Owning a Business vs Danger of Operating a Practice

Associates operating a practice. I've had a couple of weeks to think about this issue since the last LPC Board Meeting. I thought I'd calm down once the dust settled but all that did was allow me to see the potential harm to my license and career more clearly.

I Like Being a Supervisor, But...

I will admit I was dragged into supervision kicking and screaming by a friend who insisted I had the right stuff, and I will now acknowledge that I love it. I like giving back and helping the next generation and I don't want to give it up. But let me be clear to The Board and those parties pushing for this change that anything that adds more potential liability, specifically to the Supervisory position, is not something I'm going to stand still for. At some point the potential risk to me and many other Supervisors will cause those that really care and understand the looming problem to withdraw from supervision altogether.

Words Have Meaning(s)

I'd like to borrow a page from the political playbook and re-define, in this case properly define, a term or two. I think this is driving a lot of unclear thinking. Specifically, that "Owning a Business", is not the same thing as, "Operating a Practice".

Owning a Business

"Owning a Business" in the traditional sense means, "that set of basic legal tools, equipment, supplies, utilities and other items that all businesses have in common". All businesses have in common. I don't think there's a Supervisor in TX that has a problem with an Associate creating an LLC, putting their bookkeeping system in place or otherwise "setting up their business" whilst they are in training, while they are learning to operate a practice with their Supervisor.

Unfortunately, not many of the Supervisors are teaching these things either. Some are, most are not. That's what PracticeMentors.us is all about btw, but that's another blog post.

Operating a Practice

"Operating a Practice" is an additional layer of skills that need to be taught/learned before we can morally unleash an Associate on the Public. That additional layer of skills includes Federal Compliance training and implementation and State Compliance training as well. Don't forget about Chapter 611 Release of Records and legal business forms, and defensive training for dealing with the inevitable complaints. Associates do get complaints! There’s a lot more I could list but I think you get my point.

Ask yourself this....as a practice owner, would you hire a recently papered Associate to run a practice of any size? Then why would we ethically set them up for failure and allow them to run their own? They’re not trained and that places Joe in harms’ way. If you ran a hospital you wouldn't hire a med-school grad and put him in charge of your surgery department, even if he was supervised by Dr. Debakey from half a state away via Zoom.

Please, tell me you wouldn’t do that.

Summary

I would dare say that 98% of all grad students are not ready to run a traditional business straight out of school (there are always exceptions but The Board needs to decide if it’s trying to craft rules for "the exceptions", or design a system that first and foremost protects Joe Citizen?).

Joe comes first, then the needs and wants of Supervisors/Counselors, then the (uninformed) desires of the new kids on the block, the Associates, in that order. And we'll speak to that next week!

And now you know.

Plan Smart. Be Safe. Serve Others.

Kathleen Mills, LPC-S, CEAP