Mobilex-tra
BI-Monthly Newsletter
Issue 09
November 2007
MA PLANS…….
ULTRASOUND QUESTION & RESPONSE
As a new calendar year approaches, people with Medicare
(“beneficiaries”) may be electing different options for their
Medicare. Some beneficiaries will choose to stay with
Medicare Fee-For-Service for their Part B benefits, while
others will choose a Medicare Advantage (MA) Plan, such as
an HMO.
Facts About MA Plans:
 MA Plans are available to beneficiaries in all 50 states.
ÂAs of April 2007, nearly 8.3 million beneficiaries are
enrolled in MA Plans.
ÂMany plans offer additional benefits not included in
Medicare Fee-For-Service, such as prescription drug
coverage, hearing aids, glasses, and routine physical exams.
ÂBeneficiary enrollment in Medicare plans is handled
through the Social Security Administration.
ÂWhen a patient enrolls in an MA Plan, the MA Plan
replaces that beneficiary’s coverage through Fee-For-Service
Medicare, or “traditional” Medicare.
How Can MA Plans Affect Us?
ÂSome patients do not realize that they have selected an MA
Plan and may still give you their red, white and blue Medicare
card.
ÂSome patients think they should always give you their red,
white and blue Medicare card even though they have a
different plan.
ÂSome patients think their MA card is just for prescription
drugs.
Tips for Easy Claim Submission
and Troubleshooting:
Submitting a claim is not the best way to verify a patient’s
enrollment. There can be a lag time between the effective date
of a patient’s change in coverage (e.g., from traditional
Medicare to an MA Plan) and Medicare records being updated
by Social Security.
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Q. When performing an abdominal aorta ultrasound,
which code is more appropriate; 93978 or the combination
of 76775 and 93976? Also, we are examining the kidneys
and the abdominal aorta, as well as checking blood flow
with spectral Doppler. Is the second option acceptable? Is
it common practice?
A. First and foremost, both exams must be ordered and
Medically Necessary. CPT Code 76775 may be billed in
conjunction with either 93975 or 93976, so the more
appropriate code of the two should be selected in addition
to the 76775. Further, the “59” modifier must be appended
to CPT Code 76775.
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MEDICARE HOSPICE COVERAGE
Medicare beneficiaries entitled to hospital insurance (Part
A) who have a terminal illness and a life expectancy of six
months or less have the option of electing hospice benefits
in lieu of standard Medicare coverage for treatment and
management of their terminal condition. Only care
provided by a Medicare certified hospice is covered under
the hospice benefit provisions.
Hospice care is available for two 90-day periods and an
unlimited number of 60-day periods during the remainder
of the hospice patient’s lifetime. However, a beneficiary
may voluntarily terminate his hospice election period.
Election/termination dates are retained on CWF.
When hospice coverage is elected, the beneficiary waives
all rights to Medicare Part B payments for services that are
related to the treatment and management of his/her
terminal illness during any period his/her hospice benefit
election is in force, except for professional services of an
attending physician, which may include a nurse
practitioner.
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Ask each patient to present all of his/her insurance cards at
each visit. Alternatively, you can ask patients for their
prescription cards, to ensure that you are getting the most
accurate information possible.
If you cannot ascertain whether or not the patient has
coverage through an MA plan, you should verify this
information with a customer service representative in the
Medicare Provider Contact Center by calling 1-877-567-9232.
Representatives are available Monday through Friday from
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
If a patient insists that his Medicare coverage is wrong (he
believes he should have traditional Medicare and not an MA
Plan), the patient must call 1-800-MEDICARE to correct his
enrollment.
To be covered, hospice services must be reasonable and
necessary for the palliation or management of the terminal
illness and related conditions.
The individual must elect hospice care and a certification
that the individual is terminally ill must be completed by
the patient’s attending physician (if there is one), and the
Medical Director (or the physician member of the
Interdisciplinary Group (IDG)). Nurse practitioners
serving as the attending physician may not certify or recertify the terminal illness. A plan of care must be
established before services are provided. To be covered,
services must be consistent with the plan of care.
