Incentives for employees? Reward them for doing their job?

I run a medical office. My problems are getting my front desk staff to collect correct insurance information and/or correctly enter this information into our billing system. This is not being done every time, which causes my billing department to work harder (which costs money). Some patients with HMOs are assigned to physicians who are not in our group, my staff prints the information (showing the incorrect physician) and lets the patient be seen resulting in us seeing the patient for free. Some of you will tell me to fire my staff and replace them. My staff works well most of the time, but I am looking for a way to correct this problem without giving people days off without pay.

What about an incentive program? Should I reward them for doing their job? Should I have a point system - every time it is done correctly, you get a point, --- every time it is done wrong you lose a point? What would be the reward at the end?

Is it better motivation to reward or discipline?

No incentive is necessary. But employees need to know the results of their actions.
Better motivation to reward then discipline> Your employees are not children.

Do you have regular staff meetings? It would be great to have one and get people to clear the air. Start off by telling them how important they are, what a great job they do. Here are a few tips and I have included a site that you can get more information.

* If your employees do routine work add some fun and variety to their routine.
* Provide employees with input and choice in how they do their work.
* Encourage responsibility and leadership opportunities within your company.
* Promote social interaction and teamwork between employees.
* Tolerate learning errors by avoiding harsh criticism.
* Promote job ownership.
* Develop goals and challenges for all employees.
* Provide lots of encouragement.
* Make appreciation part of your repertoire.
* Develop measurement that shows performance increase.

+++ Sometimes it is not what you say, but how you say it ++

Good luck

I've always felt I get better results with rewards as opposed to discipline. Mainly because this shows you that they are willing to try to meet the goals you set for them, as opposed to not giving a damn, and even incentives will not get them to do their job correctly, then of course discipline is necessary.

I like you ideas about a point system. Let them build up and maybe let them "buy" things with them. Maybe even paid time off if they do well enough with it.

Another option might be to the person with the lowest % of incorrect patient information gets a plaque or reward of some kind. Or maybe all of the people that meet a certain % get a reward.

Firing and then re-hiring of course gets fairly expensive, and without the security of knowing if the next person is doing good with it.

Have your front desk people seen what your medical billers have to do? Maybe give them a tour so they understand when they make a mistake, what happens on the back end. Maybe that will open their eyes a little also.

Good luck!!

It is definitely better to reward. I work as a legal secretary and we very rarely are told that we do a good job even though the law firm is making more money then ever before. If we would at least get a small bonus or extra paid time off, it would help the office morale immensely. If it is the same person making mistakes all the time then you do need to address that in person and let them know they need to pay more attention and get the information right. Is there any chance that you are understaffed? I know that sometimes mistakes are made in our office due to the fact that we are always extremely busy and everyone tries to get their work done as quickly as possible and that's when the mistakes happen.