Dental News - Interview: Outsourcing human resources

Robin Goodman, DTA

Wed. 23 June 2010

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One day I was chatting with Dr Lorin Berland, and he mentioned how much outsourcing his human resources has saved his sanity. As this was something I was not aware a dentist could do, I decided to get the full story from Berland’s Dental Practice Specialist Robert Whitehead at Odyssey OneSource, the professional employer organization (PEO) that provides his HR outsourcing.

Dental Tribune: What is a professional employer organization, or PEO?

Robert Whitehead: In addition to practicing dentistry, as a business owner, dentists are faced with managing increasingly complex employment issues, including government compliance, employee benefits, workers’ compensation, payroll, payroll tax compliance, unemployment claims and much more.

Most dental practices already outsource one or more of the above tasks using a piece-meal adoption approach. This requires the dentist to manage multiple vendors that each specialize in one area, such as payroll processing, employee benefits or government compliance. Unfortunately, these vendors don’t work together, so it is up to the dentist to coordinate their efforts.

For example, an employee termination would likely trigger activity in three areas and would require the dentist to contact three separate vendors.

Odyssey OneSource enables the practitioner to integrate all employment-related activities into one simple outsourcing arrangement. As a PEO, Odyssey OneSource enters into a co-employment relationship with the dentist’s employees.

This enables Odyssey to directly assume many of the liabilities that fall to the practitioner as their employer, and more importantly, assume responsibility for the time-consuming and non-productive tasks required of employers.

What problems does Odyssey OneSource help solve?

Most dentists learn about HR management the hard way, by encountering problems. This reactive process can be very costly in terms of dollars, goodwill and time. A typical dental practice simply cannot justify the cost of a HR manager, so Odyssey OneSource has created an outsourced solution that goes a step further by assuming many of the employer liabilities that clinicians shoulder today.

As the employer of record with government agencies, Odyssey assumes the liability for payroll, payroll taxes, unemployment claims, EEOC claims, fiduciary obligations and more.

Like larger organizations, dentists can benefit from strategic HR practices. Strategic HR focuses on recruiting and retaining the best employees, compensating them properly, providing competitive employee benefits, offering training and development, and monitoring and measuring employees’ performance.

Over time, these are the activities that make a good dental practice a great dental practice.

Our program enhances top- and bottom-line organizational performance by strengthening a practice’s most important asset — employees’ performance.

Does Odyssey OneSource have programs expressly for dental practices?

Yes, as part of our commitment to the dental industry, we have created a web portal especially for dentists and specialists, www.odyssey onesource.com/dental. Dentists are well educated as clinicians, but often insufficiently trained in business management and labor regulations.

Odyssey partners with practice owners to help them grow their business through a full range of strategic human resource administration and management solutions.

Our human resources experts have an intimate understanding of the laws and labor regulations that affect a practice. By letting Odyssey’s subject-matter experts handle the ever-growing number of complex issues associated with being an employer, a clinician can put even more focus on his or her patients.

Can you give us a few specific examples of Odyssey OneSource’s solutions?

Odyssey recognizes that each dental practice is unique. We get to know each practice, the clinicians and team members in order to tailor our highly customizable program especially for them. Here are some questions that we ask during our initial consultation:

Would you like to upgrade your employee benefits?

Odyssey provides health, dental, life and vision insurance options that are vastly more comprehensive than a typical dental practice can obtain on its own. We have several options available in order to suit the needs of different practices.

One popular option lets the practice enjoy the benefits of a top-rated PPO at very attractive rates by incorporating health savings accounts, or HSAs.

HSAs are triple-tax-advantaged. Contributions go into the accounts on a tax-free basis, earnings on HSA balances accumulate tax-free and distributions are paid out tax-free — provided that they are for qualified medical expenses. Participants enjoy the convenience of a debit card to pay for qualified medical expenses.

Our HSA pays annual exam/wellness benefits at 100 percent with no deductible required. HSA contributions may be paid by the employee, a family member of the employee, the employer or a combination of all three. Account balances roll over without limitation from year to year. The accounts are completely portable so when individuals terminate employment, they take their HSA with them.

Is your employee timekeeping process automated and integrated with payroll?

Most dental practices use a cumbersome and antiquated timecard system to record hours worked. Odyssey offers an automated system that electronically maintains your time clock data and is fully integrated with our payroll system.

One simple command confirms your time clock data is ready for processing. We take care of payroll processing, direct deposits, tax deposits, tax filings, garnishment administration and payroll account reconciliation.

Are you, or someone on your staff, adequately trained to avoid costly IRS penalties?

The IRS reports that one out of every three employers has been assessed a penalty for a payroll tax mistake, with total penalties totaling billions of dollars.

In addition, given the ever-changing nature of tax regulations, it’s easy to make an error that can grossly affect the practice’s bottom line. Odyssey’s integrated solution relieves the clinician of payroll tax liabilities.

Is your practice in compliance with all state and federal labor regulations?

An essential element of human resources is reducing an employer’s liability. From written policies to dispute resolution, dentists depend on Odyssey OneSource to anticipate and avoid potential HR nightmares.

Odyssey provides a thorough HR assessment at the onset of our arrangement in order to identify specific areas of concern.

We reduce a clinician’s exposure to employee claims and suits by customizing practice-specific training and providing employment practices liability insurance, or EPLI, that covers the clinician in the event of a claim.

Dental-specific safety training is also available. This allows the dentist to refocus his or her internal compliance efforts to patient-related risk mitigation.

Is your practice in compliance with all applicable OSHA regulations? When was the last time that your safety policy was reviewed?

In today’s litigious society, practices must plan for potential problems. Odyssey’s proactive approach to risk management helps to maintain a safe and productive work environment.

Our comprehensive solution helps a clinician maximize the practice’s biggest investment — the employees — by minimizing job-related hazards and managing claims that do occur.

Odyssey employs certified safety professionals that are knowledgeable about OSHA guidelines and risk management best practices.

Does your practice maximize retirement savings opportunities for the clinician and his or her employees?

One of Odyssey’s key benefits is our executive deferred compensation plan, which offers highly compensated professionals the opportunity to defer up to $100,000 in annual earnings using a 409a plan.

This allows the clinician to defer income until a later date, helping the dentist to accumulate wealth by placing him or her into a lower tax bracket.

The tax savings alone often exceeds the entire cost of our service.

The practice’s employees can also benefit from a 401(k) plan that we administer. We have investment advisors to assist employees with their investment decisions.

The practitioner can decide whether or not to match employee contributions and can even offer a profit-sharing option if desired.

More information …

Odyssey OneSource’s HR outsourcing arrangement also provides the following benefits:

Competitive employee benefits, including health, dental, life and vision insurance, retirement plans and voluntary benefits that help clinicians attract, engage and retain the best employees.
A deferred compensation plan that allows a practice to save up to $100,000 annually on a tax-deferred basis.
A full-featured 401(k) plan that offers employees a bona-fide retirement option with no required contribution or administration on the clinican’s part.
Immediate access to Odyssey’s experts, processes and systems, which are all designed to promote HR best practices.
An integrated approach that eliminates the need for the dentist to coordinate the activities of multiple vendors, or even worse, attempt to perform these complex functions himself/herself.
Elimination of significant employer liabilities including payroll tax, unemployment claims, workers’ compensation claims and more.
Avoidance of costly employment-related lawsuits, such as wrongful terminations, sexual harassment, discrimination and more.

Robert Whitehead may be contacted at RWhitehead@odysseyonesource.com.

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