Physician Partnership Agreement Sample
A physician partnership agreement sample is not uncommon in the medical corridors. As the health care sector changes, most doctors are opting to form partnerships. Most medical practitioners are also merging various practice groups into larger practice teams. Such mergers and physician partnership agreement samples are beneficial to the doctors that can share the expenses on additional patients. Further, the patients benefit from the pooling of talents. However, careful planning and consideration should go into all the treatment and diagnosis plan, consideration, foresight, and cautious drafting. Such are instrumental in the successful physician partnership and practice group mergers.
Often, the medical partnerships or groups are bundles up together with little or no input from the lawyers. The majority of the doctors are too busy with practice hence have no time to consult with lawyers regarding the contours of their physician partnership agreement samples. Nonetheless, taking time at the initial stages of the partnership to define the scope of the partnership and draft the physician partnership agreement sample. Reducing the agreement into writing saves time and costs. Among the common issues that the lawyers deal with include:
- The physician partnership agreement sample failing to detail the dissolution method of partnership. Such should be provided for to enable the doctors find means to leave the partnership when they desire to do so.
- The physician partnership agreement sample does not deal with the adding of novel partners or the impact that addition has on the existing partners.
- Doctors sign a physician partnership agreement sample including the term to be a partner but later, one of the partners do not allow the medic to be a partner. This is especially where a medical practitioner signs an employment with a partnership.
- The physician partnership agreement sample lacks a mechanism for valuation of the practice group if the partner requests being bought out.
- The physician partnership agreement sample has no mechanism for removal of a partner that engages in unethical mannerisms. Such could also apply where the partners are no longer contributing to the practice groups.
- The practice group desires to merge with other practice groups but are not familiar with the requirements to legally and formally consummate the mergers.
- The non-partners doctor desires to leave the practice group but the employment agreement is uncertain regarding the payment of the malpractice insurance tails.
- Personality conflict result in the separation od physicians. However, there is no mechanism for the distribution of equipment, shared patients, and shared personnel.
Further aspects of a physician partnership agreement sample
At some point, one or more of the above-raised issues arise. Also, since the partners are not aware of the legal impact that stem from the mergers and partnerships could result in unnecessary expenses and such destroys or disrupts practice. Furthermore, it is significant to get knowledgeable lawyers involved at the inception of the physician partnership agreement sample. Such adds benefit by permitting the physicians to focus their energy and time on the growth of practice. This is as opposed to hashing out ordinary details of the agreement.
Partnership vs solo practice of physicians
In the majority of the times, overlooked doctors perceive that taking up a novel partner to aid in practicing. Unless a study is made for the determination of whether the practice is adequate to financially support extra staff, drafting a physician partnership agreement sample could have consequences. An evaluation of how the medical practitioner spends their time could indicate that the overworked staff are spending much of their time in performing administrative functions.
Thus, the need for help could be satisfied through employing additional staff to conduct extra routine tasks that could be delegated to competent nurses. Furthermore, the standards of professional nursing training and practice could have advanced in the recent decades. In the contemporary times, nurses are qualified hence customarily perform various techniques only restricted to doctors. Thus, the need to draft a physician partnership agreement sample to govern such transactions.
The novel physician
Whether a young physician should choose to draft a physician partnership agreement sample to solo practice involves a fundamental step in planning his career. In considering affiliation with an established practitioner, he may find his initial financial opportunities greater than he might anticipate in starting his own practice, However, such may be at the price of future earnings and professional individuality.
Most times, two physicians who are close friends may decide to begin a new practice as partners after completing their training hence draw a physician partnership agreement sample. Friendship is an important bond in creating a successful partnership, but the economics of the situation cannot be ignored. Experience has demonstrated that beginners do not have enough to offer each other. On the other hand, after each has had the opportunity to establish a successful individual practice, and to demonstrate his separate capability to build a practice, they are better able to evaluate whether each can contribute his fair share to a partnership practice. Hence favorable terms must be included in the physician partnership agreement sample.
The best reason for a medical partnership is the desire to combine professional resources and talents for the more effective practice of medicine. In a small group, doctors in the same field or specialty are best able to help one another and improve the quality of their practice thus a favorable physician partnership agreement sample. In a large group the same result can be achieved with at least two or three physicians practicing in each specialty, and with the added advantage of providing total medical care and inter-specialty assistance. Such necessitates the drafting of a physician partnership agreement sample with favorable working terms.
Conflicts
In all human relationships differences of opinion are bound to occur occasionally. The success of a medical partnership depends upon the professional and personal compatibility of its members. If disagreements occur too frequently, dissolution is inevitable hence inclusion of dispute resolution mechanisms in a physician partnership agreement sample.
Prospective partners should also attempt to evaluate each other in terms of potential areas of friction. Differences in age and training provide a difficult cause of conflict. The senior partner may lean heavily upon his years of experience while the junior partner may feel that his own medical knowledge is more current. The situation can become a serious problem when the junior is overruled in his professional judgment or the patient senses a conflict when he is alternately treated by both doctors. Thus, the significance of proving for dispute resolution mechanisms in the physician partnership agreement sample. The same should eb executed by all the necessary parties.
The potential for clashes in personality must be carefully considered. Prospective partners should know each other and be exposed to each other’s idiosyncrasies for a long time before considering partnership. The compatibility of the wives, too, should not be ignored. Many robust medical partnerships have been destroyed by battling wives or a wife who has convinced her husband that his partner is mistreating him.
Despite the presence of a physician partnership agreement sample, partnerships may fail. The professional competence of the partners does not guarantee the success of a medical partnership. Wherever doctors meet, stories are told about partnerships that failed because a partner embarrassed or irritated his associates by his disposition or personal problems. These difficulties may not develop until after the partnership has been in existence for some time. Nevertheless, physicians who contemplate partnership should make prior inquiry regarding each other before signing a physician partnership agreement sample. Any suggestion that there is a potential problem should be considered carefully before a partnership is consummated. This should also be done before execution of a physician partnership agreement sample.
Some partnerships collapse because of disagreement between partners regarding methods of treatment or the feeling that the other partner is not carrying his fair share of the patient load. However, partnership failures may be attributed to minor irritations which would seem inconsequential to an outsider.
Provisions of the physician partnership agreement sample
If a successful partnership is to be created, the parties must fully understand the obligations which each is willing to undertake. Rules must be established in contemplation of the numerous situations that are likely to arise and featured in the physician partnership agreement sample. This is the function of the partnership contract. Where two established doctors combine their practices to form a partnership, the division of earnings usually begins on a 50-50 basis. The exception is where one of the practitioners has a substantially larger practice, and even here the objective should be an equal division of earnings within a relatively short period if dissatisfaction is to be avoided. If the practitioner with the larger practice cannot foresee sufficient growth in the joint practice or personal advantage to justify an equal sharing of earnings within a few years, he might reconsider the advisability of a partnership.
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