The New Health Awards - Best Practice News Alert 164

CURRENT CIRCULATION: DATE: ISSUE NO:

7712 7th September 2009 164

Welcome to Health & Life’s free email newsletter service. Tell a friend that we would be happy to add their email address to the distribution list. This service is to provide Health and Life’s clients and those who attended our presentations with up to date information on key financial and practice management issues that may affect your practice. Please do not use this as a substitute to seeking professional advice.

Writer in charge: Mr David Dahm BA.Acc, FCPA, FTIA, Ffin, FAAPM, GLFG.

Nausea Allowance! - How will the New Health Awards Affect You?

STOP PRESS!!

BEST & FAIREST and TEAM of THE YEAR Just one last point in addition to Health and Life Oakdale winning the 2009 SA State League Netball Premiership. Congratulations to Health and Life Oakdale Netball Club State League team members Vanessa Williams, Edwina Gosse, Dalice Kennedy & Peta Scholz for making the SA State League "Team of the Year". Also Congratulations to Peta Scholz for winning the 2009 Netball SA Subway Cup League Best and Fairest. See our website for more information.

INTRODUCTION The NEW - Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2010!

Get a strong cup of coffee as this news alert will take a couple of reads. Please consult your adviser or us if you get stuck as there is a lot to take in. The new national Health st Professionals and Support Services Award 2010 becomes effective from 1 January 2010. st At the time of writing there is no 5 year phase in or 1 July 2010 start date. The controversial new National Awards hit the front page of the Australian Financial Review and The Australian on September 3, 2009 “Workers and bosses worse off”. In this issue we tell you exactly why.

Detailed below are the most significant but not limited issues.

Unfortunately, gone are the days when you could pay staff as much as you wanted above the Award to get the job done. Now it does not matter how much goodwill or money you give, as we detail the new and very complicated regime which could polarise employers from their staff if not handled correctly.

It will affect most practices in Australia that operate as a constitutional corporation. For example, the practice employs staff using a company .i.e. PTY LTD, or as a corporate trustee of a trust such as Dr Feelgood Pty Ltd as trustee for Dr Feelgood Family/Service Trust. We expect those falling out of the net will soon fall into line as State Awards align with the Federal Awards.

THE GOOD (if you are an employer) There are no penalty rates for after hours if they are within the expanded ordinary hours definition of 7:00am to 9:00pm under certain conditions and if staff are rostered for weekend work you should find the penalty rates a lot cheaper than existing State Awards. This will vary from State to State.

However rostered shifts before 8:00am and after 6:00pm will attract a 15% loading.

THE BAD – More paperwork and Higher Costs All practice staff, including practice managers, will need to be classified and paid under the new Award. Staff who have higher external training are more likely to be entitled to higher pay.

Practices must ensure that staff do not regularly work over 38 hours a week or they may be in breach of the new laws for working “unreasonable hours”. Employers must not require or request their employees to work more than 38 hours per week, plus “reasonable additional hours”. Some practice managers may feel they will now have to do more with less. New and detailed employment contracts will need to be drawn up for staff paid above the Award to prevent an underpayment of wages claim. Note there is a tsunami of new allowances from nausea to heat allowances which employers will be liable for. No matter how much you pay your staff, these need to be agreed and absorbed as part of a normal salary package. The big sting is part time staff who will now be entitled to time and half and double time payments if they are in excess of their agreed hours, which is a tad unforgiving. The employee and not the employer must elect for it to be in lieu instead of a payment. Forget about using casual staff - if their hours are predictable they will need to become part time staff members or you could get into trouble and have to double pay their leave entitlements.

THE UGLY – penalties and not a lot of time Any breaches from aggrieved employees may see the employer face fines of up to $33,000 per breach. There is not a lot of time remaining to prepare.

TOPICS Covered 1.0 The NEW - Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2010!

