Ten Things A Doctor Joining A Medical Group Must Know Before Signing Your Employment Contract

Writen by Gerry Oginski

BEFORE JOINING A MEDICAL GROUP, YOU MUST LEARN THE ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. Who owns the property where your office is located?

2. If one or more partners own the property, do they charge your Group rent for the space it occupies? To understand this, let's say that your Group has three doctors. Dr. Senior Citizen bought the building 15 years ago, where your office is located. He's now the landlord. Dr. Middle Aged, and Dr. Young Un' are employees of the Group. Your Group then pays rent, as it always did to the landlord. But now, the landlord just happens to be the senior partner of the Group. In reality, he's paying himself money from his practice for rent. Believe it or not, this is totally legitimate. He's using pre-tax dollars to pay his office rent. He's then receiving rent from the Group to pay any mortgage or other expenses he has on the building, like maintenance and upgrades. I'll bet you anything that he's making a profit on his investment. It's a strange situation and gives the appearance that there's something wrong with this set-up, but most times there's nothing wrong with doing this. The senior partner could just as easily have bought a building down the street. But shouldn't Dr. Senior Citizen at least give his Group a discount on the rent? From Dr. Citizen's point of view, why should he? From the Groups' perspective it seems greedy that Dr. Senior Citizen won't reduce the rent, thereby leaving more money in the Group to pay the employees a bonus at the end of the year.

This has happened in a number of Groups and the employees wind up paying their partners for the benefit of renting space the Group or a member of the Group already owns! This tends to generate animosity because the Partners are clearly benefiting from owning the property at the expense of their associates. The employees of the group need to understand that the owner of the property deserves to be paid regardless of who the landlord is.

In most cases, it is not the Group that owns the building but rather one or two of the partners that own it directly either personally or through a corporate entity. If the medical Group owned the building then this scenario would be different, and it would be a good idea to address this point further.

3. How much time is left on your office lease?

4. How many doctors work in the Group? How many are partners? How many full partners? How many partial or non-equity partners? (A non-equity partner is someone who is held out to the public as a 'partner' yet does not share in the profits of a true 'partner' A non-equity partner will usually be paid a higher salary than when he was simply an employee. The downside is that as a non-equity partner, you have no right to, and cannot claim any portion of the profits.) How many physician employees?

5. How many staff do you employ?

6. Hours of operation?

7. Call schedule? Do partners take equal call? Do associates take same call as the partners?

8. How many days per week are you expected to see patients in the office?

9. How many offices will I need to travel to?

10. Do I rotate through different offices or do I stay in one office?

Even before you start to negotiate your physician employment contract, you need information- lots of it. The only way to get that information is to ask lots of questions. This way, you'll be better informed, and better able to evaluate your options.

Attorney Oginski has been in practice for 17 years as a trial lawyer practicing exclusively in the State of New York. He has recently published a book that will help every doctor in residency and every doctor changing jobs to understand their employment contract. Take a look at his useful website, http://www.mdcontract.com for more information.

Over the last ten years, Gerry has developed a niche practice helping residents and physicians who are changing jobs by evaluating and negotiating their physician employment contracts. Gerry can be reached at http://www.lawmed1@optonline.net, or 516-487-8207. All inquiries are free and totally confidential.

Negotiating A More Favorable Situation At Your Dog Kennel

Writen by Lance Winslow

If you are one who does a lot of traveling and has pets, you know it is not always possible to find someone you can trust to house sit. Therefore you may have to consider taking your dogs to a dog kennel or your other pets to a pet hotel.

These facilities and those who operate them have specific programs you can choose from as to how much pampering you want to have for your pet. It is possible to negotiate a more favorable situation at your local dog kennel or pet hotel if you will consider doing so.

This is not to say that you will not want to get the regular package only that you will want to get ups and extras but not be charged for them. The most important thing is to get the employee who takes the order to fall in love with your pet. Next, the dog kennel must not see you as a rich person or they will not give you any discounts or ups and extras without charging you exorbitant rates.

Once you have established those two items now you're ready to negotiate for price all the while explaining how important your pet is and what a wonderful animal it is. Most people fail to negotiate for more favorable situation at their dog kennels and those that don't; it is their dogs that pay the price. Consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

More Than Just Money Barter

Writen by Donald Lee

By definition, barter is the when parties swap services or resources. But in business terms, it's an exchange that ends usually with everyone a winner. All parties involved in bartering hold onto their cold hard cash and don't lose a cent. There's no worries about getting ripped off as a buyer or seller, so it's an exchange that's high on trust, low on tension. And finally, the government doesn't get its hands on any of the proceeds. Bartering is such a great system, it's no wonder it's been around nearly forever.

Historians and archeologists reckon that bartering is a human business practice for the ages. It goes back as far as written history, and perhaps even further into mankind's (and womankind's) history of business practices.

Between humans, the actual business practice of money came long before money was invented. In written history, as far back as 9,000 BC, shepherds used cattle as a means of exchange—from sheep to cows, camels to goats. Then when farmers came along during the course of the next couple thousands of years, grains and plants became the hot commodity in the world of bartering.

Bartering may have dissipated over the years, but it by no means went away. That's the amazing thing about bartering. It still is, to this day, the ideal method of business exchange for some business folk, including companies with millions in assets. But it's especially helpful for small businesses looking to get a leg up on their competition.

Listen to people talking in today's business world, and you'll hear stories such as the programmer who helped to code an interactive Web page for a startup graphic-design company, in exchange for a logo design for his own startup surf-board design shop. Then there's the story of the new Internet advertising firm rolling out an ad campaign for a restaurant. Later that year, the restaurant hosted a "free" party and dinner for that ad firm's clients.

Examples in today's business world abound for bartering. The reason is that bartering still has many advantages to it in this modern business world.

For instance, for companies that are just starting to build up their assets, bartering is an opportunity to save their hard-earned cash. Even established companies love the chance to keep their money in the bank. With bartering, a company can get what it needs, while providing a service that the other company needs.

And because there is no money passed between pockets, the taxman does not even need to know about it. That saves you, and your accountant, the trouble of figuring out one more piece of business income or expense.

Lastly, deals involving money may whip up the old Scrooge mentality—a combination of greed and mistrust. With money deals, you may always be left wondering if you got the short end of the stick. Not so with bartering. With bartering, you get exactly what you need. And in return, you give a fair share of goods or services.

There's no need to be a Scrooge here. Instead, the whole transaction is one of trust and understanding. Generally speaking, bartering for goods and services feels more worthwhile than paying money, whether you're bartering for a dinner party for your clients, Internet advertising space, or whatever it is that you and your bartering partner agree to. Perhaps it's because you can actually feel the value of your own goods and services. Or it may be just because you don't have to open your wallet.

Donald Lee is the public relations manager for Buysellcommunity.com. Buysellcommunity provides free classified listing services. Buy, Sell, and trade (barter): auto, computers, household items, real estate, pets and much more. For localized classifieds, please visit http://www.buysellcommunity.com Free Buy & Sell Classifieds