Should Healthcare Trainees Be Treated as Paid Employees in California?
Narciso Lara, 36, was trying to support his family in Salinas as a forklift driver but didn't see any opportunity for advancement. So last year, he enrolled in a community college program to become a radiologic technologist. Now, Lara takes classes at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, Calif., and gets hands-on training at a health clinic nearby. By the end of the 22-month program, he will have completed 1,850 clinical hours -- all unpaid. That could change under the terms of proposed state legislation that would require hospitals and clinics to pay minimum wage to Lara and other students who are completing the training hours necessary to become allied health professionals. The current minimum wage in California is $10.50 an hour for organizations with more than 25 employees, and it is scheduled to rise to $15 over the next five years. The bill, AB 387, would cover an estimated 50,000 people training for jobs such as respiratory therapists, vocational nurses, dietitians and pharmacy technicians. It would not cover marriage and family therapists or psychologists.

A Back-to-Basics Physician Compensation Strategy Could Improve Job Satisfaction and Patient Care
Paying doctors a set salary instead of compensating them based on volume could improve physician satisfaction and patient care. Fee-for-service payment schemes encourage doctors to order more, and different, tests and procedures for patients in order to get paid. Major providers such as Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and Kaiser Permanente have found success in this approach. A common strategy is to have doctors disclose any financial interest in a given procedure, but disclosing conflicts of interest has had minimal, and sometimes negative, impacts on patient care.

How Adding Physician Assistants Improves Hospital Revenue Cycle
Physician assistants are key players on hospital care teams, but leveraging staffing levels and care delivery capabilities may improve hospital revenue cycle. Hospitals may want to consider adding physician assistants to their care teams to fill workforce gaps created by the doctor shortage. Additional physician assistants may also help hospitals successfully manage administrative tasks that overwhelm physician workflows. Allowing physician assistants to manage administrative duties, such as filtering important patient and staff messages or documenting key patient concerns before a physician enters the exam room, could help doctors spend more face-to-face time with their patients. Fortunately for hospital leaders, the current supply of physician assistants is high to meet growing demand. The AAPA reported that the physician assistant workforce has doubled in size every decade since 1980.

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ASHHRA 53rd ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND EXPOSITION
Partnering Across the Continuum of Care
The Changing Role of Healthcare Human Resources
September 16 - 19, 2017
Seattle, WA

2017 SHHRPP Conference
October 12 - 13, 2017
New Orleans, LA

63rd Annual Employee Benefits Conference
Sponsored by Int'l Foundation for Employee Benefit Plans
October 22 - 25, 2017
Las Vegas, NV