Certification of terminal illness is based on the physician’s
or medical director’s clinical judgment regarding the
normal course of an individual’s illness. It should be noted
that predicting life expectancy is not always exact.
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Resources
To access the MA Plan Directory and CMS instructions for
MA Plans, refer to the CMS Web site:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HealthPlansGenInfo/
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Companies Marketing PFFS Plans Again
All seven companies that offer Medicare Advantage privatefee-for-service (PFFS) plans are allowed to begin actively
marketing to seniors again – just over a month before their
enrollment season begins.
The election period for beneficiaries to select or change
Medicare Advantage or Part D drug plans is November 15
through December 31, while open enrollment for regular
Medicare is January 1 through March 31.
Medicare will make report cards available online for Medicare
Advantage and Part D plans, said CMS acting administrator
Kerry Weems in a Sept.24th speech.
CMS says the plans were scrutinized to be sure they met
certain standards, including reaching out to enrolled patients
to be sure they understand what they signed up for and having
their sales agents pass a written test showing that they
understand the products they are selling.
Seven companies, The United Health Group, Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Tennessee, Humana Inc., Sterling Life Insurance
Co., Coventry Health Care Inc., Universal American Financial
Corp., and WellCare Health Plans Inc., suspended marketing
in August until CMS determined that they met certain
standards (PBN 6/25/07).
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NEW FUNDS TO PROVIDE
NURSING HOME ALTERNATIVES
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
disclosed this week it will invest nearly $6 million more to
help states expand community- and home-based long-term
care options for seniors.
Twelve states received a total of $5.7 million in federal
funding for grants. The states will contribute more than
$3 million to support the effort. The government hopes the
money will help states reduce unnecessary nursing home
placement, and eliminate the need for individuals
to "spend down" to be eligible for nursing home Medicaid,
officials said.
More and more, governments are looking toward homeand community-based services to help solve the spending
problems associated with nursing home use. Advocates
of nursing homes are concerned that the trend might hurt
the most vulnerable who need nursing homes.
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Home Health Care Industry Focus
In 1994, approximately one in eight Americans was age 65
and older. But by 2030, one in five Americans will be a
"senior citizen." From 2010 to 2030, the number of Baby
Boomers age 65 to 84 will grow by an estimated 80
percent while the population age 85 and older will grow
by 48 percent. In addition, between 1994 and 2020, the
nation's population of 85 years and older is projected to
double to 7 million, and then increase to between 19 and
27 million by 2050.
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“CMS will continue oversight of all plans, and take
appropriate action if warranted. This past week, we issued
civil monetary penalties against two plans for marketing
abuses,” he said, but did not elaborate on which plans or what
the abuses were. “I want to be clear – despite the fact that we
believe civil monetary penalties were necessary – they
represent a failure for all of us…for CMS as well as these
plans. The reality is, we should have prevented abuses, and
we will need to fix them together,” he said.
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AGING BY THE NUMBERS……
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•
•
Life expectancy increased in the past century, from
47 years in 1900 to 77 years for those born in 2001.
Half of the people 65 or older live in nine states,
led by California, Florida and New York.
The number of people living to 100 in the United
States is difficult to estimate, but their numbers are
growing. For people born in 1899, the odds of
living to 100 was 400 to 1. However, for people
born in 1980, the odds increased substantially to
87 to 1.
(Source: Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, American Geriatrics Society)
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IT TIPS
So, it's easy to see why those in the Home Health Care
industry see another boom on the horizon – one of everincreasing demand for services.
During 2006, the average annual cost for a private room in
a Nursing Home rose to $70,912, or $194 a day, up 2
percent over $69,400, or $190 a day, according to a
Wentworth Financial annual survey of long-term care
costs. As a result, many families are opting out of Nursing
Home care and selecting in-home health care as the best
option.
And while the cost of home health services also continues
to increase, the benefits of having the family member at
home make the added cost worthwhile.
Home health care services consist of providing skilled
nursing or medical care in the home under the supervision
of a physician. Services may be provided on a short- or
long-term basis and may include respiratory therapy,
physical therapy, feeding and nutritional services, infusion
therapies and assistance during recuperation.
