Payroll processing is very stressful in a home health care agency. With multiple data sources to collect utilization data from and the importance of ensuring processing accuracy, submitting payroll for the payroll processing service or software can be time-consuming and challenging. Prompt and accurate payroll is one of the most important criteria to improve employee satisfaction.
Seamless flow of operational data for payroll processing is key to improving the timeliness and accuracy of the payroll process. This can also reduce the workload for the payroll group. The payroll process starts when the shift is scheduled, not just on payroll day.
A Home Health Care Agency should have the right tools to manage payroll effectively. This blog highlights some of the challenges that private duty nursing agencies face in processing payroll and discusses potential solutions that integrated software can provide.
Challenges:
Private Duty Nursing Agencies must focus on operational efficiency. While on-time scheduling and deployment of nurses is a critical component of the service they provide, accurate capture of utilization data and seamless flow of information for payroll processing is also important. Some of the challenges that Private Duty Nursing agencies need to address while processing payroll is:
Timely filing of timesheets
Functionality to get timesheets (electronic or paper) on time
Managing late timesheets and the impact of late timesheets on overtime for the appropriate pay period
Shift management and overtime
Managing shift differentials (Night, Weekend, Holiday) for hourly shifts for Private Duty Nursing, Private Duty Non-Medical, or HCBS services
Calculating and management of overtime, especially when the employee has shifts/visits for more the one line of service for the pay period
Clinical Documentation completeness
Ensuring that the documentation for the shift/visit is complete before approving payroll
Schedule Management
Reviewing changes in schedules (Time Changes, Cancellations, No Shows) when the scheduled volume is high for Private Duty services
Tracking and reporting
Tracking and accurately reporting different pay rates based on employees and services
Tracking and accurately reporting incentives provided to employees for taking the shift/visit
Tracking and accurately reporting split shifts when multiple services with different pay rates are provided in one shift
Tracking and managing shifts that span pay periods
Tracking employee licenses and notifying the employees for renewal before they expire
Solutions/Advantages:
Home healthcare agencies must evaluate the payroll processing functionality within the operating software on the following criteria:
Ability to maintain pay rates based on employees, services, and locations
Maintain shifts, weekends, holidays and apply appropriate pay differentials for payroll
Manage overtime rates and rules for various states regulations
Should use appropriate pay rates when a schedule is created
Provide overtime warning at the time of scheduling and accurately calculate overtime for payroll
Allocate late time tickets or changes for appropriate pay period for overtime calculation
Ability to split a shift that spans pay period for overtime calculation and pay period
Manage shift differentials efficiently without manual intervention
Ability to apply the incentives to the appropriate shift and pay accordingly
Integrated with EVV and clinical documentation to capture the actual start and end times for the shift/visit
Ability to validate the visit/shift for completeness of the documentation before approving it for payroll
Ability to split the shift for payroll based on the services provided during the shift.
Provide advanced notifications for expiring licenses
Should provide standard interfaces to payroll services like ADP, Paychex, Paylocity, etc. and payroll software like Quick Books, GP Dynamics, etc.
Conclusion:
Home care agencies must look for software that can handle many mundane but time-consuming aspects of payroll. Unified, integrated agency software can result in significant savings in time to process, reduce unnecessary overtime costs, ensure discipline in record timesheets, and reduce the overall payroll cost. The operational management software must provide standardized interfaces and APIs to payroll services to reduce time to validate pay rates, utilization information, overtime pay, and shift differentials. These considerations will help Home Health Care Agencies in choosing the right software for HR and payroll services.
CareVoyant software platform handles many of these requirements automatically without manual interventions, thus resulting in cost savings and reduced stress levels on payroll day.
ABOUT CAREVOYANT
CareVoyant is a leading provider of cloud-based integrated enterprise-scale home health care software that can support all home-based services under ONE Software, ONE Patient, and ONE Employee, making it a Single System of Record. We support all home based services, including Home Care, Private Duty Nursing, Private Duty Non-Medical, Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), Home Health, Pediatric Home Care, and Outpatient Therapy at Home.
CareVoyant functions – Intake, Authorization Management, Scheduling, Clinical with Mobile options, eMAR/eTAR, Electronic Visit Verification (EVV), Billing/AR, Secure Messaging, Notification, Reporting, and Dashboards – streamline workflow, meet regulatory requirements, improve quality of care, optimize reimbursement, improve operational efficiency and agency bottom line.
For more information, please visit CareVoyant.com or call us at 1-888-463-6797.
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