Restricted Activities: How Does Your Physician Employment Agreement Restrict Your Behavior and Income?

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As a physician, when you are offered an employment agreement, you expect it to outline your role and responsibilities, and tell you how much you will be paid. What you may not expect is the many ways in which the agreement can restrict your behavior. Whether entering employment in a hospital or a private practice, it is a near certainty that your physician employment agreement will prohibit certain activities on your behalf, and also may restrict your rights and interests to property and income. Two common provisions of physician employment agreements are addressed below: outside professional activities and intellectual property.

Outside Activities

Physician participation in professional activities outside of the employment agreement is an issue addressed in almost every single agreement that we see. When a physician enters an employment arrangement, the employer often wants to ensure that the entirety of the physician’s professional time and focus is dedicated to the employer. While this is not terribly surprising or unreasonable, such provisions can have far-reaching effects.

There is a plethora of activities that are uniquely available to physicians as ways to earn additional income and expand their professional focus. These activities include moonlighting, researching, teaching, serving as an expert witness on legal matters and working as a consultant for drug or device companies. Depending on what your employment agreement states, you may be entirely restricted from engaging in these activities. Further, employment agreements sometimes take a somewhat deceitful approach by sneaking in language indicating that if you do engage in outside activities, any income you earn will be the employer’s property.

Close attention to the applicable language is necessary to determine what exactly the employer aims to restrict, and then to decide on an approach for negotiating any disagreeable language.

Intellectual Property

Somewhat of a less common issue in physician employment agreements concerns rights to intellectual property. Generally found in agreements with large hospitals and academic institutions, these provisions aim to assume ownership for any intellectual property that a physician develops during the term of his employment. The agreement will state that the Physician irrevocably assigns to the Employer all rights, title and interest in inventions, discoveries or patents that the physician develops. In other words, if you develop any money-making ideas while working for the employer, you may in fact have no rights to them. Such provisions sometimes even go further to extend beyond the term of the employment agreement, such that any intellectual property developed within x years of the Agreement is also assigned to the employer.

While this type of provision is not problematic for all physicians, those who are affected should be mindful. Is it conceivable that you will engage in developing intellectual property in the future? If so, what rights will the employer assume by virtue of your employment relationship?

Before signing an employment agreement, physicians should take the time to seek the advice and counsel of an attorney experienced in physician employment matters. To consult with an attorney-agent about your employment agreement, please contact Lauth O'Neill at (317) 979-4833 or loneill@lauthoneill.com.

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Physician Employment Contracts: What Really is in the Contract?

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One of the things we often hear in law school is that the terms of an agreement are dictated by the "four corners" of the contract. In other words, only what is literally contained within the four corners of the pages of a contract are included in the actual binding agreement. To many clients I work with, this news is somewhat surprising. In many cases, clients have been working with potential employers for months, going over the details of their physician employment contract, only to finally get a copy of the actual agreement and find that everything discussed has not been included.

This can be a very frustrating part of the contract negotiation process. By the time an agreement comes around, physicians are often very excited to be done with the process, and want to sign the agreement and be done with it. I always caution physicians to not be hasty in signing their employment agreements, and instead, be completely confident that any term they cannot live without is in writing, as part of the agreement. This can mean bonus compensation, special equipment or support staff promised, or even your family's health insurance benefits. If it's not set out in the agreement, the employer has no obligation to provide you with it.

Likewise, I often talk with physicians who have requirements in their contract they may not be readily willing to adhere to. For instance, the possibility of traveling to any office location the employer maintains. Often the employer will assure the physician employee that such language is merely standard, and they won't be required to actually follow through with many of these requirements. This may be true in some cases, but as long as the terms are included in the agreement, the employer will be in a position to enforce these duties and responsibilities.

Therefore, it is very important that physicians have a thorough understanding of what their employment agreements are offering them, and what they're requiring them to do. Only then can the physician make a truly informed decision in accepting an employment agreement.

For more information on physician contract review and negotiation issues, please contact Leigh Ann O'Neill at 317-989-4833 or loneill@lauthoneill.com.

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A Good CV Is Powerful: Increasing Compensation In Physician Employment Offers

While a great many factors go into the strength of a physician employment contract, one that is typically of utmost importance is the salary offered.  When you've spent years and years in residency, fellowship (and maybe you're even out there practicing already), you deserve the compensation that your qualifications have earned.  One way to demonstrate to employers just how valuable an asset you are, is your CV.  Sounds simple and obvious, right? Well, it may be, but CVs are often neglected and under-developed. A great CV not only includes all of the obvious content such as education, training, prior work experience, and publications, but it should also include those items that you, yourself, may not pay much mind to when thinking of your accomplishments.  When properly linked together and displayed within your CV, these, perhaps minor, achievements can add up to higher compensation, and certainly a higher regard paid to you by potential employers.

For instance, be sure to include all awards, speaking engagements, poster presentations, and any research project involvement you've had.  It is also important to include the professional organizations you belong to, and all volunteer work you have done- medical and otherwise.  Such added items not only increase your value in the eyes of your potential employers, but they also give employers the justification they may need in order to compensate you at a level higher than what similarly-trained physicians may be paid.

Last, but not least, the placement of special accomplishments or experiences may be the difference in why you receive an offer, and someone else does not.  If you have a particularly unique and impressive experience in your life, no matter how random, chances are good that a potential employer will find your experience to be intriguing and impressive as well.  As long as your CV remains professional and polished, if it contains a "stand-out" element, you will have served yourself well as someone the employer is not likely to soon forget.