CURRENT CIRCULATION: 7724 DATE: 14th October 2009 ISSUE NO: 165 Welcome to Health & Life’s free email newsletter service. Tell a friend that we would be happy to add their email address to the distribution list. This service is to provide Health and Life’s clients and those who attended our presentations with up to date information on key financial and practice management issues that may affect your practice. Please do not use this as a substitute to seeking professional advice. Writer in charge: Mr David Dahm BA.Acc, FCPA, FTIA, Ffin, FAAPM, GLFG.

The New National Nurses Award & General Award Update!

STOP PRESS!! Prime Minister and Health Minister Geraldton Visit – Health & Life Client We are very proud to announce that one of our clients, the Geraldton Medical Group located in rural WA, who achieved a place in the BRW Fast 100 private companies list in Australia in 2008, was visited by the Minister for Health and Ageing The Honourable Nicola Roxon last Friday 2nd October 2009. The Prime Minister was also scheduled to attend the practice however a widely publicised stomach bug kept him in bed. The meeting was an important one symbolising the Government’s support of modernised multi-disciplinary primary care practices. Congratulations to the staff and directors of the Geraldton Medical Group. We know all of our accounting practice clients are on a similar journey and this demonstrates you are within good company and on the right road despite the avalanche of change. For more information see http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/News/0,1734,5405,09200910.aspx . Like all our clients, clear vision, leadership, commitment and having skin in the game is the only way to achieve a sustainable healthcare system. We appreciate all our clients who represent excellent role models for the local community. To the Honourable Minister and Prime Minister thank you for taking an interest in Primary Health Care and GP/Multi-disciplinary practices owned in the private sector. The personal and local dialogue is appreciated by all and we appreciate this takes up a lot of your personal time away from your families. To share this experience with you all go to our home page at www.healthandlife.com.au for our and the Geraldton Medical Groups letters to the Minister.

TOPICS Covered 1.0 What is the Nurses Award 2010?

1. EMPLOYER PENALTY - $33,000 per breach 2. EDUCATION & DISCLOSURE 3. ORDINARY HOURS DEFINITION EXPANDED 4. AVERAGE 38 HOURS PER WEEK MANDATORY – UNREASONABLE HOURS

PROHIBITED 5. FULL TIME, PART TIME & CASUAL STAFF – FULL TIMERS ARE PREFERRED 6. ALL NURSING STAFF AFFECTED 7. ALLOWANCES ON TOP OF BASE AND ABOVE AWARD SALARIES/WAGES 8. PAID MEAL & TEA BREAKS 9. ACCUMULATED DAYS OFF, OVERTIME & LOADINGS 10. SHIFTWORK – MORE PENALTY RATES 11. PAYMENT FOR HIGHER DUTIES 12. ANNUAL LEAVE ADDITIONAL CONDITIONS 13. NEW REDUNDANCY RULES 14. TRANSITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS.

WHAT TO DO NEXT? 1. DON’T IGNORE THE ISSUE – IT WON’T GO AWAY and IT WILL GET WORSE

WITH TIME 2. DETERMINE OPTIMAL SYSTEMS THEN EMPLOY STAFF ACCORDINGLY 3. ARE YOUR EMPLOYEES WORKING EXCESSIVE HOURS? 4. ABSORB AWARD CONDITIONS via ABOVE AWARD PAYMENTS USING

CONTRACTS 5. NEW TRANSITIONAL RULES – WHAT IF STAFF ARE WORSE OFF?

2.0 New Topics and Seminar Dates including Grants

3.0 New Doctors Pay Calculator Upgrade – New Income Earning Feature (watch new video – now operating)

4.0 New Free Business Coaching /Mentoring Service – The Good, the Bad and Ugly Report

5.0 Catching Up with David Dahm 6.0 Where to from here?

The New National Nurses Award & General Award Update!

