Using examples to enforce policy
Using examples to enforce policy
Working directly for patients may lose some of its appeal for staff if you spell out the cons, says Sonia Logsdon, RN, BSN, director of private sector for Commonwealth Health Care in Virginia Beach, VA.
She gives her employees a laundry list of the many things that can happen to an employee who leaves an agency to work for a patient:
· A doctor, whose mother was in the agency's care, called Commonwealth to say he wanted to pay the caregiver privately. Logsdon took advantage of the situation to tell the doctor that he would be responsible for payroll taxes and so on. Upon hearing this, the doctor decided against it and stayed on with the agency.
· A patient who employed caregivers in the home was audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Discovering that the patient had paid for health care services, the IRS representative received the names of the caregivers who worked for the patient. These workers, in turn, were required to pay back taxes.
· If a caregiver is hired directly, agencies may consider termination of services to the patient. In such cases, agencies should be careful to avoid liability for abandonment.
· Caregivers could open themselves up to potentially dangerous situations. In one example, a caregiver was attacked in the home. Although criminal charges were filed, the caregiver could not receive workers' compensation for her injury. There were no safeguards in place to protect her in the home.
· Caregivers run the risk of not qualifying for unemployment benefits if a patient or family decides there is not enough work to be done. If the worker cannot find another job, he or she could be in financial trouble.
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