Pros
Options to work in person, remote, or hybrid. Can set own schedule to a point but mgt has to put it in or change it for you so it’s not like your own practice. They provide credentialing, laptop, insurance, clients. You can work with your preferred population. They give you freedom clinically. They take out taxes. Salaried workers have PTO and holidays. Diversity and inclusion. Great recruiter. Impressive training program. Phones open until 9 pm for clients and on weekends. Immediate online support for clinicians during regular business hours. 24 MH hours given per year to fee for service staff Many smooth processes in place. EHR. Many wonderful clinicians
Cons
Pay is far lower than what is advertised! Salaried workers are micromanaged to hit session numbers each week- very stressful. Fee for service workers don't have any paid holidays at all and PTO is so skimpy that one sickness will wipe it all out. RCDs micromanage your session numbers and cancellations and make you feel bad. Town halls are held with self-congratulatory CEO who is clearly out of touch with our experience as clinicians and mental health as a whole. Nice guy, but he does not have a mental health background and it shows. Lip service is given to supporting clinicians but it is only lip service and nothing changes. In fact we’ve gone from okay to worse under his leadership. Less pay. Less clients. No talk of holidays for us. Just talk about how much money the company will make and how the office will be closed for admin to take paid holidays while we stay here working. Our RCD tells us to have a great holiday and takes a lot of vacations while we continue to work through holidays. No holiday bonuses ever. Pay isn’t great for fee for service clinicians. It’s based on billing codes and ranges from 24-54 an hour, depending on the code. Intakes are 65. Small bonuses are given for getting notes completed on time and seeing more clients. Salaried clinicians have priority with filling caseloads, while fee for service clinicians sometimes sit with empty slots. Billing practices upset clients and result in clients leaving. Large amounts come out of client bank accts that they were not expecting. If client bills are unpaid, billing removes our clients from our schedules with no warning to them or us! This is unethical. Most don’t come back, It really is about the almighty dollar here and rapid growth, but those dollars aren’t ending up in clinician’s pockets. People who answer the phones are very nice and courteous but have challenges solving client’s issues and seem to be in another country. ? Clients often complain. Lately we are providing depression and anxiety screenings for the first time and you would think no one’s ever done before. This has been standard for years in our field. This is touted as an example of how they are helping us but we can and do already give those (and other) screenings as part of our practice. No paid paperwork time so we write notes for free in our off time. This, I realize, is not just a Thriveworks issue, but still annoying.