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EMPLOYER PENALTY - $33,000 per breach EDUCATION & DISCLOSURE ORDINARY HOURS DEFINED – no more penalty rates 38 AVERAGE HOURS PER WEEK MANDATORY – UNREASONABLE HOURS PROHIBITED FULL TIME, PARTTIME & CASUAL STAFF – FULL TIMERS ARE PREFERRED ALL PRACTICE SUPPORT STAFF AFFECTED INCLUDING PRACTICE MANAGERS NEW ALLOWANCE ON TOP OF BASE AND ABOVE AWARD SALARIES/WAGES PAID MEAL & TEA BREAKS OVERTIME (un-rostered) SHIFTWORK – 15% PENALTY RATE PAYMENT FOR HIGHER DUTIES 17.5% ANNUAL LEAVE LOADING APPLIES NEW REDUNDANCY RULES TRANSITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

WHAT TO DO NEXT? 1.

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DON’T IGNORE THE ISSUE – IT WON’T GO AWAY and WILL GET WORSE WITH TIME DETERMINE OPTIMAL SYSTEMS THEN EMPLOY STAFF ACCORDINGLY IS YOUR PRACTICE MANAGER WORKING EXCESSIVE HOURS? ABSORB AWARD CONDITIONS via ABOVE AWARD PAYMENTS USING CONTRACTS

2.0 Seminar Dates including Grants 3.0 Media - Health and Life in the National and Local Press with our 200th interview!

4.0 New Doctors Pay Calculator Upgrade – New Income Earning Feature (watch new video) 5.0 New Business Coaching /Mentoring Service

6.0 Catching Up with David Dahm 7.0 Where to from here?

Nausea Allowance! - How the New Health Awards Affect You?

1.0 The NEW - Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2010!

What is the Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2010?

The new healthcare industry Award is supervised by the Australian Fair Pay Commission under new national standards.

What is this new Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard?

The Workplace Relations Act 1996 (WR Act) introduced a new Federal minimum standard called the “National Employment Standards”. The Standard provides minimum entitlements to most employees in five key areas: rates of pay, maximum hours of work, annual leave, personal leave and parental leave. Watch out – if you breach the Standard, you may face up to a $33,000 penalty per breach.

What are the minimum wage rates I have to pay my staff?

The Australian Fair Pay Commission has been established to determine and adjust minimum rates of pay and casual loadings pursuant and these underpin the new national industry Awards. Similar unprecedented Awards are being introduced to all industries from the legal, accounting, sporting and private sector industries adding to the increase in the price for goods and services. st

The new Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2010 comes into effect on 1 January 2010, the most significant but not limited issues are as follows:

1. EMPLOYER PENALTY - $33,000 per breach • Penalty of up to $33,000 per employee breach! The person most likely to report a practice is an aggrieved employee.

2. EDUCATION & DISCLOSURE • All staff, including the practice manager need to be classified under the new “catch all” staff Award provisions. There is greater emphasis on the fact that if you want higher pay you should undertake more formal education externally. If you want a pay rise see below for more information; •

The Awards must be clearly accessible electronically or in the lunch room so everybody knows the basis of their pay (see attachment);

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Practices cannot force staff to sign contracts that contravene the Award, in the absence of an agreement that allows Award variations, the complex Award applies;

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You must consult all staff and discuss changes if hours are going to be altered, and mitigate its impact on individuals where possible.

3. ORDINARY HOURS DEFINED – no more penalty rates • Ordinary hours – Private Medical and Dental Practice

The ordinary hours of work for a full-time day worker will be worked between 7.30am and 9.00 pm Monday to Friday and between 8.00 am and 4.30 pm on Saturday.

Unless otherwise stated, the ordinary hours of work for a day worker will be worked between 6.00 am and 6.00 pm Monday to Friday. In other words you are a shift worker if you work outside of these hours and therefore a shift allowance applies, except where overtime is outside the ordinary hours.

4. AVERAGE 38 HOURS PER WEEK MANDATORY – UNREASONABLE HOURS PROHIBITED • • • • •

Employers must not require or request their employees to work more than 38 hours per week, plus “reasonable additional hours”.

Full time average must be 38 hours per week, in a fortnight or over a four week period; Not to work more than 10 hours a day or overtime over 2.4 hours a day; Time books need to be kept, even for practice managers; Reasonable “additional” hours are deemed pursuant to the National Employment Standards.