1.0 What is the Nurses Award 2010? This new healthcare industry Award is supervised by the Australian Fair Pay Commission under new national employment standards. It sets the minimum pay and working condition standards for all employed nurses in the private sector. This Award also covers nurses in the private hospital sector, so it is very broad. In this news alert we cover the areas that mainly pertain to medical or healthcare practices. Below are the key messages which also apply to the Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2010:

• Make sure your staff are compliant with new laws. Employers face fines of up to $33,000 for breaches e.g. employees working in excess of 38 hours which are deemed to be unreasonable additional hours.

• If you choose to pay staff over award payments it now means you can still be hit with

an underpayment of wages claim from an aggrieved staff member. Therefore preparing employment documentation correctly is the only thing which can protect you (contact us to find out about our template contract documentation which you can purchase (being finalised at the moment) we will put you on our waiting list).

Doing nothing will cost your practice more as the default provisions will result in additional penalties and allowances.

• New transitional rules apply for all Awards

The new Nurses Award 2010 comes into effect on the 1

st January 2010, the most significant

but not limited issues are as follows: 1. EMPLOYER PENALTY - $33,000 per breach

• Penalties of up to $33,000 per employee breach! The person most likely to report a practice is an aggrieved employee.

2. EDUCATION & DISCLOSURE

• All nursing staff need to be classified under the new staff Award provisions. There is greater emphasis on the fact that if you want higher pay you should undertake more formal education externally. If you want a pay rise see below for more information;

• The Awards must be clearly accessible electronically or in the lunch room so

everybody knows the basis of their pay;

• Practices cannot force staff to sign contracts that contravene the Award, in the absence of an agreement that allows Award variations, the new Award applies, you

cannot contract out verbally or in writing out of the minimum Award and National Employment standards;

• You must consult all staff and discuss changes if hours are going to be altered, and

mitigate its impact on individuals where possible. 3. ORDINARY HOURS DEFINITION EXPANDED

Ordinary hours – 6:00am to 6:00pm Monday to Friday

• It is interesting to note the extended medical practice definition for span of hours has not been included for nurses to include from 7:00am to 9:00pm or the 7 day practice Monday to Sunday definition. This is due to the higher pay rates nurses receive for after hours through their base pay as well as overtime rates.

4. AVERAGE 38 HOURS PER WEEK MANDATORY – UNREASONABLE HOURS PROHIBITED

• Employers must not require or request their employees to work more than 38 hours per week, plus “reasonable additional hours”. See our News Alert No. 164 for guidelines these still apply.

5. FULL TIME, PART TIME & CASUAL STAFF – FULL TIMERS ARE PREFERRED

The employer must inform their staff who are employed if they are full time, part time or casual:

• Full time staff are rostered on average for 38 hours a week; • Part time are less than 38 hours that are predictable, pre-agreed and guaranteed; • Casual staff are employed on an hourly basis which is unpredictable plus 25%

loading Part time Staff

• Move to full time staff where possible, avoid employing part time and casuals especially – ensure staff work to rules, otherwise large overtime penalties (see overtime below) arise during normal work hours;

• You cannot change rosters unless in case of an emergency within 7 days before the rostered shift;

• No time and a half penalty rates apply only 15% if worked up to 9pm – this should reduce overtime claims but you may loose your part time workforce Casual Staff

• Casual staff receive an additional 25% of the loaded rate – convert casuals into permanent staff as they could be deemed permanent because they are regularly rostered and guaranteed hours in writing – no flexibility is allowed in the Award to remain as a permanent casual as in some State Awards. Permanent casual staff paid at a loaded 25% rate leaves the practice open to being sued for under payment of wages such as leave entitlements including annual and sick leave. The Award remains silent unlike the Health Professional Support Staff Award 2010 that states in lieu of full time paid leave entitlements.

• A casual employee will be paid a minimum of two hours pay for each engagement. It

is interesting to note for practice support staff the minimum engagement is 3 hours when employed under the Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2010.

• A casual employee will be paid shift allowances calculated on the ordinary rate of pay

excluding the casual loading with the casual loading component then added to the penalty rate of pay.

6. ALL NURSING STAFF AFFECTED

• All nursing staff are subject to this Award – an emphasis is on formal education in order to support higher pay. The following is a guideline outlining where your employees may belong. Clearly many practices pay above Award rates, but this does not automatically exempt staff from additional overtime, allowance or penalty payments. Classification is a critical first step process.

