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Basing Call Pay on Hospital Margin
We are negotiating a pay-for-call program with our hospital. The CEO has proposed a deferred compensation plan. We’ll get paid a daily rate based on the hospital’s operating margin. The better the hospital does, the more we make. Is this legal? I worry about Stark.
Question: We are negotiating a pay-for-call program with our hospital. The CEO has proposed a deferred compensation plan. We’ll get paid a daily rate based on the hospital’s operating margin. The better the hospital does, the more we make. Is this legal? I worry about Stark.
Answer: Given the intricacies of Stark and the state-based nature of many antikickback precedents, I have to say you need to speak to a lawyer.
The hospital presumably has a lawyer, and though acting in the hospital’s interest, he or she could surely address with you the ways in which this does, in their eyes, skirt the legalities.
If I were you, I’d also raise the broader concern that you can’t control the hospital’s margin. If the CEO decides to buy a jet, your compensation is impacted, which doesn’t seem fair. Or, more prosaically, if the economy continues to send the un- and underinsured to ERs in droves or if staff at the hospital are poorly managed, you don’t get paid or get paid less. I’m not sure why you should be at risk for services rendered.
Asset Protection and Financial Planning
December 6th 2021Asset protection attorney and regular Physicians Practice contributor Ike Devji and Anthony Williams, an investment advisor representative and the founder and president of Mosaic Financial Associates, discuss the impact of COVID-19 on high-earner assets and financial planning, impending tax changes, common asset protection and wealth preservation mistakes high earners make, and more.
Reducing burnout with medical scribes
November 29th 2021Physicians Practice® spoke with Fernando Mendoza, MD, FAAP, FACEP, the founder and CEO of Scrivas, LLC, about the rising rates of reported burnout among physicians and how medical scribes might be able to alleviate some pressures from physicians.