Factors to be taken into consideration when determining what is reasonable, with the burden of proof on the employer are: a) any risk to employee health & safety due to additional hours, employee’s personal circumstances including family situation are to be taken into consideration b) the needs of the workplace if the employee is entitled to overtime or penalty levels of remuneration for working excess hours; c) notice if any, given by the employer to work additional hours; d) notice given by the employee of intention to refuse working of additional hours; e) usual patterns of work in the industry or sector employee works within; f) nature of employees role & level of responsibility; g) additional hours are in accordance with average modern award; and h) any other relevant matter

5. FULL TIME, PARTTIME & CASUAL STAFF – FULL TIMERS ARE PREFERRED • The employer must inform who if their staff are employed full time, part time or casual: • Full time staff are rostered on average for 38 hours a week; • Part time are less than 38 hours that are predictable and pre-agreed; • Casual staff are employed on an hourly basis which is unpredictable plus 25% loading

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Part time Staff Move to full time staff where possible, avoiding part time and casual especially – ensure staff work to rules, otherwise large overtime penalties(see overtime below) arise during normal work hours; You cannot change rosters unless in case of an emergency within 7 days before the rostered shift; No time and a half penalty rates apply only 15% if worked up to 9pm – this should reduce overtime claims but you may loose your part time workforce Casual Staff Casual staff receive an additional 25% of the loaded rate – convert casuals into permanent staff as they could be deemed permanent because they are regularly rostered – no flexibility is allowed in the Award to remain as a permanent casual as in some State Awards. Permanent casual staff paid at a loaded 25% rate leaves the practice open to being sued for under payment of wages such as leave entitlements including annual and sick leave.

6. ALL PRACTICE SUPPORT STAFF AFFECTED INCLUDING PRACTICE MANAGERS •

All staff including, practice managers are subject to these Awards – an emphasis is on formal education in order to support higher pay. The following is a guideline outlining where

your employees may belong. Clearly many practices pay above Award rates, but this does not automatically exempt staff from additional overtime, allowance or penalty payments.

Classification is a critical first step process.

There are pay points based on working 1,824 hours per annum in a position. As there are multiple pay points within each class, we have taken the top pay point in each classification. Staff members need to demonstrate further applied study to go beyond Level 2. There are 9 Levels in total.

Maximum Award based on annual full time classification suggestions: Level 1 Reception/Clerical/Medical Typist

Up to $30,160

Level 2 Reception/Medical Typist/Clerical/Administration

$31,460

Level 3* not administration/clerical

$32,760

*Course attendance e.g. Certificate III may be required and knowledge applied to role Level 4* not administration/clerical/secretary *Course attendance e.g. Certificate III may be required and knowledge applied to role

$33,155

Level 5* second in charge/office administrator *Course attendance e.g. Certificate III may be required and knowledge applied to role

$34,320

Level 6* second in charge/office administrator/senior secretary *Course attendance e.g. Certificate III may be required and knowledge applied to role

$36,244

Level 7* Practice Manager/Business Development Manager *Course attendance e.g. Diploma may be required and knowledge applied to role

$36,920

Level 8* Practice Manager/Business Development Manager *Course attendance e.g. undergraduate advanced courses may be required and knowledge applied to role. Must work autonomously, strategically and is less operational than Level 7.

$42,120

Level 9* Practice Manager/Business Development Manager *Course attendance e.g. undergraduate advanced courses may be required and knowledge applied to role. Has the Level 8 standard and can solve complex legal compliance and regulatory issues where there are no clear guidelines.

$44,824

Note the Award also specifies classifications for allied health see the Award for further information.

7. NEW ALLOWANCE ON TOP OF BASE AND ABOVE AWARD SALARIES/WAGES •

New set of allowances from heat, uniform clothing, dry cleaning to nausea and 24 hour on call allowances are available to your support staff, and are increased with the Consumer Price Index annually. These are in addition to any above Award payments, unless included in a signed employment contract (see below). Practices may need to reconsider the real benefits of paying above Award wages as this may or may not lead to a wage freeze and capping of wages.

