Moving Your Healthcare Practice Forward in 2018

For physicians, dentists, and all healthcare practitioners, as 2017 comes to a close, it is time to think about the goals for your practice moving forward into 2018.

• Are you looking to take on new employees?
• Are you looking to expand your practice?
• Are you looking to buy a practice?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, there are legal risks and liabilities you need to be aware of.

Technology Affects All Healthcare Practices

Technology is prominent in all aspects of our society—and this is true in the healthcare field as well. The majority of healthcare practices are already paperless, which includes not only medical charts but also digital x-rays and the mandated electronic prescribing.

An Informed Staff is Vital for a Smooth Practice Transition

Our previous two articles have explored what to do when you purchase a practice, including retaining patients and starting to make the practice your own.  

Part 3 of this series explores an equally important, concurrent task: ensuring that your office staff—whether new or rehired from the previous practice—is up-to-speed with all aspects of the practice. When all of the employees are working together to make the office efficient and well organized, patients feel more secure in the treatment that they are receiving and the information that they are provided with.

You Bought Your First Practice, Now What?

So, you have purchased a practice, and you are maintaining the patients that you have inherited. When you purchased the practice, you most likely were not involved in how the prior owner ran it. Now you want to make it your practice.  

When Buying a Practice, Change is Not in Your Best Interest

If you are a practitioner who just bought a practice, regardless of your specialty, the ultimate goal is to maintain the patients already in existence, as well as to drum up more business.

We all know that patients have the luxury of moving from practice to practice, if they so desire. If you just spent X number of dollars on buying the practice, you want to make sure that you maintain a high percentage—if not, a full percentage—of the already existing patients of that practice.

How do you go about doing that? There are a couple of ways.

Management Service Organizations in Healthcare: Pros & Pitfalls

What is a healthcare management service organization? Also referred to as an MSO, this type of organization generally provides practice management and administrative support services to healthcare practices.  

Fee Splitting: Physicians, Take Heed

Fee splitting is when revenue is shared between physician and physician, or between a physician and a third party, based upon referral sources.

For example: Physician A refers a patient to Physician B. Physician B makes a hundred dollars from that referral. As a thank you, he wants to give a percentage to Physician A for that referral.

Malpractice Insurance Policy: Are You Covered?

There are two different types of malpractice insurance policies: an occurrence policy and a claims-made policy. Understanding the difference, and knowing which one you have with your current employer, will help in understanding:

• The contract terms;
• What happens when you leave; and
• What happens if you decide to start your own practice or become an employee of another practice.

When Employment Ends, Practitioners Must Understand the Contract’s Terms

Practitioners who voluntarily or involuntarily leave a practice should immediately revisit their original contract. It is very important that they understand how the contract and its clauses—specifically the restrictive covenants—affect their future employment.

Independent Contractor or Employee? Even the Courts Have a Hard Time Deciding

There was a recent case with respect to a Manhattan yoga studio, which was appealed four times, to determine whether the non-staff instructors were actually employees rather than independent contractors. The matter was In Re Yoga Vida NYC, Inc (Commissioner of Labor), 28 N.Y.3d 1013 (2016).