Frier Levitt co-founding partner Daniel Frier was quoted in a Part B News article, “Worried Practice Buyers Will Hobble Care? Get It In Writing During Contracting” by Roy Edroso.
Independent practices that become the target of an acquisition by a larger group or system should take steps to protect their autonomy in the contract stage. In this article, Dan comments on a recent survey that shows many physicians employed by large entities are dissatisfied with reduced authority and are concerned with how this will impact care, Dan states. “In many cases, doctors are treated as a necessary evil widget in the delivery of care. This has surely come at a price to the personal, one-on-one care patients deserve. Physicians are often pressured into conflicting roles, including producing more work RVUs while reducing the cost of care [and] avoiding referral leakage by keeping patients within a hospital system or group practice.”
“I have seen too many physicians take the easy way out, rather than carefully and deliberately shop around, negotiate, protect the intellectual property that is their clinical knowledge base,” says Dan. “Demanding provisions that give the physician unilateral control over clinical decision-making and referral decisions is critical.” Dan recommends that you “negotiate a contract when you do not absolutely need it and you can do without it. This puts physicians in the best position both financially and psychologically to negotiate a favorable agreement. Many physicians wait until they have a gun to their heads to make a move, and this is the worst time to do so.”
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