Productivity bonus question

[trazodone]

I wanted to ask a question in regards to productivity bonus. I am working in a specialty and am paid based on salary, but also receive a productivity bonus paid quarterly based on RVUs. I received a bonus for quarter 1 through 3 this year, but in quarter 4, I went on vacation, had a week off for CME, and was below my target for that quarter. At the end of the year, I am still above the institution's goal for PAs (By far) and my percentile is around the 75th to 80th for PAs in my area. I recently received an e-mail from my employer (medium to large health system) indicating that since I did not make my productivity in quarter 4, I was liable to pay back a certain amount (fairly significant in my opinion, but not going to break the bank financially). They indicated that "we overpaid your bonus for the first three quarters and did not expect your RVUs to dip".

 

My questions are numerous, but essentially I want to know what legality the institution has to force me to pay this back. When discussed with the finance department, they indicated that they have no way of taking into account vacations and CME (which is obviously required by the hospital to maintain licensure). In addition, they do not adjust my RVUs for when our division has staff meetings (of which I have no option to not attend, thus missing out on RVUs). I had always been a bit irked that they did not adjust for times out of the office that were mandated by the institution, but it seemed inconsequential at the time and I did not bring it up. I have informally raised these concerns to administration and am waiting for a response. I feel like I should not be penalized for them not adjusting my RVUs and them not having a policy for if they make an error in calculating the bonus. In addition, there is no comment in my contract in relation to if my RVUs are below a certain threshold.

What legal rights do I have as an employee?

Has anyone had any similar experiences?

What would you do in my situation?

Should I be talking to a lawyer?

 

Thanks!

[mgriffiths]

All of your questions are state and contract dependent.  Whether you discuss with a lawyer is up to you.

Bottom line...how attached are you to this job?  If you go after them with a lawyer what will be the response?  Maybe you won't be terminated because that could be deemed retaliation, but could they divert patients lowering your productivity?  Could they increase the number of meetings you are required to attend lowering your productivity?  Could they start giving you more administrative work lowering your productivity?  In other words, could they just kill your productivity slowly but surely, lowering your bonus further and further until your productivity drops below goal giving them a "reason" to terminate you?

If I were in your shoes I would discuss with administration and attempt to find a solution.  Then, depending on the results of that conversation and how you are treated following I would strongly be considering a job change.

Furthermore regarding a lawyer...whose pockets are deeper and who potentially has multiple lawyers on retainer?  In other words...again...who could just continue to drag out any potential court case until you are bled dry by lawyer and court fees?

Tread carefully...it's a tough world as an employee.

[Cideous]

For the crime of going on vacation.....What were you thinking..........<eye roll>

[rev ronin]

Yeah, productivity bonuses not structured "per hour worked" are designed to penalize people for having any non-clinic time.  If I were a state attorney general, I might look at those as sex discrimination, since women (hmmm... significantly large portion of the PA workforce) are statistically more likely than men to take time off to care for children or aging parents.