Practice Breakups/Physician Departures

Dan represents physicians in matters involving medical practice breakups and separation from employment. Most physicians in private practice become shareholders over time. Shareholder status typically affords strong benefits to physicians, such as the ability to provide input into the operation of the entity and greater financial rewards, such as profit distributions or dividends.

 Various rules, regulations, and internal contracts govern the relationship between the shareholder-physician and the medical practice, such as shareholder agreements, employment agreements, and the medical practice’s internal governing documents. Shareholder agreements tend to focus on the buying, selling, and transfer of shares in the medical practice, whereas employment agreements tend to focus on the details of employment. In addition to the various agreements that govern physicians in a medical practice, statutes and common law principles impose certain fiduciary and other duties on shareholder-physicians. Statutes provide minority shareholders with certain rights, and common law principles articulate duties such as the duty of loyalty.

 When a medical practice breaks up or a shareholder-physician seeks to separate from the medical practice, both events trigger various provisions across the applicable shareholder agreement, employment agreement, internal governing documents of the medical practice, and statutory and common law principles and duties. These events also trigger regulatory requirements of medical boards and federal law, such as patient notification requirements, medical record transfer and retention rules, and privacy and security of patient health information. These situations can be particularly challenging when other arrangements are involved or implicated, such as joint venture arrangements or separations from surgery centers. 

 For these reasons, medical practice breakups and physician separations are complex and must be handled with care. Dan represents physicians and healthcare entities in matters involving practice breakups and physician separations. He has worked on behalf of physicians to preserve minority shareholder rights in the context of practice breakups. Dan has also facilitated the separation of physicians from different types of medical practices and hospital systems, sometimes executing separation agreements. He has also handled mediations and arbitrations stemming from medical practice breakups and physician separations.