by Hamil Little Healthcare Law

Our healthcare and business law firm often assists physicians and other providers in employment matters, from reviewing proposed contracts to litigating non-compete matters.  We’ve written previous material on physician employment, including Keys to Negotiating a Good Contract and Physician Non-Compete Agreements.  As mentioned in our previous post, our firm has recently been dealing with issues raised by co-terminus language, or language providing that a physician’s hospital clinical privileges automatically terminate when the employment contract is terminated.  The previous post provided an overview of co-terminus language and potential issues raised by such language.  This post focuses on possible ways a physician can protect herself or himself from those issues. If you have NPDB or employment questions or would like to discuss this blog post, you may contact our healthcare and business law firm at (404) 685-1662 (Atlanta) or (706) 722-7886 (Augusta), or by email, info@hamillittle.com. You may also learn more about our law firm by visiting www.hamillittle.com.

Although there may be many ways for a physician to protect themselves from the issues posed by co-terminus language (which issues we detailed in our previous blog post available here), below are a few ways we have dealt with in the past, some in the contract negotiation phase and others are actions to take after employment has ended.  Note, these actions do not insulate a physician from issues, but rather add protections to try and reduce the chance that the physician is met with problems relating to clinical privileges. Continue reading ›

Our healthcare and business law firm often assists physicians and other providers in employment matters, from reviewing proposed contracts to litigating non-compete matters.  Physician employment agreements are often between 15 to 30 pages long, but many important terms are imbedded in those pages.  We’ve written previous material on physician employment, including Keys to Negotiating a Good Contract and Physician Non-Compete Agreements.  Our firm has recently been dealing with issues raised by co-terminus language, or language providing that a physician’s hospital clinical privileges automatically terminate when the employment contract is terminated.  Herein, I provide (1) an overview of the language and (2) potential issues raised by such language.  The next blog post will focus on possible ways a physician can protect themselves from those issues. If you have NPDB or employment questions or would like to discuss this blog post, you may contact our healthcare and business law firm at (404) 685-1662 (Atlanta) or (706) 722-7886 (Augusta), or by email, info@hamillittle.com. You may also learn more about our law firm by visiting www.hamillittle.com.

1. Co-Terminus Language

Here is an example of co-terminus language:

Physician’s Medical Staff Membership and privileges shall terminate concurrently with the termination or expiration of this Agreement. Any provision of Company policies to the contrary notwithstanding, Physician and the Company agree that the Company has no duty to provide any notice, hearing or review in connection with the termination or suspension of Physician’s Medical Staff Membership and privileges hereunder.

The point of co-terminus language is so that the hospital does not have to follow their medical staff bylaws, which typically provide that privileges must either be voluntarily resigned or involuntarily removed. Continue reading ›