Medical gown contracts, medical laundry service contracts, IT vendor contracts, electronic medical records vendors contracts – these are the sorts of smaller vendor agreements physician owners often gloss over and sign without reading the fine print or without the benefit of counsel. And many of the less scrupulous vendors out there are counting on just that, as they know that lurking within their contracts are onerous, expensive, and extremely difficult-to-break terms that favor the vendor and only the vendor.
Frier Levitt has represented thousands of physicians and physician practices, and it has seen a multitude of cases in which such contracts create nightmarishly expensive contract disputes that the clients never saw coming when they signed the agreement. Among other oppressive terms hidden in plain sight in these contracts are: (1) unilateral fee-shifting clauses, that award attorneys’ fees and costs in the event of a dispute only to the vendor, even if the physician prevails; (2) unilateral termination clauses, which only permit the vendor to cancel the agreement and preclude the physician from being able to do the same; (3) liquidated damages clauses that are often designed, in effect, to punish physicians who terminate a vendor contract with large monetary penalties, irrespective of whether services were ever rendered; (4) auto-renewal provisions that automatically restart the contract’s term if proper notice of termination is not given; (5) arbitration clauses that prohibit the physician signatory from availing themselves of state or federal courts; and (6) non-disclosure agreements that penalize any physician who would attempt to publicly complain about the vendor’s misconduct.
Such contracts can and will lock you into long term, expensive, and difficult to break arrangements with vendors whom you ultimately determine are providing your practice with subpar services. It’s highly recommended, therefore, that you gather up and dust off those agreements and provide them to competent healthcare counsel to review. Counsel can identify both short term and long term risks and expenses associated with the agreement you may have missed, propose strategies to lawfully break the agreement where possible, and, if all else fails, assist you in suing the vendor to break the agreement and recover costs (or defend you from suit, if the vendor acts first).
Contact Frier Levitt today for a free consult. Flat fee vendor contract reviews may be available.
