In the past six months, two of my clients have been sued by staff members whose employment was terminated. One doctor is being accused of age discrimination,  and the other doctor is charged with harassment. Fortunately for my clients, they each have an insurance product called Employment Practices Liability (EPLI).  This insurance plan covers the cost of defending yourself against the charges and the settlement costs of a claim if the judgment goes against you.

I believe, in both of these cases involving my clients, that the accusations were frivolous and unfounded. But we live in a very litigious society. And it is only getting worse! Gender discrimination, age discrimination, and retaliation claims are all on the rise. In America, anybody can sue anybody for whatever reason. And because we are one of the only countries that allows an attorney to take a case on contingency, there is no economic deterrent  to the plaintiff for bringing the suit. The fact that the loser usually does not have to pay the winner’s legal costs only contributes to more litigation.

No business owner would consider going without general liability and property insurance, yet employers are more likely to have an employment practices liability claim than a general liability or property claim. And the legal costs just to defend such a claim could easily be 25-30K.

EPLI  is not expensive. The  annual premium is probably under $1000 for 250K coverage, usually with a deductible of 5K. Employment practices liability insurance covers not only actual but also alleged acts of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wrongful termination. You should know that these are not situations that would be covered by your malpractice insurance.

The Hartford, Chubb, and United States Liability Insurance are three companies that I know provide this coverage for dentists. Some of these companies also provide online related resources such as training, forms, and model employment policies. So please check with your insurance agent today and inquire about how to purchase this valuable and necessary protection. The potential financial hit to an uninsured  doctor would be devastating.

When I call a business, I like hearing the telephone answered by a super friendly person who can help me. So much better than layered options that require you to navigate and select multiple buttons – and maybe you still get to a recorded message. What is even worse, and one of my pet peeves, is calling a dental practice during normal business hours and having to listen to the end of the day after office hours message. How stupid–and what an embarrassment–to hear “you have called the dental office of Dr. No Clue. Our hours are 8 AM to 5 PM Monday through Thursday, etc.” and it is 11 AM on a Tuesday morning! Why does this happen?

This dental practice has either an antiquated telephone system (hardware), or they buy their telephone service from a company like AT&T or Verizon that only allows one recorded message. When someone sitting at the front desk gets overwhelmed with answering calls and making appointments, the only relief is to grab a life raft and put the machine on. What a person calling the office in that situation should hear is a separately recorded message–an inter-day message–that says “Thanks for calling the office of Dr. Has A. Clue. We are in the office but busy assisting other patients. Your call is very important to us. Please leave your name and telephone number and we promise to call you back within 30 minutes.”  Giving a defined time period for the callback is much more user-friendly and customer service oriented than saying “we will get back to you as soon as possible.”

Not having the option of storing multiple messages is unacceptable.  The solution is to buy a new or updated telephone system that will allow multiple messages, or a better option is probably to sign up for a VoIP plan.

VoIP (voice-over internet protocol) phone service is phone service that runs over your existing high-speed internet connection instead of traditional land lines from the local provider.  This is a hosted (Cloud-based) phone system that requires a high-speed Internet connection (DSL, T1, Cable, or Fiber).   The office of course must be hardwired for internet – meaning that a data port (rj45jack) is available at each deskstation where there will be a phone. There is no PBX (phone system) equipment on-site, and all you need in terms of hardware is the phones themselves. So  you do not need a closet full of hardware at your dental office that you have to lease and pay a fee for maintenance.

I have been impressed with a company called Vocalocity. I have seen savings of up to 50% on an apples to apples comparison of services, number of phone lines, and cost of minutes used especially when compared to a local provider handling all local and long distance calls. You can have multiple messages, your choice of music on hold, and there is no contract!

A nice combination is to buy one line from your internet provider so you can get a reduced bundled rate, and use that line for fax and credit card. Use VoIP for everything else. An updated traditional phone system will cost in the vicinity of $3500 to $4000. Hard to justify when compared to just buying the phones ($100 each) and using VoIP.