There are many pay points based on working 1,824 hours per annum in a position. As there are multiple pay points within each class, we have taken the top pay point in each classification. Nurse classifications range from nursing assistant, enrolled nurse, registered nurse, occupational nurse to nurse practitioner. Please consult the Award for details of classification criteria and individual pay points. We have made suggestions here of which classifications are more likely to affect your practice.

Maximum Award based on annual full time classification:

Up to

1. Enrolled Nurse $35,620 2. Registered nurse—level 2 (RN2) experienced without total responsibility $47,372 3. Registered nurse—level 3 (RN3) - if managing, staff and budgets $51,688 and is a nurse manager (Note overtime and allowances does not apply to registered nurses at level 4 or 5) 4. Occupational health nurses $51,688 5. Nurse Practitioner $58,240

A Nurse practitioner is a registered nurse/midwife appointed to the role that has obtained an additional qualification relevant to the state regulating authority to enable them to become licensed Nurse practitioners.

A Nurse practitioner is authorised to directly refer clients/residents to other health professionals, prescribe medications and order diagnostic investigations including pathology and plain screen x-rays.

7. ALLOWANCES ON TOP OF BASE AND ABOVE AWARD SALARIES/WAGES Based on Award Classifications e.g. Registered Nurses at level 4 or 5 are not entitled to Allowances all other nurses are entitled to a uniform clothing, dry cleaning, nausea and on call allowances which are increased with the Consumer Price Index annually. These are in addition to any above Award payments, unless included in a signed employment contract (see below). Practices may need to reconsider the real benefits of paying above Award wages as this may or may not lead to a wage freeze and capping of wages.

The following allowances do not apply unlike the Health Professional and Support Staff Award 2010 see news alert No. 164 and/or for Registered Nurses at Level 4 or 5:

1. Blood check – out of pocket re-imbursement; 2. Damaged Clothing; 3. Board and Lodging 4. Heat Allowance; 5. Nausea Allowance;

6. Occasional Interpreters Allowance; 7. Telephone Allowance; 8. Tool Allowance;

The following allowances do apply under the Nurses Award 2010 and exclude Registered Nurses at Level 4 or 5:

1. Clothing and equipment - out of pocket re-imbursement for uniforms or the lesser of $1.23 per shift or $6.24 per week in addition to the laundry set rate which is the lesser of $0.32 per shift or $1.49 per week. This works out at circa $444 p.a. per employee on average; The laundry allowance is not payable if on leave;

2. Meal Allowance – $10 in addition to overtime > 1 hour and $9.00 > 4 hours; 3. On call Allowance – 24/7 weekly

An on call allowance is paid to an employee who is required by the employer to be on call at their private residence, or at any other mutually agreed place. The employee is entitled to receive the following additional amounts for each 24 hour period or part thereof:

(i) between rostered shifts or ordinary hours Monday to Friday inclusive–2.35% of the standard rate; (ii) between rostered shifts or ordinary hours on a Saturday–3.54% of the standard rate; or (iii)between rostered shifts or ordinary hours on a Sunday, public holiday or any day when the employee is not rostered to work–4.13% of the standard rate.

4. Travelling and Transport Allowance – set rate 74c per kilometre, a log book is required or re-imbursement of fares, meals and accommodation receipts required;

5. District Allowance in WA & NT (ceasing in 2014).

8. PAID MEAL & TEA BREAKS

• >5 hours Unpaid 30-60 minute lunch break applies , otherwise pay overtime; • Minimum 10 minute paid tea breaks apply each 4 hour period, with 2 in an 8 hour

period, time to be mutually agreed or one 20 minute break; 9. ACCUMULATED DAYS OFF, OVERTIME & LOADINGS ACCUMULATION AND TAKING OF ACCRUED DAYS OFF (ADO’S)

• Where an employee is entitled to an ADO, ADOs will be taken within 12 months of the date on which the first full ADO accrued to a maximum of five ADO’s in any one calendar year. An employee will be paid for any accumulated ADOs, at ordinary rates, on the termination of their employment.

