Do You Have the Correct Incentive Plans? Why You Should Care!

Many emergency room doctors and physicians and even nurses are mostly paid off at least in parts through incentives. These incentive plans can vary a lot, mainly depending on the behavior of the group which is to be rewarded or incentivized and as a result, there is no such one universal plan for all of them together. However, there are three fundamental qualities which every incentive plan must include to be most effective, and in the process aligning the clinic's financial aspirations with the appropriate revenue objectives of a group, its transparency, and even the timely payments. In this article, you shall learn about some such fundamentals which every physician must look for in a financial plan.

The best plans will align your financial goals with the revenue objectives of your group

If the economic goals of physicians with those of the revenue objectives of the whole team are aligned, then both groups will get what they want for each other at the same time. Different clinics have different financial goals, but all physicians have one thing in common, and that is that they all would like to get paid fairly. Thus, if a doctor is working harder, or longer or even more efficiently than another doctor, then the first doctor would like to get rewarded accordingly. Practitioners can get rewarded, when they do the following:

• Work on a night or a weekend shift
• Check up more patients hourly
• Increase the patient satisfaction score
• Work on-call shifts
• Reduce the door-to-doctor times
• Work faster and more efficiently
• Document everything thoroughly
• Have supervision of a PA
• Give single coverage on their shifts
• Work on holiday shifts
• Reduce patients who leave without getting seen
• Work in more shifts
• Reduce lengths of stay of the patients

Clinics, however, try to reduce their operational costs and increase their revenues and make more profits, they provide incentives generally during the following times:

Reward the existing actions and also motivate for newer behavior

Both of these actions are important. Rewards will make it possible to pay up practitioners fairly, which will drive the team to work hard to increase revenues and decrease their costs.

Questions that we must ponder: Does the incentive plan help to distribute revenues? Does the incentive plan help generate additional revenue?

Good Plans will be Transparent

Transparency is a much-desired quality that everyone looks for in their financial dealings and in people and all the institutions which have an impact on our lives.

Many doctors cannot figure out the incentive plans from their contracts, and the incentive compensation plan has to be simple enough for physicians to grasp them in its entirety. If clinics want to retain their best doctors and also attract more talent than the issue of transparency becomes a significant factor. Lack of transparency can be a deterrent for many practitioners from joining a clinic. The formula for calculating incentives, and percentages must not be too complicated; it has to be easily understandable and easily explained. So if you are a physician, then you must see to it that you understand the formulas and the exact method of calculation for your incentives.

Also to make incentive plans transparent, physicians would be required to check out the actual calculations for their pay periods. When someone gets paid on an hourly basis, then transparency will not be an issue as simple mathematical calculations will help to verify whether the paycheck is correct or if it requires alterations. However, productivity incentives are a bit more complicated and would need the calculations to be correctly explained.

Questions: Do the doctors understand how they are being paid? Are any statements of financial reports offered which show precisely how payments were made?

Good Plans will Pay Incentives immediately

Good plans will pay doctors their incentives right away. It helps in increasing motivation and productivity. Good clinics will pay their doctors the incentives on a monthly basis and not drag the payment on for two or 3 months. Immediate payment will be helpful in keeping the calculations relevant and free from distortions also.

Questions: How quickly does your company pay you your bonus and your incentive?

You can visit the online websites to get the best information on physician financial planning and understand the various nuances and technicalities that are involved in financial planning for physicians.

Conclusion

The three conditions mentioned in this article are the main fundamental hallmarks of any sound financial plan for physicians who are working in a clinic or a hospital. You need to check whether the conditions mentioned here are adequately addressed in your financial contract or not. These points will help you to negotiate a better deal for yourself. If you find your current contract lacking in any of the points mentioned, then you could consider changing the terms.

Author bio: Lucy Jones has written this exclusive post on financial planning for physicians. She has already written many articles on financial planning for professionals in various fields. Visit https://www.beamalife.com to know more!