Advanced Health Practitioners: Employment Agreements for Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners and More

Millions of Americans have gained health insurance coverage under the ACA. This, in addition to expanded preventive care benefits and an aging population, have resulted in a healthcare system that has a shortage of physicians. Advanced practitioners, such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, are increasingly used to fill the void.

As a result, healthcare providers need legally compliant employment and recruitment agreements to attract advanced practitioners to geographic areas facing provider shortages.

Advanced practitioner employment agreements with a hospital or medical practice establish the expectations and obligations of the parties with regard to the terms of employment. When drafting employment agreements, counsel should pay close attention to restrictive covenant, termination provisions and licensing issues, among other key terms.

When drafting recruitment agreements for advanced practitioners, counsel must ensure full compliance with relevant law and to anticipate potential areas of dispute, including enforceability challenges and concerns under the Stark Law.

Listen as our authoritative panel of healthcare attorneys discusses best practices for negotiating and drafting employment agreements on behalf of advanced practitioners, practice groups or hospitals. The panel will explain key provisions and potential pitfalls in both types of agreements. The panel will also briefly discuss recruitment agreements.

1. Drafting advanced practitioner employment contracts and ancillary agreements
   1. Duties and responsibilities
   2. Terms and termination
   3. Licensing issues
   4. Compensation and benefits
   5. Incentive pitfalls to avoid
   6. Restrictive covenants
   7. Malpractice insurance and tail coverage
2. Drafting legal recruitment agreements
3. Interplay between recruitment agreements and employment agreements

The panel will review these and other key issues:

• What are the regulatory challenges facing healthcare providers and medical practices when employing advanced practitioners?
• How can restrictive covenants in employment agreements be structured to avoid being struck down as overly broad and unenforceable?
• What are the most commonly disputed issues during contract negotiations and what are some effective approaches for resolving them?