|
If you want to practice on your own but don’t have enough money to start your own practice, you might consider an independent-contractor (IC) situation. The benefits of this type of arrangement to the owner doctor are:
1. Better use of office space, and some income from the independent contractor doctor to help pay office overhead expenses; and
2. Ability for both doctors to have someone to see patients if they are on vacation, out of town, or taking a day off.
 In a typical IC situation, you find a doctor in the town where you want to practice who has some office space and a willingness to let you work in his or her office. It might be that the doctor is working only three or four days a week and you could work the other days. Alternatively, he might have an extra adjusting room that you could use, so you could both see patients at the same time.
There are two ways to handle the financial situation:
1. The best way, from a tax and legal standpoint, is for the IC to pay rent. The rent can be “stepped,” based on the patient volume, or it can be a flat amount each month.
2. The other financial arrangement is on a percentage basis, so that the IC pays a percentage of his or her collections to the other doctor. Some legal advisors caution against this type of arrangement; if you must do this, put a cap on the percentage.
In return for payment, the IC receives:
• Space to practice;
• Use of equipment, including x-ray equipment, adjusting room equipment, rehab equipment — anything needed for practice;
• Use of the office staff to help answer the phone, schedule appointments, file insurance claims, and collect money from patients. Sometimes the services of a CT/CA are included.
• Space for separate patient files and x-ray files, appointment book, and other practice data.
• Sometimes the IC can use a separate phone line and signs can be set up or shared.
Since you are working as an independent contractor, you have set up a “practice within a practice.” You may work certain hours, as agreed to with the other doctor, or you may be able to set your own hours. You bring in your own patients and practice any way you wish. You may also work in another office or from your home. You don’t have to sign a non-compete agreement, because if you leave you will take your own patients with you. (You may have to sign a non-solicitation agreement, in which you agree not to solicit patients from the other doctor.)
Many variations on this independent contractor structure are possible; the best independent contractor situations allow you to set up your own practice, and use the office facilities of the other doctor until you have enough capital to open in your own office.
Back
|
