| BEFORE JOINING A MEDICAL GROUP, YOU MUST | | | | animosity because the Partners are clearly benefiting |
| LEARN THE ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING | | | | from owning the property at the expense of their |
| QUESTIONS | | | | associates. The employees of the group need to |
| 1. Who owns the property where your office is | | | | understand that the owner of the property deserves |
| located? | | | | to be paid regardless of who the landlord is. |
| 2. If one or more partners own the property, do they | | | | In most cases, it is not the Group that owns the building |
| charge your Group rent for the space it occupies? To | | | | but rather one or two of the partners that own it |
| understand this, let's say that your Group has three | | | | directly either personally or through a corporate entity. |
| doctors. Dr. Senior Citizen bought the building 15 years | | | | If the medical Group owned the building then this |
| ago, where your office is located. He's now the | | | | scenario would be different, and it would be a good |
| landlord. Dr. Middle Aged, and Dr. Young Un' are | | | | idea to address this point further. |
| employees of the Group. Your Group then pays rent, | | | | 3. How much time is left on your office lease? |
| as it always did to the landlord. But now, the landlord | | | | 4. How many doctors work in the Group? How many |
| just happens to be the senior partner of the Group. In | | | | are partners? How many full partners? How many |
| reality, he's paying himself money from his practice for | | | | partial or non-equity partners? (A non-equity partner is |
| rent. Believe it or not, this is totally legitimate. He's using | | | | someone who is held out to the public as a 'partner' |
| pre-tax dollars to pay his office rent. He's then | | | | yet does not share in the profits of a true 'partner' A |
| receiving rent from the Group to pay any mortgage or | | | | non-equity partner will usually be paid a higher salary |
| other expenses he has on the building, like | | | | than when he was simply an employee. The downside |
| maintenance and upgrades. | | | | is that as a non-equity partner, you have no right to, |
| I'll bet you anything that he's making a profit on his | | | | and cannot claim any portion of the profits.) How many |
| investment. It's a strange situation and gives the | | | | physician employees? |
| appearance that there's something wrong with this | | | | 5. How many staff do you employ? |
| set-up, but most times there's nothing wrong with doing | | | | 6. Hours of operation? |
| this. The senior partner could just as easily have | | | | 7. Call schedule? Do partners take equal call? Do |
| bought a building down the street. But shouldn't Dr. | | | | associates take same call as the partners? |
| Senior Citizen at least give his Group a discount on the | | | | 8. How many days per week are you expected to |
| rent? From Dr. Citizen's point of view, why should he? | | | | see patients in the office? |
| From the Groups' perspective it seems greedy that Dr. | | | | 9. How many offices will I need to travel to? |
| Senior Citizen won't reduce the rent, thereby leaving | | | | 10. Do I rotate through different offices or do I stay in |
| more money in the Group to pay the employees a | | | | one office? |
| bonus at the end of the year. | | | | Even before you start to negotiate your physician |
| This has happened in a number of Groups and the | | | | employment contract, you need information- lots of it. |
| employees wind up paying their partners for the | | | | The only way to get that information is to ask lots of |
| benefit of renting space the Group or a member of | | | | questions. This way, you'll be better informed, and |
| the Group already owns! This tends to generate | | | | better able to evaluate your options. |