A Medical Contract Lawyer With Experience

I charge a flat fee for reviewing contracts up to 20 pages in length. There are no other hidden costs. Only substantive pages are included within that limit, so signature pages or pages with only a few sentences of writing don’t count toward the 20 page total. There is an additional flat fee for each additional 5 substantive contract pages. My physician contract review process includes the following services:

• • Comprehensive contract review, including appendices and attachments

  • Attorney opinion letter (averaging 6-9 pages) detailing pertinent contract terms and other aspects of physician contracts

• • Follow up telephone discussion to answer client questions about physician contract review and about issues raised in opinion letter

• • Contract language explanations may include issues such as:

    • Explanation of a letter of intent
    • Explanation of key terms within the contractual provisions
    • Discussion of expectations for medical care and any on-call coverage agreements
    • Compensation analysis including base salary, physician compensation package, compensation rate, physician incentive plan, signing bonus, and other financial benefits.
    • Discussion of straight salary versus RVU/productivity-based employment agreements
    • Review terms of professional liability insurance coverage, cost of insurance coverage, tail coverage, and tail insurance costs
    • Evaluation of a non-compete clause/restrictive covenant and how burdensome non-compete agreements may affect future employability
    • Revision of non-compete agreement language where necessary
    • Explanation of any bonus terms related to quality of care or patient satisfaction
    • Evaluation of termination provisions and applicable notice period
    • Discussion of potential liability for breach of contract
    • Discussion of arbitration agreements (Hint: Avoid them!)
    • Discussion of “boilerplate” language in medical employment agreements. For example, get all promises in writing. Most boilerplate language contains a clause stating that if a promise isn’t in writing, it isn’t enforceable.
    • Clarifying ambiguous contract terms. For example, does 1 week of paid vacation mean 7 calendar days or 5 business days?
    • Discussion of any benefits plans such as continuing medical education allowances, payment of medical association dues, medical school loan forgiveness, health insurance coverage, disability insurance, life insurance, and any other financial benefits which could add many thousands of dollars to the value of a contract.
    •  Highlight any possible contract conflicts of interest
      
    • Advice on any experiences I have previously had with your potential employer. In many cases, I have been able to obtain signing bonuses for clients when none were offered in a current employment agreement because I have copies of a prior physician employment agreement from the same company that did offer a signing bonus.