What Should Go Into a Physician Assistant Termination Letter?
What needs to be included in a termination letter that a physician assistant would be giving their employer? To know what exactly must go into that letter, you’re first going to want to look at your employment agreement itself. If you want to leave for personal reasons, you’re moving out of the area, family, or something like that, that would be under your without cause termination, which means you don’t have to give a reason. There can be no reason at all. You are just giving notice to your employer that you will be terminating your agreement. Now, when you do this, your letter is going to be slim. You don’t really have to give a reason. As I said, you just need to give notice, you need to state that you are giving your employer notice that you’ll be terminating your contract.
And normally, there’s some type of notice period, that can be anywhere from 60 to 90 days, it rarely goes over 90. Occasionally in rural areas, I have seen 120 days, but that’s a little bit more on the rare side. You need to know how many days you must give notice before you have terminated your employment and you’re going your separate ways, and this will be listed in your employment contract under the without cause termination. Now, we’ve got the letter, we know it needs to be included that you are giving the notice to terminate, you’re letting them know that you are starting the time on your notice period, and then also, when your last day would be. And that’s really all that must go into a termination letter. If you want, you can say that you’re thankful for the opportunity, you can assure them that you will help with the transition and the continuity of care.
But those are really the must, like what must be in that letter. It’s just you’re giving your termination notice whenever your last day is going to be, so that’s simple. However, you want to make sure that that letter gets to the appropriate personnel to start the time for that notice. If your notice is 60 to 90 days, it will state there. Let’s just say, for example, it’s 60 days. The 60 days do not start until that letter gets to the appropriate personnel. And how do you know who to turn it into or mail it to? You’re going to look at your employment contract. In there, there will be a notice clause, and normally there’s an address in there, but it will say exactly how you must give notice.
Normally, it’s in writing, sometimes it can be emailed, sometimes it can be hand-delivered, and other times it must be certified mailed to a specific address. So, always double-check that to make sure you’re doing that properly. That’s how you give notice in a termination letter for a without cause termination. I also want to talk about for cause termination. What this will look like on the physician assistant’s side is if your employer breaches their agreement, they do something egregious, I’m going to use the example of they stop paying you, but they’re making you come in to give services. That would be a material breach of your contract. So, you could terminate it for because which normally means you could get out of your contract sooner. You would need to give a termination letter or notice that they are first in breach. That’s step one.
And normally, there’s a time to cure. It’s between 10 to 30 days. You’re going to let them know, you’re going to give them a termination letter, letting them know that they are in breach, they need to pay you for your services, these are the terms that you guys have agreed to. And if they do not adhere to those terms within that cure period, then at the end of that, so anywhere from 10 to 90 days, then you can send another letter, letting them know that you have let them know that they are in breach, they have not cured, and therefore you are terminating your employment contract immediately. And then you’re out. Again, though, you want to be careful. You want to make sure that you first gave your notice that they are in breach. That’s important. And always look at your employment contract.
This situation is normally always outlined in an employment contract. So, there are two different situations: for cause or with cause termination. And depending on which one of those depends on how you’re going to give your notice and make sure that you always give your notice properly, how it’s outlined in the contract. And the termination letter itself really doesn’t have to say much more than you’re terminating it, the notice, and when your last day is.
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