Legal Scrubs

The transfer of medical records is sometimes an afterthought when a doctor comes to the point of selling his medical practice. Asset sale vs. equity sale, purchase price, and a hundred other things are often what consumes the seller, the buyer, and their respective lawyers. But what about the seller's medical records? What do you need to do (and not do) when it comes to transferring your medical records to a buying physician? This episdoe of Legal Scrubs discusses 2 things that every Tennessee physician must remember when he or she is  selling their practice with respect to their medical records. Hint: one of these is federal in nature, and other is a creature of Tennessee law.

Doctors just coming out of residency and more seasoned doctors looking to join a new medical group must understand the ins and outs of covenants not to compete that are almost certainly contained somewhere in the employment agreement presented to them to sign. This episode of Legal Scrubs sets out 5 key points that every doctor should know about covenants not to compete in order to make an informed decision about the employment agreement he or she is being asked to sign.

Group medical practices should take care to make sure that their employment agreements with their employed physicians take into account how to enforce post-contract obligations. For example, once an employed physician leaves a practice, he or she often has one or more continuing contractual obligations to the practice. One such obligation might be to simply return all confidential practice information that he or she has to the practice. Another obligation might be to provide tail malpractice insurance coverage to the practice to cover any acts or omissions of the physician to the practice. But how can a practice take steps to tweak their employment contracts to make sure they can enforce their rights against an employed physician who has left the practice? This podcast episode discusses some possible ways that a group practice can make some minor tweaks to the provisions of their employment agreements to help make it easier to enforce post-employment contract obligations that an employed physician has to the practice.

Physicians and their medical practices should strongly consider federal trademark registration and protection for the name of their practice, their practice design logo, and any taglines associated with the practice. Today's episode of Legal Scrubs discusses the benefits of federal trademark registration protection for healthcare professionals.

The new Final Stark Rule's requirement that group practices cease using split pooling of the group's Designated Health Services on a service by service methodology becomes effective on January 1, 2022. That means that group practices have less than six months to review their compensation methodology with respect to DHS and revise their profit split, if need be. Today's episode discusses the new Final Stark Rule and how group medical practices can comply with it by making sure their profit sharing of DHS is done either on a fully aggregated methodology or by pods of physicians with at least 5 physicians per pod.

New changes to the Stark Law's definition of a "group practice" go into effect in January 2022. Of particular importance to independent group medical practices is a clarification that spells the end of split pooling on profits from in-office ancillary services. Listen to today's episode of Legal Scrubs to learn more and prepare so that your group practice is in compliance when the changes go into effect.

Unless a doctor starts his/her own practice, then every doctor coming out of residency is going to be faced with a new and incredibly important milestone experience--being asked to sign an employment agreement with the hospital or medical group that will that doctor's new employer. One of the most significant provisions that almost certainly will be in that employment agreement is a non-compete provision. Every doctor without exception needs to understand what the non-compete provision in their employment agreement means and how its restrictions may impact that doctor's future. This applies even for doctors who have been in practice for a while and periodically have to "re-up" with their employing facility or group. Today's podcast episode of Legal Scrubs discusses and explains the Tennessee rules on physician non-competes.

If you're a physician with an independent medical practice, there's a good chance that you have at least one or more employees on your staff and that you have a written personnel manual or written employee policies and procedures. If so, then you should listen to today's podcast to learn 4 specific and actionable tips that you should take right now to possibly avoid an employment law problem when and if you have to fire one of your employees.

What should a health professional do when he or she gets an online review of the practice is negative and damaging to the practice's reputation? More and more prospective patients check out online reviews before deciding on which doctor or dentist to see for their medical or dental services. So, it can be very damaging for a medical or dental practice to deal with negative online reviews from patients. But great care is required in how health professionals should (and should not!) responds to negative reviews. HIPAA is implicated as are all the complexities of defamation law and the risk of an anti-SLAPP suit against the doctor or dentist by the disgruntled patient. So, doctor or dentist, beware! Listen to today's podcast episode of Legal Scrubs to learn more about what to do if your medical or dental practice is the recipient of a negative online patient review. If you find this podcast helpful, please don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes of the Legal Scrubs podcast. And, if you would, please take a moment and leave us a comment and/or a review. Thanks!

One of the first decisions that physicians who have made the important decision to establish their own independent and entrepreneurial medical practice must make is this--what form of legal entity is the best choice for the new practice that is being started? Facts and circumstances vary from one medical practice to another, and so the decision is not one than can be made in a vacuum or with a cookie cutter approach. This podcast discusses the various options for a new medical practice in Tennessee and what the thought process could be to help physicians think through what is the best legal entity choice for their own medical practice. If you want to watch this podcast in video format, here's a link to today's video on the DPS Legal Counsel YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/6pVprYxavEo If you find this podcast helpful, please consider subscribing to the Podcast and leaving a review. Thanks for listening!

Many businesses have had to close during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although physicians and their practices are essential during this time, many doctors in private practice have also seen a decline in the number of patients visiting their practices, particularly if their medical practices provide more elective treatments and procedures. Just like other small business owners, physicians in private practice may be looking for ways to improve and increase their cash flow during this time of uncertainty. This podcast episode of Legal Scrubs discusses 5 simple things that doctors can do now to improve their cash flow for their medical practices.

The new CARES Act includes a new SBA loan program for small businesses called the Paycheck Protection Program. Among the small businesses that can possibly benefit from PPP are small independent medical practices. Listen to today's episode of Legal Scrubs to find out more about how PPP might be of interest to your medical practice.

Doctors in private practice are experiencing the same challenges all small businesses are during this trying time. But the new CARES Act recently signed into law provides an important benefit to physicians whose practices include Medicare patients. Physicians can request advance or accelerated payments from CMS for Medicare patients they won't even see or treat until late summer this year. And payments are supposed to be paid to doctors within about a week after an approved request is made. Cash now for future patients! Listen to today's episode of Legal Scrubs to learn more.

Doctors are busy, but they need to take some time to think about estate planning and what they should do to protect their loved ones. Taxes, asset protection, titling assets the right way, and business succession for medical practices--these are points that doctors need to know about.  

The Department of HHS' Office for Civil Rights recently entered into a settlement agreement with a solo physician in private practice in Utah. The gastroenterologist paid a settlement amount to the government of $100,000 to settle alleged and potential HIPAA violations. This case arose originally out of a business dispute between the doctor and a subcontractor of his EHR company, and it demonstrates the aggressive stance that OCR may be taking with doctors who fail to undertake a risk security analysis or implement a security management plan. Business associate agreements that are tailored to the situation and regular follow-up by the medical practice is essential. Listen to today's episode of Legal Scrubs to learn at least 5 takeaways from this case that you should implement in your solo or small group practice.

In today's Wall Street Journal, there were two stories about development in the business of medicine that all medical students and primary care doctors need to know about. One is a development in the bankruptcy case involving Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia and how that bankruptcy affects the residents there and their payment of malpractice insurance premiums. The other is the trend of health insurance companies like United Healthcare and Aetna getting directly involved in the provision of primary care physician services to patients. Listen to today's episode of Legal Scrubs to learn more.