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Thank you to everyone for your help and advice. I had a contract specialist review both contracts I had been working under. They agree with me, there is no language that specifies what would happen to residual collections following leaving the group; however he suspects that the group withholding my collections for services already rendered may fall afoul of certain business and professions code. The plan is that they will help me craft an official letter to the group specifying my position, and if they do not acquiesce, to push the case towards arbitration. Here's hoping for the best. Thank you.
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welcome to the real world. it is rough out there.
sorry you had to experience it this way. it's hard when you realize not everyone is nice or interested in being fair.
on the bright side, glad you are in a better practice now!
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Thank you to everyone for your help and advice. I had a contract specialist review both contracts I had been working under. They agree with me, there is no language that specifies what would happen to residual collections following leaving the group; however he suspects that the group withholding my collections for services already rendered may fall afoul of certain business and professions code. The plan is that they will help me craft an official letter to the group specifying my position, and if they do not acquiesce, to push the case towards arbitration. Here’s hoping for the best. Thank you.
Good for you for pursuing. My feel is that it will be easier to pay you what you are owed than for a small EM group to risk a trial/judgment. You might even suggest that if they don't pay you what is rightfully yours as well as the fees you have incurred so far (i.e. contract specialist)--and prove that you have been made whole with end of year financial disclosure--you have been advised that you should seek punitive damages as well. At a minimum, my guess is that arbitration would have the loser pay the costs--for you, this would be a relatively small risk for a potential big gain (compare to the group which is a small risk for a small gain per partner).
You've been remarkably restrained and equitable to your old partners. If it were me, I would be firing off ethics/business complaints to the hospital, state medical board and medical association, state treasurer, BBB and definitely to ACEP (hopefully you/they are members). Heck, depending on how scorched earth you want to get, your local newspaper might even be interested. Even if none of this results in a formal censure, your old partners [should] be mortified that their behavior/finances are being discussed publicly.Comment
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Another update if anyone is interested:
My former group made a small miscalculation, and forgot to tell the billing company to stop sending me my collections, so I received a very large deposit at the beginning of August, and then I promptly received an email asking me to mail them a check to return the erroneous deposit. My lawyer advised me to hold on to the money.
The law firm sent a very strongly worded demand letter to my former group a few days ago, and I received my first offer from the group.
1) They are offering 3 months of collections (which includes the deposit error that they already made). They believe this would represent ~%90 of the collections that return.
2) They want me to retroactively pay for my 'tail' coverage for the last 8 months, totalling almost $10k. The reasoning is that they began to pay it in those months as a way of trying to keep me from leaving.
3) They will increase their retainer fee from 5% to 6%, because they state it was lowered in the last year as a way of trying to keep me from leaving.
4) It also comes with the demand that I speak of this to no one currently employed in the group.
I suspect that I'll counter aggressively and ask for all collections they ever receive from my service. It was their choice to pay for my tail coverage, I'm not going to pay them back. I really don't see a problem with giving them the 3rd point, and I may give them their 6% as a way of being conciliatory. As far as not telling people in the group, that's hard; because one is a good friend who I still haven't mentioned any of this to.
We'll see how it goes.
Thank you again to everyone who offered advice or support. I might have just given up without all of you.Comment
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They want to keep you silent so they can screw over other docs in the future. The heck with that!Comment
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Wow, incredible incompetence on their part that they sent that portion for presumably nothing in return (of course you worked/earned it, but just talking in terms of this negotiation process). Now you've confirmed they are not only not forthcoming business partners, but they are pretty bad at business/negotiation too! Sounds like you're dodging a bullet by leaving. Keep sticking up for yourself, Bravo!Comment
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I can't believe the contract doesn't spell out explicitly what happens if things don't work out. That's the whole point of a contract. You don't need a contract when everything works out.
I think it really comes down to what the contract language says about what "fee for service" means. You mean you were paid at the end of month 13 based on what you billed in month 13? If so, that's not fee for service. Fee for service means you didn't get paid at the end of month 13 because nothing had been collected yet. If you're paid based on what you billed or RVUS or whatever that month, then you don't deserve squat after you stop working. That's totally fair and reasonable. So the $80K you're giving up now is really just the $80K they used to pay you in months 13-15. You were paid as agreed for months 1-12, right?Helping those who wear the white coat get a fair shake on Wall Street since 2011Comment
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Another update if anyone is interested:
My former group made a small miscalculation, and forgot to tell the billing company to stop sending me my collections, so I received a very large deposit at the beginning of August, and then I promptly received an email asking me to mail them a check to return the erroneous deposit. My lawyer advised me to hold on to the money.
