Education This is usually the first added benefit for many group practices. There are typically not a lot of restrictions for implementing. Continuing Education doesn’t have to be expensive and can be capped at whatever amount you are comfortable with! Paid Time Off It’s easier to combine vacation and sick time into one category, but you can differentiate between the hours if you would like. Some states do require you to offer a certain amount of leave time based on an employee’s status. Typically, you will see a set number of hours per year for each employee, or there can be an accrual based on the number of hours the employee has worked. Retirement The cost to the employer is at a minimum the cost of managing the plan. There is usually an employer match, that isn’t required, but is definitely a nice benefit for your team. Offering retirement benefits is a great recruiting tool and retention bonus. Health/Dental/Vision Insurance This can be an expensive benefit to add so a lot of times, smaller group practices don’t tend to offer this up front. In most cases, you are not required to offer insurance to your part-time employees, but we still recommend consulting with any employment attorney. Short-Term/Long-Term Disability Insurance This is the least common benefit that we see in group practices. It still adds great value to your practice, but it is more common to see PTO or medical insurance. There are some states that still require employers to offer short and long term disability options to this employees so always consult with your attorney. Short term usually covers your employee for about 3-6 months, with a typical waiting period of about 14 days (all plans can vary). Long term usually can cover your employee from 2 years to a lifetime, with a waiting period of usually 3-6 months (again, plans can vary). Links & Resources: GreenOak Accounting Therapy For Your Money Podcast