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In a time of decreasing reimbursement rates, it is becoming more and more popular for hospital systems and some larger private physician groups to open rural clinics and other types of practice sites. This trend is on the rise because reimbursement rates tend to be better in rural areas, and other regulatory rules are often relaxed for rural health care providers. Due to the influx in rural clinics and practice sites, physician employers are obviously faced with who will staff these additional locations. Of course, many employers simply hire physicians to work only in these rural locations, but other employers are staffing the locations with their physician employees who work the majority of their time in more urban practice locations.
Because it is often more difficult to find physicians who are willing to work only in the rural locations, the employers are faced with ways of staffing the rural practice sites with their urban physicians, and many times it ends up being the more junior physician employees who are called upon to commute to the rural locations on occasion. With this increasing trend, it's not surprising that many physician employment contracts these days are coming with provisions that require the physician to provide services at "any practice location the Employer owns or provides services." This is becoming one of the classic contract provisions that seems harmless and just like any other "standard" contract language, but it can bring significant discontent on the part of the physician once the job actually begins. While the physician employment contracts should always stipulate an actual address of the office location where the physician will be providing services, physicians should be weary of this additional "catch-all" sort of language that may require them to provide services at other office locations that may not have been specifically set out in the contract. Keeping an eye out for this type of vague language and amending it to provide only specific requirements on the part of the physician is always a good idea so that the physician can begin his or her job and be confident there are not any unwelcome surprises down the road.
For more information on how Lauth O'Neill can assist in your physician job search or physician employment contract review, please contact Leigh Ann at 317-989-4833 or loneill@lauthoneill.com.
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