OVERTIME Overtime penalties do not apply to Registered nurse levels 4 and 5. If working outside ordinary hours:

• Monday to Saturday un-rostered hours, time and half for the first 2 hours and double time thereafter;

• Sunday’s are double time and Public Holidays are double time and a half; • Part Time employees who work beyond their predictable and agreed hours will

receive overtime at time and a half for the first 2 hours and double time thereafter; • Recall to overtime after leaving – a minimum of 2 hours must be paid at overtime

rates; • 20 minute break after each 4 hours of over time work; • The employee and the employer can mutually agree to elect to take overtime in lieu

of payment. This is different under the Health Professional and Support Staff Award 2010 where the employee has to elect with employer consent;

• Overtime rates under this clause will be in substitution for and not cumulative upon the shift premiums;

• Rostered recall minimum 3 hours overtime applies, if un-rostered recall travelling time is included and no requirement to work 3 hours subject to conditions;

LOADINGS Loadings apply whether permanent or casual employees:

• Friday to Saturday Rostered midnight Friday to Saturday midnight will be paid a loading of 50% of their ordinary rate of pay for the hours worked during this period.

• Saturday to Sunday

Rostered midnight Friday to Saturday midnight will be paid a loading of 75% of their ordinary rate of pay for the hours worked during this period.

10. SHIFTWORK – MORE PENALTY RATES Shift penalties apply to afternoon and night shifts and do not apply to Registered nurse levels 4 and 5;

• Rostered afternoon shift between Monday and Friday, the employee will be paid a loading of 12.5% of their ordinary rate of pay.

• Rostered night shift between Monday and Friday, the employee will be paid a loading of 15% of their ordinary rate of pay.

The provisions of this clause do not apply where an employee commences their ordinary hours of work after 12.00 noon and completes those hours at or before 6.00 pm on that day. Afternoon shift means any shift commencing not earlier than 12.00 noon and finishing after 6.00 pm on the same day. Night shift means any shift commencing on or after 6.00 pm and finishing before 7.30 am on the following day.

The shift penalties will not apply to shiftwork performed by an employee on Saturday, Sunday or public holiday where the extra payment for Saturday and Sunday work and Public holidays applies.

11. PAYMENT FOR HIGHER DUTIES Relieving staff must be paid for higher classification duties if greater than 3 days. A Registered Nurse Level 4 or 5 is excluded from this clause.

12. ANNUAL LEAVE ADDITIONAL CONDITIONS Five Weeks Leave

An additional 1 week of annual leave to a total of 5 weeks applies to full time employees (not part time or casual) including shift workers. A shift worker is defined as an employee who is regularly rostered over seven days a week and regularly works on weekends.

Taking of leave Annual leave will be given and taken within six months of the employee becoming entitled to annual leave of more than five weeks.

Payment for annual leave Before going on annual leave, an employee will be paid the amount of wages they would have received for ordinary time worked had they not been on leave during that period. Penalty rates would apply.

Annual leave loading – 17.5% In addition to their ordinary pay, an employee, other than a shift worker (who gets the higher amount of penalties or loading), will be paid an annual leave loading of 17.5% of their ordinary pay on a maximum of 152 hours/four weeks annual leave per annum.

13. NEW REDUNDANCY RULES

• Need to pay 1 to 4 weeks termination notice and it is dependent on age and length of service see National Employment Standards – No.164 News Alert Edition;

• Staff transferred to lower paid duties are entitled to redundancy payments • Terminated staff are permitted one day with proof of attendance to a job search

allowance for every week the notice period applies.

14. TRANSITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS • Existing AWA and practices that are not a constitutional corporation are not affected

by the Awards i.e. you do not trade under a Pty Ltd name, via a trust or in your own name.

• You cannot make over award payments and contract out of penalties unless appropriate employee written consent is given and the permissible Award variations are limited.

• New agreements need to be in place to avoid default Award provisions and new systems need to be established to cope with the new Award conditions.

• Doctors currently remain Award free except training program requirements for registrars and a possible Miscellaneous Award.