The following allowances apply: 1. Blood check – out of pocket re-imbursement; 2. Clothing and equipment - out of pocket re-imbursement for uniforms or the lesser of $1.23 per shift or $6.24 per week in addition to the laundry set rate which is the lesser of $0.32 per shift or $1.49 per week. This works out at circa $444 p.a. per employee on average; 3. Damaged Clothing - out of pocket re-imbursement except where the employee is negligent; 4. Board and Lodging – weekly wages reduced by a set rate deduction if employer pays for board $20.40 and food $12.70; 5. Heat Allowance (if above 46C) – paid 20 min break every 2 hours which may be set as an hourly loading rate. A minimum loading rate for the week applies for staff employed pre 1991 > 40 C/0.05% & 45C/0.06% ; 6. Meal Allowance – $10 in addition to overtime > 1 hour and $9.00 > 4 hours; 7. Nausea Allowance (offensive work) – 0.05% of the standard hourly rate and a minimum 0.27% loading rate for the week applies; 8. Occasional Interpreters Allowance (not full time) – set loaded hourly rate of 0.11% per occasion and a maximum of 1.27% of the standard hourly rate per week; 9. On call Allowance – 24/7 weekly and weekend hourly loaded rate of 2.16% per hour week days and 4.31% for weekends This works out at circa $800 to $1000 p.a. per employee on average; 10. Telephone Allowance - out of pocket re-imbursement; 11. Tool Allowance - set rate per week; 12. Travelling and Transport Allowance – set rate 74c per kilometre, a log book is required; 13. District Allowance in WA & NT (ceasing in 2014).

8. PAID MEAL & TEA BREAKS • Unpaid 30-60 minute lunch break applies; • Minimum 10 minute paid tea breaks apply each 4 hour period, with 2 in an 8 hour period; 9. OVERTIME (un-rostered) • Time and half for the first 2 hours and double time thereafter; • Public Holidays are double time and a half; • Double time applies for all un-rostered Sundays, if rostered then 1.5 penalty applies for permanent staff. See shift allowance, which is in substitution of the Shift Allowance below; • Part Time employees who work beyond their predictable and agreed hours will receive overtime at time and a half for the first 2 hours and double time thereafter; • If working more than 10 hours the employee must have a break of 10 hours between shifts without loss of pay. If not then double time applies for the entire shift; • Recall to overtime after leaving – a minimum of 2 hours must be paid at overtime rates; • 20 min break after each 4 hours of work; • The employee and not the employer can elect to take overtime in lieu of payment.

10. SHIFTWORK – 15% PENALTY RATE • 15% penalty rate applies for rostered ordinary work beginning before 6:00am or after 6:00pm 11. PAYMENT FOR HIGHER DUTIES • Relieving staff must be paid for higher duties – this may cause a few arguments if you employ a “second in charge” who temporarily takes over the role of practice manager; 12. 17.5% ANNUAL LEAVE LOADING APPLIES • Annual leave loading applies to all permanent staff except shift workers whose weekend penalties are included.

13. NEW REDUNDANCY RULES • Need to pay 4 weeks notice if terminating. It is no longer two weeks or as mutually agreed; • Staff transferred to lower paid duties are entitled to redundancy payments • Terminated staff, are permitted one day with proof of attendance to a job search allowance for every week the notice period applies.

14. TRANSITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS • Existing AWA and practices that are not a constitutional corporation are not affected by the Awards i.e. you do not trade under a Pty Ltd name, via a trust or in your own name.

• You cannot make over award payments and contract out of penalties unless appropriate employee written consent is given and the permissible Award variations are limited.

• New agreements need to be in place to avoid default Award provisions and new systems need to be established to cope with the new Award conditions.

• Nurses have a separate Award – we will report on this soon.

• Doctors currently remain Award free except training program requirements for registrars.

• All employees whether part of an Award or not are affected by the National Employment Standards in particular the 38 hour rule. Employers excluded are partnerships, sole traders and non corporate trustees of trusts.

