Keep staff by keeping salaries competitive

Practice Management. By Julie A. Jacob, AMNews staff. Oct. 28, 2002.

Knowing how much to pay your staff is a delicate balance. Pay too little, and your staff will feel underpaid and underappreciated and may jump to a practice with a better salary. Pay too much, and you'll spend too much of your hard-earned revenue on salary and wages.

However, determining what to pay your staff doesn't have to be a guessing game. Several resources are available to help you find appropriate salaries for your medical assistants, receptionists, billing clerks and practice managers.

The simplest thing to do is to ask your colleagues what they are paying their own staff, suggested Geoff Anders, president of the Health Care Group, a health care consulting firm in Plymouth Meeting, Pa.

Keep in mind, however, that the job descriptions for the positions in your office may not exactly match the job descriptions of staff in your colleagues' practices, and thus what they pay their staff may not be appropriate for your staff, noted Anders.

In addition, it can be helpful to find out how much other types of businesses in the area -- dentist offices, law offices, accounting firms -- are paying their office staff.

"You're competing with more than other medical offices. It doesn't hurt to be in touch with general recruiting agencies," Anders said.

The Health Care Group also publishes an annual office staff salary survey, based on responses from 700 medical groups across the country, said Anders. The survey, which costs $195, breaks down average salaries for medical office staff by metropolitan area and years of experience. [...]