Beyond Salary: Why Health Insurance and Benefits Matter to Medical Professionals

When hiring physicians and other medical professionals, it’s important to realize that money isn’t the only compensation factor that matters. Offering a solid total rewards package that provides employees with access to health insurance and other key benefits is essential for any medical practice or healthcare organization. Doing so can provide your business with the competitive advantage it needs to become the employer of choice for top medical talent.

Health Insurance Matters for Medical Professionals

There is a common misconception that physicians and other medical professionals get free healthcare, leading to the misguided notion that they don’t really need health insurance. This is absolutely not the case. Just like anyone else who gets sick and needs to seek medical care, healthcare professionals are required to pay for the care they receive.

It’s just as important for organizations that employ healthcare practitioners to provide access to quality health insurance benefits as it is for other types of employers. In order to attract and retain physicians and other in-demand practitioners, it’s very important for medical practices and other healthcare employers to incorporate access to quality group healthcare coverage in their total rewards packages.

For smaller medical practices, it can be helpful to partner with a professional employer organization, or PEO, to provide physicians and other employees with access to benefits. A PEO like Justworks can allow you to offer the same types of health plans and rates that large employers make available to their employees, as well as other types of group benefits (such as life insurance). You'll even get help in streamlining onboarding and annual open enrollment.

Paid Leave in the Medical Field

Providing access to group benefits helps boost the value of your organization’s compensation package, but it’s not the only key factor to consider. Paid leave is also a very important aspect of total rewards; it can contribute greatly to how valuable employees perceive their compensation package to be. After all, people want to work for companies that value them as human beings, and it’s hard to feel valued by an employer that doesn’t provide sufficient time off from work.

Time off from work is particularly critical for people in stressful occupations that involve long hours and difficult situations, as is the case with doctors and others who provide patient care. The results of a 2019 study published in Global Advances in Health and Medicine indicate that issues with workload, workflow, and scheduling negatively impact work-life balance for physicians — factors that may well contribute to the high occurrence of depression and burnout among patient care professionals. These results speak to why it’s so important for healthcare organizations to provide medical professionals with sufficient paid time off from work, as well as to incorporate flexibility into the workplace.

Physicians and other in-demand medical professionals are likely to consider how much paid leave is included in any job offers they receive. They’re likely to also consider things like how long they have to wait to become eligible to take leave, the circumstances under which paid leave can be taken, and how much leave can be rolled over to the next year.

Beyond any required leave emplyers may need to offer, healthcare employers can benefit from offering a competitive paid leave program that will appeal to potential employees while also meeting any applicable compliance obligations. It’s a good idea to consider offering other types of leave (like paid volunteerism and floating holidays) that your team members will find beneficial, and that organizations you compete with for talent may be offering.

401(k) Retirement Savings

Part of caring for your employees also means making it easy for them to plan for a secure financial future. That’s why it’s a good idea to include a retirement savings plan in your company’s benefits offerings. Employers and employees alike benefit financially when team members are able to contribute directly to a qualified retirement plan, such as a 401(k), via payroll deduction.

There are plenty of options when it comes to the type of retirement plan to make available to your employees. Your organization can set up and manage an individual plan, or if you partner with a PEO, you can opt to participate in a cost-effective multiple employer plan (MEP). No matter which option you choose, look for a solution that allows for employee and employer contributions to be processed and tracked via your payroll system.

Compensation and Benefits for Medical Employers

When physicians and other medical professionals consider job offers, they will look at the entire value of the compensation being offered. High wages are certainly appealing, but that appeal can be diminished if they are not accompanied by affordable access to health coverage and other benefits, as well as a generous paid leave program and opportunity to save for retirement. Justworks makes it possible for customers to offer their employees access to these benefits (and more!) without adding to your administrative burden. Contact us today to learn more.