WHAT TO DO NEXT? 1. DON’T IGNORE THE ISSUE – IT WON’T GO AWAY and IT WILL GET WORSE WITH TIME Up to $33,000 per breach! The most likely person to dob in a practice is an aggrieved employee.

Practices need to budget for higher wages and new implementation costs of up to $10k.

2. DETERMINE OPTIMAL SYSTEMS THEN EMPLOY STAFF ACCORDINGLY In 80% of practices we benchmark we see that staff productivity can be increased by 10 to 20% without increasing staff. Ascertain whether your practice is operating efficiently. Carefully analyse optimal staff rosters under the new Awards. Focus on better systems and higher staff productivity - do more with less, then assess job roles, experience and qualifications of staff and hours required to complete tasks. The better the system the fewer experienced staff required.

If not, consider your options of new work or letting go of staff. Practices should seriously start to consider “out counselling” non-performing staff before the new Awards kick in. Offer staff the total roster hours to work out their new hours and be flexible.

3. IS YOUR PRACTICE MANAGER WORKING EXCESSIVE HOURS? If your practice manager is regularly working over 38 hours a week, consider removing them from lower responsibility roles such as the front desk and budget for a second in charge or an understudy. Furthermore, consider providing additional formal training to your practice manager and focus him or her on becoming more strategic and less operational. Clearly this will be determined by the size of your practice.

4. ABSORB AWARD CONDITIONS via ABOVE AWARD PAYMENTS USING CONTRACTS The basis for absorbing any of the new allowances and penalty rates is determining the correct Award classification for every staff member. Job descriptions are important. You are allowed to pay above Award rates but the practice must state what this is for and have this signed off in an employment agreement otherwise these additional entitlements will still apply and must be paid.

The practice should provide individually signed and written business cases to staff, not under duress, to show their over award payments and conditions making them better off. Prepare individual business cases. If you force staff to sign you have no legal protection from an underpayment of wages claims. You must obtain signed consent from your staff otherwise it will not work.

Make sure all employment agreements line by line address the Award obligations – general statements such as this “over award payment will cover all your penalty, allowance and overtime benefits” is not sufficient. This needs to be detailed in the employment agreement. Contact us for template agreements including job descriptions which are available for purchase.

See attached http://www.fairwork.gov.au/Pay-leave-andconditions/Awards/Pages/default.aspx?role=employees for Awards.

2.0 Seminar Dates including Grants Australia’s most successful practices will have some of their trade secrets presented at our Practice Sustainability Series. Below is a summary of dates for our seminars across Australia. At each seminar there is an opportunity to meet with us face to face to discuss any practice issues you may have at no obligation. Email us at pa@healthandlife.com.au to pre-book an appointment.

The Victorian Divisional meetings have received grant funding support from the Rural Workforce Agency of Victoria for seminars and one on one practice business coaching. If you are a local Division of General Practice in Victoria or a practice, you are eligible to receive funding for our seminars and/or a one on one practice business coaching grant.

If you would like your local medical organisation to host a seminar, send them the attachment with our seminar details and copy us at pa@healthandlife.com.au into your email. We will contact them directly about presenting in your local area. We thank you in advance for your interest and support.

You would be surprised how it only takes one person to make things happen!

New programs confirmed for the rest of 2009 are detailed below.

Please contact the organisations directly for details about the course program, content and costs.

More seminars will be announced during the year.

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Host and Where General Practice Network NT

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12 September 2009

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East Gippsland Division of General Practice

8 October 2009

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Victoria Felix Medical Association

17 October 2009

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Central Highland General Practice Network

22 October 2009

Contact Name Liz McCoy

Contact Details sarah.bridge@gpnnt.org.au or 08 8982 1034

Sharon Kosmina

sharonk@rwav.com.au or 03 9349 7800 Division Members Only

Topics Succession Planning and the New national Health Industrial Awards TBA

One on one practice business coaching grants available with Health and Life – pre-booking early is recommended. th

Kaye Phillips

kphillips@vicfelix.com.au or 03 5441 9300

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Belinda Carra

Belinda.carra@chgpn.com.au The new or 03 5428 4848 Health & Support Services Award & Time Management Strategies

GP Supervisors & Registrars

3.0 Media - Health and Life in the National and Local Press with our 200th interview!

In the last 12 years we have been in the National and Local media and have just completed our 200th media interview. This averages 1.4 interviews per month.

