Practice Manager
Frequently asked questions about hiring for the Practice Manager role, plus the mistakes that most often derail it.
Common hiring mistakes for this role
In the German practice context the most common mistakes are not regulatory but structural: the role is confused with a lead MFA or a management assistant, and the trial day is skipped.
Confusing Practice Manager with lead MFA / senior MFA
A lead MFA / senior MFA leads the MFA team operationally (shift plan, onboarding, material ordering) and works in a medical-assisting capacity. A Practice Manager steers the entire practice: appointment management across several physicians / practitioners, KV billing and GOÄ/EBM plausibility checks, QM officer duties, DSGVO and confidentiality, external contracts, patient communication in conflict situations. The areas overlap but are not equivalent. Blending the two in one ad produces two classic outcomes: either you pay 55-65 k€ for a profile that spends 70 % of the time assisting at reception or in the treatment room (frustration on the company side), or you pay 38-42 k€ for a profile that cannot run quarterly billing or build a QM system (frustration on the candidate side). Frame the scope explicitly in the ad.
Skipping the trial day in the practice
In German healthcare, the paid trial day (4-8 hours) in the practice is standard for mid and senior profiles. Skipping it signals a poorly organized practice and filters out exactly the structured candidates you actually want to attract. The trial day is also the only reliable way to test team fit and patient presence: many candidates speak very well in the interview but fail at reception in a real pressure situation. The investment (€200-400 trial-day pay) significantly reduces the mis-hire rate.
Skipping the clinical terminology and billing depth
An ad that lists only reception, scheduling, a friendly manner, team leadership, without naming KV billing, GOÄ/EBM plausibility checks, QM under § 135a SGB V, KIM, eAU, ePA, MPBetreibV, attracts two wrong profiles: experienced MFAs without billing and QM depth, and career changers from hospitality or office management with no healthcare familiarity. List the clinical duties and the PVS in use (Medistar, T2med, CGM Albis, Tomedo, Dampsoft, Z1) explicitly. That filters before the phone screen.
Underestimating the MFA collective agreement (TV-MFA) and labor-law framework
Even if your practice is not bound by the TV-MFA (the common case in single practices), the collective agreement still sets a strong reference: many MFAs anchor a job change on the TV-MFA tables and on practices that pay at or above those levels. A Practice Manager who sits between the practice owner and 4-15 MFAs and has no TV-MFA knowledge quickly comes under pressure in salary negotiations, end-of-probation talks and labor-law questions. State explicitly in the profile section whether TV-MFA experience is expected.