Open Nav Close Nav

News / Blog

Negotiating Healthcare Employment Contracts With a Lawyer

Negotiating a healthcare employment contract is necessary to ensure your compensation, benefits, and working conditions align with your professional goals and personal needs.

Through negotiation, you can secure fair pay that reflects your skills and experience, comprehensive benefits packages, and terms that promote a healthy work-life balance. This process also allows you to clarify job duties and expectations, reducing the potential for legal issues, misunderstandings, and conflicts.

Healthcare employment contract attorneys can help ensure the contract abides by legal and regulatory requirements that protect you. Their expertise can be invaluable in identifying and addressing potential issues to make sure your rights and interests are protected. Properly negotiating a healthcare employment contract with a lawyer can lead to increased job satisfaction and fulfillment.

What Is a Healthcare Employment Contract?

Healthcare employment contracts and medical employment contracts are legal agreements between the healthcare provider, such as a hospital or clinic, and an employee or healthcare professional.

Within the contract, whether a doctor’s contract of employment or a nurse practitioner employment contract, you can find the basic job description and responsibilities, compensation details, work schedule requirements and hours, terms of employment, non-compete clauses, potential growth opportunities, benefits, and more.

How Do Healthcare Employment Contracts Differ From Non-Healthcare Employment Contracts?

Considering that people’s lives are at risk in the healthcare industry, healthcare employment contracts often have stricter regulations compared to non-healthcare contracts. For example, healthcare contracts must comply with specific laws and regulations, such as HIPAA and the Stark Law, which govern patient privacy, anti-kickback statutes, and more.

Healthcare professionals must maintain proper licenses and credentials to practice, which require regular renewal and continuing education. Additionally, they are held to high standards of patient care and are expected to avoid medical malpractice. Employment contracts in healthcare often include detailed clauses about professional conduct, ethical standards, and the procedures for handling patient information, as well as requirements for medical liability insurance and on-call duties.

Non-healthcare employment contracts, on the other hand, typically do not have the same level of regulatory oversight. They focus more on general employment terms such as job responsibilities, compensation, benefits, and termination procedures without the added layer of legal compliance related to patient care and safety.

Why You Need a Lawyer To Review Your Contract

Having a lawyer review your healthcare employment contract provides peace of mind, ensuring that your rights are protected and that you fully understand your legal obligations as a healthcare professional. a lawyer could help negotiate points within it either on your behalf or by advising the employee on the areas they should ask for changes.

A lawyer’s expertise can ensure your contract complies with HIPAA and the Stark Law, protecting you from potential legal issues down the line. They can also negotiate better terms for salary, benefits, and work conditions. Employment contract negotiation (healthcare) is also important because it allows an experienced lawyer to assess non-compete clauses to ensure they are not too restrictive.

Speak to a Healthcare Practice Attorney

Fenton Jurkowitz Law Group has a team of seasoned healthcare employment contract attorneys who can review your healthcare employment contract in depth and negotiate the terms where necessary. Fill out our contact form on our website to connect with a healthcare practice attorney today.