Medical Contracts for Physicians

Hi, My name is Robert Chelle with Chelle law, and my law firm assists physicians with employment contract issues. Continuing in my series of casual conversations about specific topics, today I’m gonna talk about what a physician should do if their contract is not renewed. This honestly doesn’t happen that often and we should probably define what is either not renewed or the contract is actually terminated. So the vast majority of physician contracts will have some kind of automatic renewal provision. For instance, let’s say you sign a contract. It has a two-year initial term. There’s usually some language in there that states, if it’s not terminated, the contract will simply automatically renew for another year and then it would just continue in perpetuity until one of the parties terminates the agreement.

Physician Employment Contract

Any contract will also have a termination provision. So, either party can terminate the agreement for cause. Meaning, someone breached the agreement and then either party can terminate it based upon who’s in breach. There’s another provision, and that is without cause termination. Generally, that states that either party can terminate the agreement at any time, for any reason, with a certain amount of notice to the other, generally, that’s 60 or 90 days, I would say. That probably makes up 90% of all without cause termination amounts. Going back to the specific topic, there will also be some kind of notice requirement if either party does not plan to renew the agreement and that should match the amount of without cause termination. It doesn’t make sense if either party has to give 60 days’ notice to terminate the agreement without cause that the notice requirement of, to not renew the contract would either be less or more than that.
 

Hopefully, that makes sense. It should be the same. Let’s just say you have a 60-day notice of intent not to renew the agreement. Well, it would be the same process of terminating the contract without cause. One party would give written notice if they didn’t want to renew the agreement. And then that would be it, you’d work out the 60 days. If for whatever reason, the employer didn’t want the physician to finish the 60 days, then the physician would still be paid for those 60 days. They just wouldn’t have to work.

Agreement Non-Renewal for Physicians

I’ve had physicians come and say, they don’t wanna renew the agreement. What should I do? And this might be a stupid answer. It’s to find a new job. They’re like, well, I kind of wanna fight for it. And that type of thing. Look, if you’re in a job and the employer doesn’t want you there, do not stay there. It makes zero sense on a personal level. It will be very awkward. The employer will find ways to get out of the agreement, or they’ll just give the without cause notice and move on. We also do license board defense when an employee is either disciplined or maybe the employer filed a board complaint. And that person says, well, I don’t want to leave.

I wanna stay here, fight whatever they’re doing. The employer will find a way, one way or another to get rid of that employee. And it will only cause more pain for the employee moving forward. So going back to the original topic of what to do, if it’s not renewed, you find a new job. That’s it, it’s hard. Sometimes it’s hard to say, well, why wouldn’t they wanna renew the contract? What did I do wrong? Probably we’re finding out why. Most of the time, it’s just production either. The physician just simply didn’t produce what the employer’s expectations were. Now, most of the time, the volume issue is not the fault of the physician. It’s a lack of marketing, a lack of referrals. Maybe the staff is poorly trained. Doesn’t do a good job of providing solid patient care experience.

Practice Employment Concerns

There are a number of reasons why someone’s volume won’t hit expectations, but it’s not, or it’s usually, not just the physician simply is too slow. Doesn’t wanna see the number of patients that are expected. So hopefully that was helpful as far as what to do. If your contract’s not renewed, find a new job.