• All employees whether part of an Award or not are affected by the National Employment Standards in particular the 38 hour rule. Employers excluded are partnerships, sole traders and non corporate trustees of trusts.

• New transitional rules apply see below. WHAT TO DO NEXT? This applies to all Awards including the Health Professional and Support Staff Award 2010; 1. DON’T IGNORE THE ISSUE – IT WON’T GO AWAY and IT WILL GET WORSE

WITH TIME Up to $33,000 per breach! The most likely person to dob in a practice is an aggrieved employee. Practices need to budget for higher wages and new implementation costs of up to $10k.

2. DETERMINE OPTIMAL SYSTEMS THEN EMPLOY STAFF ACCORDINGLY

In 80% of practices we benchmark we see that staff productivity can be increased by 10 to 20% without increasing staff. Ascertain whether your practice is operating efficiently. Carefully analyse optimal staff rosters under the new Awards. Focus on better systems and higher staff productivity - do more with less, then assess job roles, experience and qualifications of staff and hours required to complete tasks. The better the system the fewer experienced staff required.

If not, consider your options of new work or letting go of staff. Practices should seriously start to consider “out counselling” non-performing staff before the new Awards kick in. Offer staff the total roster hours to work out their new hours and be flexible.

VERY IMPORTANT if a regular casual staff member is offered permanent employment after working more than 12 months they can still claim unfair termination with 6 months pay entitlement owed. So it is important this is documented in their contract correctly that they opted for permanency. So if they refuse this condition you potentially could have a unfair dismissal claim. You are obliged to offer permanent employment. We take a very conservative view of the Award where an employee with guaranteed or predictable hours is considered a permanent employee classed either as full or part-time.

3. ARE YOUR EMPLOYEES WORKING EXCESSIVE HOURS?

If your employee is regularly working over 38 hours a week, consider removing them from lower responsibility roles such as the front desk and budget for a second in charge or an understudy. Furthermore, consider providing additional formal training to your practice manager and focus him or her on becoming more strategic and less operational. Clearly this will be determined by the size of your practice. If your staff are paid greater than $108,000 per annum (excluded 9% Superannuation Guarantee)

they are excluded from the Award provisions if this is made clear in the employment contract, however the National Employment Standards remain.

4. ABSORB AWARD CONDITIONS via ABOVE AWARD PAYMENTS USING

CONTRACTS The basis for absorbing any of the new allowances and penalty rates is determining the correct Award classification for every staff member. Job descriptions are important. You are allowed to pay above Award rates but the practice must state what this is for and have this signed off in an employment agreement otherwise these additional entitlements will still apply and must be paid. The practice should provide individually signed and written business cases to staff, not under duress, to show their over award payments and conditions making them better off. Prepare individual business cases. If you force staff to sign you have no legal protection from an underpayment of wages claims. You must obtain signed consent from your staff otherwise it will not work.

Make sure all employment agreements line by line address the Award obligations –

general statements such as this “over award payment will cover all your penalty, allowance and overtime benefits” is not sufficient. This needs to be detailed in the employment agreement. Contact us for template agreements including job descriptions which are available to purchase.

See attached http://www.fairwork.gov.au/Pay-leave-and-conditions/Awards/Pages/default.aspx?role=employees for Awards.

5. NEW TRANSITIONAL RULES – WHAT IF STAFF ARE WORSE OFF?

If employees are worse off under the new Modern Awards then the employee can file a complaint to the Fair Pay Commission for example clerical staff will lose their 1.5 hour penalty rates after 5:30 pm in some States.

The phasing in arrangements will commence on 1 July 2010 and will allow certain conditions in the new Awards known as the Modern Awards (known as ‘transitional provisions’), such as an employee’s wages, loadings and other penalties, to be gradually increased over a five year period. Therefore, Modern Awards that contain transitional provisions will have two commencement dates. That is, all provisions of Modern Awards will commence on 1 January 2010 with the exception of the transitional provisions which will commence on 1 July 2010.