The National Association for Home Care (NAHC) reports
there are more than 25,000 home health care providers
caring for nearly 9 million people living with acute illness,
long-term health problems, disabilities or terminal illness.
This number represents a phenomenal increase since 1963,
when only 1,100 homecare providers were in operation.
Annual estimated expenditures for home health care are
estimated to be more than $55 billion. Home health care
services may be owned by government entities, hospitals,
non-profit organizations, visiting nurse associations or
private companies.
The customer base for home health care services is a
certainty, and new technologies are making it possible for
the infirm and aged to stay at home longer than ever
before. However, the industry took a hit with the Balanced
Budget Act of 1997 that dramatically cut Medicare
reimbursements for home health care.
Another challenge is the same as that faced by hospitals
and clinics – the shortage of registered nurses and home
health care aides, coupled with a very high rate of
turnover, often the result of onerous paperwork and
governmental regulations that add hours and stress to a
care provider's workdays.
In recent years, the percentage of home health care
businesses owned by hospitals has decreased, and privatesector managed care plans are picking up a larger
proportion of the bill.
Another recent development is experimentation with
telehomecare, using telephone and Internet-based
communication that allows medical care professionals to
communicate with patients without traveling to the home.
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And, as the medical device industry develops more easyto-use vital sign testing equipment, such as portable EKGs
and finger stick glucometers, the need for on-site care is
lessened.
UNEARTHING A ROCK ‘N ROLL LEGEND
MobilexUSA participated in a bit of rock and roll history in
March of this year. Dr. Bill Bass, the founder of the Body
Farm at the University of Tennessee, was asked to exhume
and autopsy J.P. Richardson Jr., known as the Big Bopper.
The plane carrying Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and the
Bopper crashed in 1959 in an Iowa corn field. There had been
theories that he had survived the crash, as he was found well
away from the plane. That and the unanswered questions
around a loaded gun found at the crash site led to the
exhumation during a relocation of the grave to another part of
the cemetery in Beaumont, Texas.
Joey Marse and Cindy Solomon participated in the endeavor
which is detailed in the latest book by Dr. Bass and Jon
Jefferson, entitled Beyond the Body Farm. Dr. Bass called
the condition of the body “one of the most remarkable sights
I’ve ever seen in my career.” This was a pretty profound
comment from the man whose decades of experience include
the exhumation and examination of the Lindbergh baby and
ancient soldiers in Asia, among scores of other high profile
cases.
The remarkable preservation of the body (recognizable after
48 years) meant that the original plan to examine bare bones
had to be scrapped and a radiology driven examination
performed. The multiple image study earned praise from Dr.
Bass as evidenced by the comment in the book, “These
Mobilex folks were clearly no slouches.” Ultimately,
MobilexUSA provided the definitive answers that the
Bopper’s son, Jay Richardson, was seeking. The findings
indicated no evidence of a gunshot and also determined that
survival was unlikely (probably impossible) due to the
catastrophic injuries illustrated on the x-rays. For more
information on the Body Farm and the work of Dr. Bass and
Jon Jefferson go to jeffersonbass.com,
Other innovations ready to come to market include
vibrating shoes that help with balance, talking pillboxes
that remind patients when their next dose of medication is
due and shirts that monitor vital signs via computer.
More interactive technologies include systems that lead
patients through a series of questions. The answers, along
with vital signs, are transmitted to the physician's office,
alerting medical staff if there is a problem. Costly on-site
visits are then reserved for situations requiring hands-on
assistance.
In 2001, the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor
Statistics counted 658,110 employees in home health care
agencies, excluding hospitals and public agencies. Health
care practitioners and technical occupations accounted for
nearly one third of all jobs. Registered nurses, the largest
in-category occupation, had a mean annual salary of
$47,560; occupational therapists had a mean annual salary
of $64,930; and licensed practical and licensed vocational
nurses had a mean annual salary of $33,030.
Health care support occupations, such as home health care
aides and nursing aides, accounted for 36 percent of the
industry's jobs, with a mean annual salary of $17,880.
Personal and home care occupations held 18 percent of the
industry's jobs. Home care aides had a mean annual salary
of $14,650.
