Doctor Employment Lawyer Blog

I have seen a number of Physician Employment Agreements recently that determine compensation based on productivity. This can be very lucrative for a physician who is able to market his/her services or has already developed a large patient base. However, a doctor who joins a practice directly out of residency will face a number of difficulties in building a practice. This is especially true if the Employment Agreement does not identify marketing and promotion tools and support that will be provided by the practice.

What makes these compensation terms especially treacherous for new physicians is that the practice groups that most often use this form of compensation are also the practice groups that do not pay for the physicians' tail coverage.

If you end up taking a position and patient volume is low or collectibles are low and you need to leave because you are not making any money, you could also be required to pay large amounts of money to obtain tail coverage.

Taking your first job out of residency should not dig you into a deeper hole of debt, but if you are not careful it can. This is why I always try to remind physicians that, regardless of whether they hire an attorney, they must make sure they understand the terms of an Agreement before their signature goes on the page.

Many physicians are asked to sign non-compete and non-solicitation agreements by their employers. When you are staring a new job, this sort of thing may seem typical or unimportant, but when you leave to pursue a new opportunity, you may realize that such an agreement can effectively keep you out of the marketplace.

If you have signed a non-solicitation agreement and are moving to a new practice, you likely want to send out an announcement to all of your past patients inviting them to come see you at your new place of business. This may seem like a great idea, but there is a lot of potential liability if you violate the terms of a non-solicitation agreement.

Some of these agreements are narrow and specific in that they only prevent you from actually soliciting patients, meaning you cannot ask your patients to switch to your practice, but you may be able to send out announcements advising them of your new location or offering to assist them in continuing their care at your former practice.

At the same time, many employers are going to greater lengths to protect their investment in practice developments. These agreements are drafted in broad terms and specifically prohibit you from even sending announcements to your patient list. Some such agreements even go so far as to attempt to prohibit you from initiating any communications whatsoever with patients. Whether or not a court would uphold such a broad provision depends on the language, and the court.

Make sure that you understand to what you are obligating yourself before you sign a non-solicitation agreement. And, at the very least, try to negotiate an exception for patients that you bring with you to your new employer.