Stew Baskin

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Smarter Benefits, Lower Costs: A Modern Approach

Stew Baskin, Business Consultant, Vensure Employer Solutions

This presentation will explore the employee lifecycle for small businesses, with a special focus on physician practices and healthcare-adjacent organizations participating in the Florida Medical Cannabis Conference and Expo (FMCCE). Whether a practice is newly entering the medical cannabis space or expanding existing services, the operational challenges are similar: delivering exceptional patient care while managing the increasingly complex responsibilities of payroll, HR, compliance, and benefits.    Most small businesses, including medical practices, follow a common path when developing their internal operations. They begin with ad-hoc or manual processes such as managing payroll in-house, relying on basic HR templates, or piecing together separate tools for timekeeping, onboarding, benefits, and compliance. While understandable, this approach creates siloed and disconnected systems that do not communicate with one another. Over time, these gaps can lead to errors, inefficiencies, compliance issues, and rising costs that put pressure on already lean teams.    For example, a practice may manage payroll using one platform, track PTO in a spreadsheet, outsource benefits to a broker, and rely on an office manager to handle onboarding and policy updates manually. It works until it doesn’t. Situations such as employee injuries, misclassified staff, the absence of EPLI coverage, or an unexpected audit can expose vulnerabilities that many small businesses are not prepared to absorb. In the highly regulated medical and medical-cannabis environment, these risks escalate quickly.    There are proven ways for small businesses to streamline operations, control costs, and protect the organization. A key first step is automating payroll and tax administration. This reduces manual work and mitigates the risk of missed filings, incorrect withholdings, and compliance oversights, any of which can be especially disruptive in healthcare settings.    As practices evaluate payroll options, it is helpful to consider the advantages of consolidating additional employee-related services. Administrative Service Organizations (ASOs) offer bundled support that may include payroll, HR guidance, compliance tools, liability protection, and benefits administration. Centralizing these functions eliminates silos, strengthens consistency, and simplifies day-to-day management.    For organizations seeking deeper risk mitigation and greater cost efficiency, Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) offer a more comprehensive solution. Through a co-employment model, a PEO absorbs many of the administrative and fiduciary responsibilities associated with being an employer. One of the greatest advantages for small and mid-sized businesses, especially medical practices, is access to large-group health plans and benefits.    By leveraging economies of scale, PEOs can secure master group plans that are typically unavailable to individual small businesses. These plans often provide substantial cost savings compared to traditional small-group rates, broader and more competitive coverage options, lower employee premiums, and a more attractive benefits portfolio that supports long-term recruitment and retention.    For physician practices and other small employers navigating rising healthcare costs, workforce shortages, and an increasingly competitive labor market, these savings can make a meaningful difference in long-term stability and growth.    This session will guide FMCCE attendees through the employee lifecycle and demonstrate how streamlining payroll, HR, compliance, and benefits can help small and mid-sized businesses reduce risk, eliminate administrative fragmentation, improve operational efficiency, and support scalability, ultimately allowing them to focus on delivering high-quality patient care.    T

Stew Baskin helps small businesses solve their toughest HR and benefits challenges. Armed with a master’s in engineering, he began his career developing water‑treatment tech in oil and gas. He has since realized that he’s far happier working with the bold, mission‑driven innovators driving medical cannabis forward.