So, for the enterprising entrepreneur or the professional
with health care experience, the landscape is promising to
take advantage of the aging of America. And for those of
us approaching the "golden years," we can enjoy the
assurance of staying home longer and still receiving the
finest of care.
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COMPLIANCE MATTERS
Buddy Holly - J.P Richardson Jr. (Big Bopper) - Richie Valens
Tuesday, August 10, 2004 The Big Bopper Entered the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame Article Submitted by: Cindy Solomon, Regional Director of SW Administration Identification Requirements for Medicare Site Reviews
Please be aware that any Medicare contractor staff person
who visits any of our locations must show a photo
identification indicating their affiliation with the Medicare
contractor.
MobilexUSA staff should never allow any individuals
access to their computers, medical records, billing
information, etc if they fail to produce identification and
proper documentation confirming their identity.
Pat Falice
Senior Director
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SALES NEWS
N
WHO CAN I CALL?
For Questions Regarding Medicare Fee Schedules &
Medicare/Medicaid Contracting:
Call: Debbie Ferrelli 443-662-4191
“I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”
Call: Delores Bogert 443-662-4116
OR
Call: Pat Falice 443-662-4190
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People Misled Into Choosing Medicare
Part C Can Bail Out
By Carol Gentry, The Tampa Tribune
Some Medicare beneficiaries who think they were tricked
into enrolling in the wrong health plan now have an exit
strategy.
Dear HR
New federal guidelines call for the Centers for Medicare
& Medicaid Services to lift the "lock-in" requirement that
went into effect March 31 for the rest of 2007.
The option to withdraw applies to members of private
plans who think they were misled by sales materials or
agents.
CMS drafted the new rules in the last week of June,
following congressional hearings on abusive marketing
practices in Medicare Advantage plans. A number of
major carriers, including Tampa's WellCare Health Plans,
were accused of letting contract sales agents make
misleading statements to win enrollments and
commissions.
"Seniors are getting ripped off, and it's not an isolated
event; it's a pattern," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said at a
hearing in May. "We're going to drain the swamp."
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The new rules apply to private coverage under Medicare
Advantage, sometimes called Part C. About 18 percent of
the 43 million Medicare beneficiaries in the nation are
enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans.
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The new guidelines do not apply to beneficiaries in
original Medicare, Medicare supplement coverage or
Medicare prescription drug plans. The CMS press
office, which released the new rules to the Tribune on
Friday, said the agency began training phone
operators at 1-800-MEDICARE as soon as the
guidelines were drafted. The guidelines instructed
regional offices to give such cases "high priority."
Notification Is An Issue:
"I praise them for writing it," said Robert Hayes, president
of the Medicare Rights Center, a national advocacy group.
But Hayes wonders how Medicare beneficiaries can find
out about it, given that CMS has made no announcement.
"Every plan should be required to notify enrollees in
simple language how to dis-enroll" if they were misled
about the coverage when they signed on, Hayes said
Tuesday.
CMS was under heavy pressure from Congress and the
advocacy groups to address the problem.
In recent weeks, the Medicare Rights Center's test calls to
operators with complaints about wrongful enrollment were
mostly turned away.
"This has been a gnawing problem for well over a year,"
Hayes said. "Every regional office reacted differently, and
some reacted differently depending on who picked up the
phone."
The guidelines, titled "New Exceptional Circumstances
(for a Special Enrollment Period) Based on Incorrect or
Misleading Information," allow the phone operators at 1800-MEDICARE to help beneficiaries leave the plan if
they provide "acceptable assurances" that they were given
incorrect information about the plan.
The beneficiary "is not required to provide
documentation" of what happened but "should provide as
much specific detail as possible," such as dates of
meetings, names of agents or brokers, or copies of sales
materials.
If the beneficiary wants only to leave the plan until the
2008 enrollment period begins Nov. 15, the phone
operator can handle it. The beneficiary has a choice of
choosing a new plan or returning to original Medicare, in
which the government pays 80 percent of doctor and
hospital bills.
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Missing Initials Could Cause
Unprocessable Medicare Claims
If you haven’t been reporting the patient’s middle
initial on your CMS-1500 claim form (or electronic
equivalent), make sure you start doing so – or you
could see your claims returned as unprocessable.
