Jeremy Sherer and Amy Joseph discuss:
- The state law doctrine and the policy behind it
- How it may impact your business structure
Amy: Jeremy, a lot of our clients that come to us are founders who are new to healthcare. Can you explain what the Corporate Practice of Medicine doctrine is?
Jeremy: Yeah, the Corporate Practice of Medicine doctrine stands for the idea that only physicians and corporations that are owned by physicians can employ or contract with physicians to provide medical services. The reason for that from a policy perspective is that we want to insulate those physicians and their decision-making from the “corrupting influence” of business. We want to ensure that they are making decisions based on what's best for patient care and not what’s best for the bottom line. The reason that matters in practice is because it’s this state law doctrine, which exists in about half of the states (but a lot of the states that are largest and matter most from a business perspective), that necessitates this PC-MSO structure, or the friendly PC structure, which is so common in this space.
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