Physician Recruitment

 

A hospital will sometimes provide a physician with a recruitment incentive to induce the physician to relocate to the hospital's geographic area, become a member of its medical staff, and establish a practice that helps serve that community's medical needs. Often, such recruitment efforts are legitimately designed to fill a “clinical gap” in a medically underserved area to which it may be difficult to attract physicians in the absence of financial incentives. However, as you begin planning your professional future and perhaps receiving recruitment offers, you need to be aware that in some communities, especially ones with multiple hospitals, the competition for patients can be fierce. Some hospitals may offer illegal inducements to you, or to the established physician practice you join in the hospital's community, to gain referrals. This means that the competition for your loyalty can cross the line into illegal arrangements for which both you and the hospital can be liable.

 

 

Recruitment arrangements are of special interest to graduating residents and fellows. Within very specific parameters specified in the Stark law and subject to compliance with the AKS, hospitals may provide relocation assistance and practice support under a properly structured recruitment arrangement to assist you in

establishing a practice in the hospital's community. Alternatively, a hospital may pay you a fair market value salary as an employee or pay you fair market value for specific services you render to the hospital as an independent contractor. However, the hospital may not offer you money, provide you free or below-market rent for your medical office, or engage in similar activities designed to influence your referral decisions.

 

You should admit your patients to the hospital best suited to care for their particular medical conditions or to the hospital your patient selects based on his or her

preference or insurance coverage. As noted, if a hospital or physician practice separately or jointly is recruiting you as a new physician to the community, you may be offered a recruitment package. But, you may not negotiate for benefits in exchange for a promise—implicit or explicit—that you will admit your patients to a specific hospital or practice setting unless you are a hospital employee. You should seek knowledgeable legal counsel if someone with whom you are

entering into a relationship requires you to admit patients to a specific hospital or practice group.