Remember, unprocessable isn’t the same as rejected,
and you don’t need to appeal the claim; you simply
need to correct it – in this case, add the middle initial.
Although it’s not a new requirement to complete
item 2 of the 1500 form with the patient’s name,
including middle initial, at least one Medicare carrier
– National Government Services (NGS) – says it’s
beginning to crack down on the common error.
“Claims without the middle initial as shown on the
Medicare card … will be rejected and you are
instructed to please re-file the claim with the
corrected information which matches the Medicare
card exactly,” the carrier says. Instructions for
completing the 1500 form from the National Uniform
Claim Committee (NUCC), which created the form,
say: “Enter the patient’s full last name, first name,
and middle initial. Use commas to separate the last name,
first name and middle initial.”
TIP: Do not use a period after the middle initial.
Here’s how a correctly completed item should
look, according to the NUCC:
TIP: “Enter the name exactly as it appears on the
card in spite of the information that the patient
provides,” suggests Anne Dunne RN, MBA, practice
Administrator, South Shore Neurologic Associates,
P.C./Brookhaven MRI in Bay Shore, N.Y.
TIP: To make sure you get it right, scan or copy the
patients’ Medicare ID cards every time they come
into the office, she says. “Sometimes, they get a
little annoyed” if they’re asked during several
visits that are very close together, says Dunne, so
staff may not scan cards every time for patients
returning for multiple visits in a row. But “if it’s
been several months, we’ll ask for an update,” she
says.
Her system, Misys Tiger, is able to electronically
keep the scanned card with the patient’s record.
If you’re still using a paper system, you could copy
the card and attach the copy to the
charge ticket, she suggests. — V. Banner (Part B News)
What Qualifies As Misleading Information?
Statements that suggest all doctors and hospitals in an area
accept the plan’s coverage. Some examples of misleading
information that would permit a beneficiary to leave the
plan include:
œDescribe the product as a Medigap or Medicare
supplement plan. Such plans leave the beneficiary in
traditional Medicare, covering the 20 percent that the
government doesn't pay. By contrast, a Medicare
Advantage plan replaces traditional Medicare and is
responsible for all doctor and hospital coverage.
œSuggest to potential enrollees that they can switch back
to original Medicare "at any time" if they don't like the
plan.
The CMS guidelines say beneficiaries are not entitled to
leave a plan just because they've changed their minds about
what they want, or because their favorite doctors or
hospitals have resigned.
When questions crop up, operators are instructed to turn the
decision over to a regional office caseworker for
investigation.
If the first caseworker doesn't think a case meets the
criteria, it goes to a second caseworker for review. If both
think the case lacks merit, they must notify the beneficiary
in writing. Case work is also necessary when a plan
member misinformed about coverage has run up medical
debts and needs to switch coverage retroactively.
As CMS official Abby Block testified June 26 before the
House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, the
agency has always allowed some beneficiaries to leave
their Medicare plans on a case-by-case basis, such as when
a dementia patient enrolls and can't remember doing so.
But this year, she said, a big jump in enrollment in private
fee-for-service plans - which have no networks and leave
it to the beneficiary to find a willing doctor - caused
massive confusion. The agency was hit with a wave of
complaints soon after the enrollments went into effect Jan.
1st.
Some regions responded. Notably, CMS' Atlanta office
allowed 30,000 members of the Any, Any, Any plan,
based in St. Petersburg, to cancel enrollments
retroactively. But other members of Medicare Advantage
plans nationwide weren't offered the chance or were
turned away.
Article Contributed By: Sandy Gregory
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7
“Organize Your Space”
Rearrange your workspace so that you can find items
faster, Two Rules:
HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM GUESS WHO?
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•
Eliminate what you no longer need. To
determine what to toss, ask yourself: “How often
will I need this? Can I find it elsewhere if I need
to?”
•
Stay Organized. Straighten up at the end of each
day, or at least by the end of the day each Friday.
Cleaning up one day’s or one week’s worth of
mess is easier than attacking a month’s worth or
more!
