Ten Things A Doctor Joining a Medical Group Must Know Before Signing Your Employment Contract

BEFORE JOINING A MEDICAL GROUP, YOU MUSTrather one or two of the partners that own it
LEARN THE ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWINGdirectly either personally or through a corporate
QUESTIONS1. Who owns the property where yourentity. If the medical Group owned the building then
office is located?2. If one or more partners own thethis scenario would be different, and it would be a
property, do they charge your Group rent for thegood idea to address this point further.3. How much
space it occupies? To understand this, let's say thattime is left on your office lease?4. How many
your Group has three doctors. Dr. Senior Citizendoctors work in the Group? How many are partners?
bought the building 15 years ago, where your officeHow many full partners? How many partial or
is located. He's now the landlord. Dr. Middle Aged, andnon-equity partners? (A non-equity partner is
Dr. Young Un' are employees of the Group. Yoursomeone who is held out to the public as a 'partner'
Group then pays rent, as it always did to the landlord.yet does not share in the profits of a true 'partner' A
But now, the landlord just happens to be the seniornon-equity partner will usually be paid a higher salary
partner of the Group. In reality, he's paying himselfthan when he was simply an employee. The
money from his practice for rent. Believe it or not,downside is that as a non-equity partner, you have
this is totally legitimate. He's using pre-tax dollars tono right to, and cannot claim any portion of the
pay his office rent. He's then receiving rent from theprofits.) How many physician employees?5. How
Group to pay any mortgage or other expenses hemany staff do you employ?6. Hours of operation?7.
has on the building, like maintenance and upgrades. I'llCall schedule? Do partners take equal call? Do
bet you anything that he's making a profit on hisassociates take same call as the partners?8. How
investment. It's a strange situation and gives themany days per week are you expected to see
appearance that there's something wrong with thispatients in the office?9. How many offices will I need
set-up, but most times there's nothing wrong withto travel to?10. Do I rotate through different offices
doing this. The senior partner could just as easilyor do I stay in one office?Even before you start to
have bought a building down the street. But shouldn'tnegotiate your physician employment contract, you
Dr. Senior Citizen at least give his Group a discountneed information- lots of it. The only way to get that
on the rent? From Dr. Citizen's point of view, whyinformation is to ask lots of questions. This way,
should he? From the Groups' perspective it seemsyou'll be better informed, and better able to evaluate
greedy that Dr. Senior Citizen won't reduce the rent,your options.Attorney Oginski has been in practice
thereby leaving more money in the Group to pay thefor 17 years as a trial lawyer practicing exclusively in
employees a bonus at the end of the year.This hasthe State of New York. He has recently published a
happened in a number of Groups and the employeesbook that will help every doctor in residency and
wind up paying their partners for the benefit ofevery doctor changing jobs to understand their
renting space the Group or a member of the Groupemployment contract. Take a look at his useful
already owns! This tends to generate animositywebsite, for more information.Over the last ten
because the Partners are clearly benefiting fromyears, Gerry has developed a niche practice helping
owning the property at the expense of theirresidents and physicians who are changing jobs by
associates. The employees of the group need toevaluating and negotiating their physician employment
understand that the owner of the property deservescontracts. Gerry can be reached at or 516-487-8207.
to be paid regardless of who the landlord is.In mostAll inquiries are free and totally confidential.
cases, it is not the Group that owns the building but