Consequently, between 1 January 2010 and 30 June 2010, businesses covered by Modern Awards containing transitional provisions will also need to refer to their previous awards (i.e. NAPSAs or Pre-Reform Modern Awards that are currently applying) to ensure employees are receiving the correct wages and entitlements. For example, businesses will need to refer to their previous awards for minimum wages and other entitlements covered by transitional provisions and also refer to their new Modern Awards for any other provisions. This means that businesses will need to retain their previous awards, even though they are mainly covered by a Modern Award, should they need to refer to it throughout the phasing in period.

The conditions of Modern Awards that will be allowed to be phased in include minimum wages (including industry allowance) for adults, juniors, apprentices and trainees, supported wages and piecework rates, casual or part-time loadings, Saturday, Sunday, public holiday, evening and other penalties and shift allowances and other penalties.

Each Modern Award will include the details of the conditions that are affected by the phasing in arrangements, each Modern Award should be read separately.

Transitional provisions will generally be introduced over a five year period from 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2015. For example, casual loadings in the South Australian old Clerks Award which are currently at 20% will increase to 25% over a five year period under some Modern Awards, this requires an employer to increase the loading by 1% each year. That is, in the first year (1 July 2010 - 30 June 2011) a 21% loading will be introduced, followed by 22% in the second year, with the loading increasing as such until the 25% rate has been reached.

Phasing in such Modern Award conditions is optional. That is, businesses can choose whether they automatically pay the increased wages, loadings and penalties from 1 July 2010 or phase in the increases over the period as stated in the Modern Award.

In the case where an employee’s wage in the Modern Award is less than the wages provided for in their previous award employees are asked to complain to the Fair Pay Commission.

Our concern is where there is a case of a statutory unfair dismissal termination that may result where an employer is attempting to meet their Modern Award requirements and the employee at the same time is attempting to establish they are at no disadvantage albeit this is confined to minimum Award conditions and not over award employment contract conditions. We note the Modern Award takes precedence. A case in point is where a regular casual medical receptionist working after 6:00 pm for greater than 12 months, loses to time and half overtime rates where such a penalty is replaced with a lower compensation rate of a 15% shift allowance. This may subsequently result in the employer paying up to a 6 month wages termination of contract penalty as a significant change in ones employment contract may result in an unfair dismissal claim in relation to regular casuals who refuse to convert to a permanent part time employee status. The Australian Fair Pay Commission was not able to comment on such an unintended outcome. This is a good example of a serious anomaly in the law and the lack of clarity that exist in some areas. For many employers maintaining irregular casuals is inefficient and not cost effective under the Modernised Awards. This is a common dilemma affecting many practices yet to be resolved with any sense of clarity as we write. So stay tuned or contact us if you have these or are experiencing similar problems in meeting your Modernised Award compliance obligations.

2.0 New Topics and Seminar Dates including Grants New Topics! Australia’s most successful practices will have some of their trade secrets presented at our Practice Sustainability Series. Go to our website for an updated 2010 new seminar topics list with descriptions. You can forward this to your local healthcare association and we can do the rest and arrange a local presentation near you. See our website for more details under Seminars. 2009 Presentations Below is a summary of dates for our seminars across Australia. At each seminar there is an opportunity to meet with us face to face to discuss any practice issues you may have at no obligation. Email us at pa@healthandlife.com.au to pre-book an appointment. The Victorian Divisional meetings have received grant funding support from the Rural Workforce Agency of Victoria for seminars and one on one practice business coaching. If you are a local Division of General Practice in Victoria or a practice, you are eligible to receive funding for our seminars and/or a one on one practice business coaching grant. If you would like your local medical organisation to host a seminar, send them the attachment with our seminar details and copy us at pa@healthandlife.com.au into your email. We will contact them directly about presenting in your local area. We thank you in advance for your interest and support. You would be surprised how it only takes one person to make things happen!

New programs confirmed for the rest of 2009 are detailed below. Please contact the organisations directly for details about the course program, content and costs. More seminars will be announced during the year.