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SALES REMINDER
Did you recently renegotiate an existing contract with
one of you Facilities?
The Pilgrims may be the quintessential symbol of
Thanksgiving, but the truth is, the Pilgrims never held a
"Thanksgiving" feast.
The actual "First Thanksgiving" most likely refers to a
mid October feast the pilgrims held in 1621, after their
first successful harvest in the new land. Since the
pilgrims never repeated the celebration, it can't really be
called the start of a tradition. It is also doubtful that
the devoutly religious Pilgrims would have had termed
it a "Thanksgiving" feast either, as giving thanks would
have called for a day of fasting and prayer.
A Native American named Squanto was said to befriend
the Pilgrims and it is doubtful they would have survived
the first harsh New England winter without him. Squanto
taught the Pilgrims how to tap maple trees for sap, how to
plant Indian corn and other crops as well as which plants
in the surrounding areas were poisonous and which had
healing powers.
The resulting October harvest was so successful, the Pilgrims
had stored enough food to sustain them through the winter.
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If you did, it is imperative that you obtain a new, fully
executed contract; complete a new “Facility Data Sheet”
and forward both to the designated contract representative
in your Regional office. This representative is then
responsible for sending a copy of this documentation to
Lisa Curry at the Sparks Corporate Billing Center.
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How to Be a Good Employee
It sounds like a strange subject, but it is definitely important
and is something that people commonly take for granted
these days. Sadly, most people don't realize how valuable
and rare a good employee is, nor how good it is to be one
themselves, until they own their own business or are in
charge of their own employees.
Job Security through Openness
The first and most important thing is job security. It is
important to you and your livelihood. However, it is not
always important to your employer. What is to be done?
A person could sabotage their own work or control it to the
point where only they can continue in that role.
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8
There were smoked cured meats, fish packed in salt cures,
fruits, vegetables and the American staff of life, corn.
We do know a few facts about the first feast. For instance
it can be assumed that it was held in the great outdoors, as the
colonists didn't have buildings large enough to accommodate
the large number of guests. If you've ever spent an autumn in
New England, you know this can be a chilly proposition.
Turkey was probably served, as was pumpkin or squash in one
form or another. One entrée that hasn't stood the test of time is
venison, a staple of the ninety or so Native Americans who
were invited to the celebration, including Squanto and Chief
Massasoit.
The first feast was, in essence, a big pot luck dinner that went
on for three (count them) days! In addition to turkeys and
venison, the dinner probably included ducks, geese and even
swans. There were games, races and demonstrations of skills
with bows and arrows and muskets, making a true festival
atmosphere.
Customs of celebrating an annual day of Thanksgiving after
the autumn harvest began to spring up in the colonies, but
didn't get national recognition until the late 1770's when it
was suggested by the Continental Congress during the
American Revolution. New York officially adopted
Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom in 1817, and many
other states soon followed suit, but it wasn't until 1863 that
President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of
Thanksgiving. Since then, each president has issued a
Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the
fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.
Our neighbors in Canada celebrate Thanksgiving on the
second Monday in October, a time closer in fact to the date
of the first feast. Official Canadian observance of Thanksgiving
began in 1879.
While that covers the traditions of modern Thanksgiving in
a nutshell, the day's true history actually goes back far before
the Pilgrims arrived in the New World. Harvest festivals were
held by many ancient civilizations. The ancient Greeks honored
Demeter, the goddess of grains, each autumn at the festival of
Thesmosphoria. The Romans celebrated a harvest festival
called Cerelia, which honored Ceres their goddess of corn.
The harvest festival, Chung Ch'ui was celebrated by the
ancient Chinese with the full moon that fell on the 15th day
of the 8th month. Hebrew families have celebrated a harvest
festival called Sukkoth for over 3000 years. The ancient
Egyptians celebrated their harvest festival in the spring to
honor Min, their god of vegetation and fertility.
So this Thanksgiving when you sit down to feast, think
about the ancient tradition that is still kept alive today
through the sharing of food, family, friends and love.
HAVE A WONDERFUL
THANKSGIVING!