The law firm sent a very strongly worded demand letter to my former group a few days ago, and I received my first offer from the group.
1) They are offering 3 months of collections (which includes the deposit error that they already made). They believe this would represent ~%90 of the collections that return.
2) They want me to retroactively pay for my ‘tail’ coverage for the last 8 months, totalling almost $10k. The reasoning is that they began to pay it in those months as a way of trying to keep me from leaving.
3) They will increase their retainer fee from 5% to 6%, because they state it was lowered in the last year as a way of trying to keep me from leaving.
4) It also comes with the demand that I speak of this to no one currently employed in the group.
I suspect that I’ll counter aggressively and ask for all collections they ever receive from my service. It was their choice to pay for my tail coverage, I’m not going to pay them back. I really don’t see a problem with giving them the 3rd point, and I may give them their 6% as a way of being conciliatory. As far as not telling people in the group, that’s hard; because one is a good friend who I still haven’t mentioned any of this to.
We’ll see how it goes.
Thank you again to everyone who offered advice or support. I might have just given up without all of you.
That seems like a pretty good offer to me. Maybe I'd counter with them paying that "tail" (which doesn't make sense since there is no such thing as 8 months of tail coverage.) I think I'd take that and leave. You'll probably spend more on attorney fees trying to get your last 10%.Helping those who wear the white coat get a fair shake on Wall Street since 2011Comment
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Another update if anyone is interested:
My former group made a small miscalculation, and forgot to tell the billing company to stop sending me my collections, so I received a very large deposit at the beginning of August, and then I promptly received an email asking me to mail them a check to return the erroneous deposit. My lawyer advised me to hold on to the money.
The law firm sent a very strongly worded demand letter to my former group a few days ago, and I received my first offer from the group.
1) They are offering 3 months of collections (which includes the deposit error that they already made). They believe this would represent ~%90 of the collections that return.
2) They want me to retroactively pay for my ‘tail’ coverage for the last 8 months, totalling almost $10k. The reasoning is that they began to pay it in those months as a way of trying to keep me from leaving.
3) They will increase their retainer fee from 5% to 6%, because they state it was lowered in the last year as a way of trying to keep me from leaving.
4) It also comes with the demand that I speak of this to no one currently employed in the group.
I suspect that I’ll counter aggressively and ask for all collections they ever receive from my service. It was their choice to pay for my tail coverage, I’m not going to pay them back. I really don’t see a problem with giving them the 3rd point, and I may give them their 6% as a way of being conciliatory. As far as not telling people in the group, that’s hard; because one is a good friend who I still haven’t mentioned any of this to.
We’ll see how it goes.
Thank you again to everyone who offered advice or support. I might have just given up without all of you.
That seems like a pretty good offer to me. Maybe I’d counter with them paying that “tail” (which doesn’t make sense since there is no such thing as 8 months of tail coverage.) I think I’d take that and leave. You’ll probably spend more on attorney fees trying to get your last 10%.
Boom! Done.
this is good advice.
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That seems like a pretty good offer to me. Maybe I’d counter with them paying that “tail” (which doesn’t make sense since there is no such thing as 8 months of tail coverage.) I think I’d take that and leave. You’ll probably spend more on attorney fees trying to get your last 10%.
That supposes they are being truthful about percentages. Attorneys fees are minimal at this time, and there is a lot of non financial good feelings in getting what youre owed and not backing down from an abusive situation. They already caved on a letter, their contract is total bunk and they arent legally entitled to anything. They know this, and are now just hoping for anything. They also have attorney fee issues, and given they have no standing it will cost them more.Comment
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That supposes they are being truthful about percentages. Attorneys fees are minimal at this time, and there is a lot of non financial good feelings in getting what youre owed and not backing down from an abusive situation. They already caved on a letter, their contract is total bunk and they arent legally entitled to anything. They know this, and are now just hoping for anything. They also have attorney fee issues, and given they have no standing it will cost them more.
Sure, drag it out for 3 years for $8K. That seems like a productive use of your time and money.Helping those who wear the white coat get a fair shake on Wall Street since 2011Comment
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