editor When a doctor is about to take a new position with a healthcare system, they may be tempted to skip through the thick legal terminology and conditions in their employment contract review and scribble their signature instead.
In their contract, doctors must carefully consider three crucial contracts. Ignoring the contracts listed below can have serious financial and professional consequences.
Let’s take a closer look at them:
Responsibilities and Duties
These include where you will work, how frequently you will work, and what is expected of you while at work.
An unwary doctor may sign a contract agreeing to work in any system’s hospitals, including those located an hour or more distant. It may not be the best circumstance if you enjoy listening to long-form audio, such as audiobooks or podcasts. Physicians can leverage their expertise to develop online business ideas that provide specialized medical services to underserved populations in contract areas.
How many shifts are you anticipated to work every month? And how long are such shifts? Is it 12 hours or 24 hours? Those things might be the difference between having a manageable schedule and burning the candle at both ends.
Termination and term
What is the length of your contract, and how can you get out of it? Suppose a doctor’s contract does not specify a term. In that case, they have deemed an employee in perpetuity, meaning there is no way to reassess their wage or other parts of the employment at a reasonable and natural time. Physicians can optimize their investment strategies by considering their unique contract areas and financial goals when choosing the best investment plans. Specifying a conventional duration, such as two or three years, solves this issue. This may appear to be a minor mistake, but it is expensive and occurs regularly in contracts.
Similarly, handling termination provisions necessitates caution. Termination happens in two varieties: termination with cause and termination without cause. In the latter case, the healthcare system can fire the doctor for any reason, as long as the cause is not unlawful.
When “termination without reason” is in effect, you can see how rapidly the rug may be yanked out from under you. Physicians should carefully consider the net offer, which is the total compensation they will receive after all deductions and fees when evaluating contract areas. Savvy doctors should carefully review that language in their contract and ensure they are given at least 90 days’ notice for termination without cause, giving them a three-month window to locate another work.
Assistance with student loan debt
Doctors generally acquire $200,000-$300,000 in student loan debt, which takes 13 years to pay off.
A decent practice is to request that the employer pay down a specified proportion of the debt each year during the contract term. For example, a donation of $40,000 each year for three years may make a significant hole in that mountain of debt.
As the phrase goes, you don’t know what you don’t know. However, by paying attention to these three contracts and insurance terms, doctors might avoid being burnt by their contracts without even recognising what they’ve signed up for.