As doctors, the holidays are a time for family, friends and a pause from work… but they are also a time when we can’t bill or work, we are giving our teams bonuses and gifts of thanks, and we’re considering all the small issues that come with a holiday closure – both for the docs and for the patients.
A few tips:
- Gift Cards like these are a taxable benefit and if you’re accounting for them to your team, you need to note the gift as part of their income. If you buy it for them with after-tax dollars and hand it to them, it may not be reported as part of income, which means they will see all of that money, but it’s slightly more expensive for the corporation.
- Thank your key referral partners with a card, or even a call to say hi and thanks. The referral partners to just connect with are the ones that send the cleanest and best referral packages, the ones with the administrative teams that your team like, and the ones with the patients who are the easiest to work with and/ or who have the procedures you try to focus on.
- Note closures on your website, auto attendant and in the clinic, often forgotten, but letting people when you’re away, when you’ll re-open and what to do in the meantime is a very important and often overlooked step.
- Remember International Privacy Laws If you’re out of Canada, you can’t download medical records and should only access your EMR for a VERY secure and NOT public or hotel network. Your cell hotspot is safer than the public Starbucks or the hotel wifi.
Remember too, that whomever is doing your claims billing and admin see how much you bill every month, and they know how you keep the clinic. This is a time to thank those who take care of you and to do it in a way they will feel apprecaited.
Happy Hollidays!