Legal Scrubs

The transfer of medical records is sometimes an afterthought when a doctor comes to the point of selling his medical practice.

Asset sale vs. equity sale, purchase price, and a hundred other things are often what consumes the seller, the buyer, and their respective lawyers.

But what about the seller's medical records? What do you need to do (and not do) when it comes to transferring your medical records to a buying physician?

This episdoe of Legal Scrubs discusses 2 things that every Tennessee physician must remember when he or she is selling their practice with respect to their medical records.

Hint: one of these is federal in nature, and other is a creature of Tennessee law.

Doctors just coming out of residency and more seasoned doctors looking to join a new medical group must understand the ins and outs of covenants not to compete that are almost certainly contained somewhere in the employment agreement presented to them to sign.

This episode of Legal Scrubs sets out 5 key points that every doctor should know about covenants not to compete in order to make an informed decision about the employment agreement he or she is being asked to sign.

Group medical practices should take care to make sure that their employment agreements with their employed physicians take into account how to enforce post-contract obligations. For example, once an employed physician leaves a practice, he or she often has one or more continuing contractual obligations to the practice. One such obligation might be to simply return all confidential practice information that he or she has to the practice. Another obligation might be to provide tail malpractice insurance coverage to the practice to cover any acts or omissions of the physician to the practice. But how can a practice take steps to tweak their employment contracts to make sure they can enforce their rights against an employed physician who has left the practice? This podcast episode discusses some possible ways that a group practice can make some minor tweaks to the provisions of their employment agreements to help make it easier to enforce post-employment contract obligations that an employed physician has to the practice.

Physicians and their medical practices should strongly consider federal trademark registration and protection for the name of their practice, their practice design logo, and any taglines associated with the practice.

Today's episode of Legal Scrubs discusses the benefits of federal trademark registration protection for healthcare professionals.