Putting complicated code in software that only you know,
having a special relationship with customers that someone
else cannot foster, or creating a messy system that only you
understand. These are all tricks, and though they may
work for a short while, in the end they will be undone
and definitely contribute to your own undoing! I think
it is best to do the opposite. If your employer decides
that your job is no longer needed, or that you should no
longer fill the role even though you do "good work", then
chalk it up to destiny. If your employer does not recognize
a valuable employee, and you *are* one, then you belong
at a better company. On the other hand, if your job has
become obsolete it may be a sign that you didn't adapt
when you needed to. This is, as we all know, a world in
which technologies and methods change all the time. We
need to be dynamic. I also recommend that you document
everything; make your job simple and easy to understand
for others. That you be open, contribute to the work of
others and let others contribute to yours. It may sound like
a sure fire way to get fired because you clear away the
dependency they have on you, but as I mentioned above,
your value should not lie in your employer's fear of firing
someone who has secrets, but in their fear of losing such a
valuable person. So, document and share everything in case
you get hit by a meteor one day and someone needs to
continue your work. You'll be surprised when, one day,
your bosses see such organizational habits as being worthy
of a management role and give you a promotion. Now, there
are some recent outsourcing fiascos happening in the USA
that have a lot of people upset, and I certainly would be
upset too if it happened to me. It's a shame, and though what
I have said above would seem to endanger your job even
more, keep in mind that countries like France and Germany
have very strict laws forbidding the firing of an employee,
yet they suffer from the same outsourcing woes. Moreover,
their unemployment is currently hovering around 10%,
twice that of the USA. It just goes to show that job
protection should come from being valuable, not tricks or
laws against firing.
Follow the Rules
Another aspect of being a good employee is following
company rules. If your company's employee conduct rules
are oppressive, fight them formally or follow them while
you secretly look for another job, but don't blatantly break
them and get yourself in trouble. Your workplace is not just
a place to earn money, it is a social environment that has
structure, and those rules are in place for a good reason.
Along those lines of social environment we also find the
topic of coffee. Yes, coffee. I don't drink coffee and I never
want to, but if the other people in the office take coffee and
the pot is empty, make more. Your fellow cubicle dwellers
will appreciate it.
Continued on Next Page
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December Holidays
Christmas
” Hanukkah ” Kwanzaa
Don't be a Slob
Keep a clean desk, and make sure it has personal items that
have meaning to you. Bring in photos of family and friends,
but not so many that your desk becomes a home and not
a place of work. Having a clean organized desk shows
that you are clean and organized as an employee. Your
office and/or desk are a daily billboard. A constant,
physical curriculum vitae. A reminder of *why* your
employer hired you in the first place, and why they still
keep you on the payroll. Your conduct and cleanliness
should reinforce your worth to your employer. Having
plaques, awards, and certifications around is a great help
too!
Come in Early, Don't Stay Late
You may also find that your hourly habits make you a
better employee. Looking good is one thing, but feeling
good is quite another and surely contributes to the quality
of work that you do. Coming in early and energized, if that
is your preference, may very well improve your interaction
with others, your work speed and image to your manager!
On the other hand, if staying late is better and you do better
work in the late hours, it may be best for you to try that.
There is also a lot to be said for working the 8 hours of the
day to their fullest, and leaving on time to see your family.
It is all up to you, but whichever you choose; make sure
that you are punctual and consistent. Those two are highly
valued by management. If I had to choose between coming
in early or staying late, I would rather come in early.
Getting to work early is easily noticed, but no one sees
you staying until 7 pm because they're all at home!
Moreover, coming in early gives you a head start, staying
late means you're catching up. So, if you come in early
you can stop the fire before it starts, otherwise you'll be
staying late trying to put it out.
Our next issue will be published January 2008
Publisher: Pat Falice
Editor-in-Chief: Dianna Gomez
And....
Finally, I will state the obvious: being a good employee
means being a good person. You should be patient,
attentive, courteous and reliable. Good companies know
that those values cannot be learned in any college
curriculum, or on the job training. They must be within
you before you work for them and not only are they the
most valued characteristics to find in an employee, they
are also the rarest.
Jeff Skrysak
http://www.skrysak.com/index.php
10