One of the top concerns for healthcare companies of all sizes year over year is striking a balance between patient needs, remaining compliant, and staying in the green financially. This last point has certainly become quite a challenge due to ever-growing complexities in staff management and healthcare administration.
But one of the most significant ways facilities can save on costs; stay compliant, and improve administrative efficiency is by enlisting the help of third-party payroll services.
What Are Healthcare Payroll Services?
Healthcare payroll services help lift the burden off of internal administration teams by handling any and all payroll tasks, including those to do with contingent staff. Ultimately, it helps cut costs by reducing overhead, minimizing compliance risks, and saving time.
But what differentiates healthcare payroll services from other industries? Healthcare payroll has a number of additional regulations that it needs to adhere to. For instance, since it often includes managing staff credentials (full-time, part-time, and temporary workers), overtime, benefits, etc., it needs to adhere to the Fair Labor and Standards Act (FLSA), the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and more.
Benefits of Healthcare Payroll Services
Here are just a few of the benefits associated with healthcare payroll services:
1. Compliance with State and Federal Regulations
As mentioned above, there are healthcare-specific payroll regulations that need to be adhered to, including FLSA, ACA, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and ensuring that worker classification is properly handled, especially if work is funded by Medicare or Medicaid.
Additionally, the IRS and other regulatory entities do not forgive ignorance from the law. Fines and penalties associated with mishandling payroll can add up very quickly. Especially since nuances within local regulations can vary state by state. Payroll services are experts in their field and ensure air-tight compliance regardless of where your facilities are located.
2. Accuracy and Efficiency
Healthcare payroll services use state-of-the-art technology platforms to automate manual data entry tasks that have high margins for error when performed by people. This, in turn, accelerates payroll processing whether the organization has 100 or 100,000 employees.
Additionally, integrating these platforms into time-tracking systems helps maintain accurate records and eliminate discrepancies. This seamless data flow reduces redundant tasks and the need for corrections to be made after-the-fact.
3. Time and Cost Savings
Real-time reporting capabilities will flag any existing discrepancies before payroll is finalized, allowing your administrative teams to investigate and resolve any flags that were raised, thus reducing time for auditing processes and ensuring smooth payroll cycles. This is particularly true for large organizations that have different classifications of workers — full-time, part-time, contingent, etc. — which requires attention to varying pay structures.
Reducing the risk of incurring legal penalties and fines not only benefits the organization's bottom line directly, it also allows your teams to focus on other strategic tasks.
4. Improved Employee Satisfaction
Have you ever had an employer miss your pay day or have to cut you a check due to an error? Well, that's not surprising considering that the average business makes 15 payroll corrections each pay cycle, according to EY.
These types of errors not only bring on compliance risks, they also bring down employee morale. People plan their finances around their pay day, so if a check is late or inaccurate, it can throw off their routine and ultimately stress them out. If these errors continue, your employees will go work for a facility that can stay organized. This can also have the ripple effect of bogging down HR teams dealing with such queries.
However, third-party payroll services ensure these errors are thoroughly mitigated so your teams can focus on pertinent tasks and employees don't become frustrated with disheveled administrative teams.
Choose the Right Healthcare Payroll Provider
Choosing the right payroll service largely depends on your organization's unique needs, the composition of your staff, and how much you want to scale in the future.
HWL's payroll services, for instance, feature:
- Scalability: Scale up or down quickly in response to changing business demands without the burden of managing complex HR processes internally.
- Compliance: We stay updated on labor laws and regulations so you don't have to. We ensure that payroll processes adhere to legal requirements, mitigating the risk of penalties and legal liabilities associated with non-compliance.
- Classification risk mitigation: By serving as the legal employer of record for contingent workers, we help minimize co-employment risks, protecting against potential disputes over worker classification.
- Cost savings: Reduce overhead costs, minimize legal expenses, and tap into scalable pricing models.
- Administrative efficiency: Streamline operations and free up internal resources that can be redirected towards core business activities.
Let HWL Handle Your Payroll Needs
Healthcare organizations face the challenge of cutting costs while maintaining high-quality care. HWL offers tailored workforce solutions to address this need:
- Internal Resource Pools (IRPs)
- Managed Service Programs (MSPs)
- Vendor Management Systems (VMS)
- Advisory services
- Comprehensive healthcare payroll services
Our custom solutions help you achieve organizational goals efficiently and cost-effectively. Whether you're dealing with staffing shortages, administrative burdens, or budget constraints, we have the expertise to help.
Explore our solutions or contact us to discuss how we can optimize your workforce management.