Host and Where

Date Contact Name

Contact Details

Topics

1 Victoria Felix Medical Association

17th

October 2009

Kaye Phillips

kphillips@vicfelix.com.au or 03 5441 9300

GP Supervisors & Registrars

2 Central Highland General Practice Network

22nd

October 2009

Belinda Carra

Belinda.carra@chgpn.com.au or 03 5428 4848

The new Health & Support Services Award & Time Management Strategies

3.0 New Doctors Pay Calculator Upgrade – New Income Earning Feature (watch new video – now operating)

We would like to apologise as at the time of the last broadcast the video was not working. We have since rectified the problem. Click here to view now

http://www.screencast.com/users/DDMG6870/folders/Default/media/19cc33e1-

824a-41bb-8c22-55e919941270 Our Doctors Pay Calculator has just undergone another upgrade with a new important feature. For practices that are aware you can legally avoid payroll tax and employment obligations including the new Industrial Awards if you charge a management fee plus GST on provider fees received. For example charging a 40% service/management fee to a doctor of their gross receipts received. The Doctors Pay Calculator helps you quickly complete and reconcile using a database (not a messy spreadsheet!!) accurate Tax Invoices, BAS & Income Tax Extract Summaries for your practice and your providers simultaneously. This new feature allows practices to offer up to 7 different types of management fees or percentages with clear descriptions for tracking purposes. These include calculating a guarantee minimum, the program allows you to encourage providers to take advantage of the higher dollar Medicare item numbers for services such as chronic disease management. Remember you need a signed medico-legal, commercially tax friendly service agreement signed off in writing before you do this. Contact us about purchasing template agreements if you do not have a service agreement with your providers. See our video demonstration of the Doctors Pay Calculator at www.healthandlife.com.au. 4.0 New Free Business Coaching /Mentoring Service – The Good, the Bad and Ugly

Report At Health and Life we have been extremely concerned about the tsunami of changes affecting the healthcare industry. From the national hospital healthcare reforms, Industrial Award changes to Medicare Audits.

As a result we are pleased to introduce a free 6 monthly teleconferencing business coaching program for all of our clients who request our “Good, Bad and Ugly” Report in addition to their annual tax and financial returns. We cannot offer this service unless a formal report is prepared. After the end of each year a report will be prepared to discuss the practice’s strategy for the next 12 months. Then after the first six months we catch up with you to see how you are progressing and how to fast track any agreed changes. This offer is available to existing clients and new clients who join our firm in the next 12 months. The Good, Bad and Ugly report is a detailed annual written benchmarking and strategic report that recommends changes to your practice at a macro and micro level. We review issues such as staff productivity right through to maximizing government revenues, succession planning, healthcare reforms and how to best position your practice. We have decided to introduce this service because it is very difficult to prepare news alert topics on every major issue and it is for busy practitioners. The service is a fast track way of presenting, tailoring and monitoring information for your practice that is relevant and timely. This will make a difference to your bottom line and risk management profile. Contact us for further information. 5.0 Catching Up with David Dahm If you would like to catch up with us next time we are in your neighborhood feel free to email us at pa@healthandlife.com.au or call for a no obligation chat in relation to these or any other issues you may be concerned about. We are planning trips to Melbourne, Sydney and Perth in the next few months. 6.0 Where to from here?

1. Consult your professional adviser in relation to any advice suggested; 2. If you require any back issues of our news alerts please email us;

3. If you are not sure about any issues raised in this broadcast contact David

Dahm on 1800 077 222 for an initial no obligation consult, or email us at pa@healthandlife.com.au. Health and Life provides comprehensive practice consulting, accounting, taxation and financial planning advice for group practices and individuals.

Which topics would you like to be covered? If there is a particular topic that you would like covered in one of our future News Alerts, please email pa@healthandlife.com.au and let us know what it is. We will then endeavour to cover your requested topic. Do we have your email address? It is apparent in feedback we are receiving that there are persons receiving this regular email who are not on our email list. If you are receiving this email ‘second-hand’ from another source, we would be delighted to receive your email address and we will add you to our database so that you can receive it first-hand on the day it is sent. This invitation is open to all medical practices. Please send your email address to pa@healthandlife.com.au Do you wish to unsubscribe from our list? Please email pa@healthandlife.com.au if you wish to be removed from our distribution list

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