The following media outlets have sought interviews from us: Medical Observer, Australian Doctor, GP Business Essentials, Business Review Weekly, In the Black - CPA Australia, The Weekend Australian, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Advertiser, Dell, Readers Digest, The Border Mail, Divisions of General Practice and many other local agencies.

We appreciate the support of the journalists, editors, clients and our readers in achieving this result. We are committed to ensuring that the patients interests are best served so that we all maintain a sustainable and socially responsible healthcare system.

Health and Life are regularly interviewed by the media on contemporary, healthcare, medicolegal, practice management, tax and accounting issues. From Super Clinics to superannuation, healthcare reform to front desk accreditation standards we have covered the most compelling issues facing the healthcare industry and tell you how best to deal with the tsunami of changes.

Our unique difference is our front desk grass roots view of the world as and how healthcare affects your local community.

These topics are listed below and can be requested. For a chronological list of items articles with a short synopsis download here: click here 4.0 New Doctors Pay Calculator Upgrade – New Income Earning Feature (watch new video) Our Doctors Pay Calculator has just undergone another upgrade with a new important feature.

For practices that are aware you can legally avoid payroll tax and employment obligations including the new Industrial Awards if you charge a management fee plus GST on provider fees received. For example charging a 40% service/management fee to a doctor of their gross receipts received. The Doctors Pay Calculator helps you quickly complete and reconcile using a database (not a messy spreadsheet!!) accurate Tax Invoices, BAS & Income Tax Extract Summaries for your practice and your providers simultaneously.

This new feature allows practices to offer up to 7 different types of management fees or percentages with clear descriptions for tracking purposes. These include calculating guarantee minimums, the program allows you to incentive providers to take advantage of the higher dollar Medicare item numbers for services such as the chronic disease management. Remember you need a signed medico-legal, commercially tax friendly service agreement signed off in writing before you do this. Contact us about purchasing template agreements if you do not have a service agreement with your providers.

See our video demonstration of the Doctors Pay Calculator at www.healthandlife.com.au.

5.0 New Free Business Coaching /Mentoring Service – The Good, the Bad and Ugly Report At Health and Life we have been extremely concerned about the tsunami of changes affecting the healthcare industry. From the national hospital healthcare reforms, Industrial Award changes to Medicare Audits.

As result we are pleased to introduce a free 6 monthly teleconferencing business coaching program for all of our clients who request our “Good, Bad and Ugly” Report in addition to their annual tax and financial returns. We cannot offer this service unless a formal report is prepared. After the end of each year a report will be prepared to discuss the practice’s strategy for the next 12 months. Then after the first six months we check up with you to see how you are progressing and how to fast track any agreed changes.

This offer is available to existing clients and new clients who join our firm in the next 12 months. The Good, Bad and Ugly report is a detailed annual written benchmarking and strategic report that recommends changes to your practice at a macro and micro level. We review issues such as staff productivity right through to maximizing government revenues, succession planning, healthcare reforms and how to best position your practice.

We have decided to introduce this service because it is very difficult to prepare news alert topics on every major issue and it is for busy practitioners. The service is a fast track way of presenting, tailoring and monitoring information for your practice that is relevant and timely.

This will make a difference to your bottom line and risk management profile.

Contact us for further information.

6.0 Catching Up with David Dahm If you would like to catch up with us next time we are in your neighborhood feel free to email us at pa@healthandlife.com.au or call for a no obligation chat in relation to these or any other issues you may be concerned about. We are planning trips to Darwin, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth in the next couple of months.

7.0 Where to from here?

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Consult your professional adviser in relation to any advice suggested;

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If you require any back issues of our news alerts please email us;

3.

If you are not sure about any issues raised in this broadcast contact David Dahm on 1800 077 222 for an initial no obligation consult, or email us at pa@healthandlife.com.au. Health and Life provides comprehensive practice consulting, accounting, taxation and financial planning advice for group practices and individuals.

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