New Legal Considerations Ep. 🎙️ Concierge Medicine is Creating a Splash from the Windy City 💨 to the Sunshine ☀️😎 State:

Jonna D. Eimer is a health law and corporate attorney and shareholder at Roetzel & Andress in Chicago, Illinois. She represents numerous concierge medicine practices and has extensive experience with other innovative practice models. She also advises her clients – including physicians and physician groups, dentists, behavioral health clinicians, and other health care providers – in forming new practices, selling established practices, and negotiating employment and shareholder agreements, as well as guiding them with respect to regulatory matters. In addition, she counsels clients in forming management services organizations (MSOs) and navigating these sales to private equity. She can be reached at [e-mail].

 

By Jonna D. Eimer, Roetzel & Andress

 

Concierge medicine is on the rise, especially in the “snowbird” states like Florida, as practices and hospitals from Chicago and elsewhere have opened concierge practices to serve their patient populations in these warm locations. As these concierge style medicine practices continue to grow all over the country in primary care, pediatrics, women’s health and other specialties, practices need to be particularly mindful of the different legal considerations that affect these new practice models. Because patient membership fees are often paid in advance and the patient agreement usually contemplates a personal relationship with increased access to a certain physician, there are different legal challenges and practice issues that should be addressed at the outset of these practices.

 

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Transitions, Terminations and Retirement

 

Jonna D. Eimer is a health law and corporate attorney and shareholder at Roetzel & Andress in Chicago, Illinois. © 2024 Roetzel & Andress. Photo Used With Permission.

 

The concierge model generally relies on increased access and time for patients because physicians have typically accepted fewer patients. Because of this, it can be very difficult to figure out the fairest way to negotiate a partner’s exit and how these patients and fees paid would transfer in the event of such departure. Does the partner get paid only in a buy-out of the whole practice or will the practice buy-out the individual partner upon his or her termination? Would this be handled differently in the case of a retirement? Would the practice consider a buy-out only if another physician can be substituted and take over the patient panel? How then is the new provider paid if fees have already been collected for a given year? It is possible the patients reject the substitute physician regardless of the departing physician’s recommendation.

 

Oftentimes, the agreements governing the practice’s operations include long notice provisions prior to any termination or retirement because it is not easy to substitute another concierge doctor if one leaves. Also, the patients have paid for the personal relationship and membership with their own doctor, so they do not always feel that this relationship transfers to another doctor. Another thing to consider is if a doctor terminates or unexpe