Opening a Medical Practice? Here’s Why You Need a Lawyer

Setting up a medical practice can be a consuming task. Even the most accomplished doctors can encounter obstacles when they attempt to open their own medical practice, which requires business and legal skills. Some steps in opening your practice can and should be handled by an attorney. The New York healthcare lawyers at The Ryback Firm, PLLC can help you with your medical practice needs.

A lawyer can help review contracts before your medical practice agrees to them. Contracts such as leases and sub-contracting arrangements are typical agreements that a medical practice will have to enter into at the formation of the practice.

A lawyer can also set up the proper business entity for the medical practice. Although it varies from situation to situation, many medical practices choose to incorporate the business. By incorporating your medical practice, an owner will not be personally liable for any losses sustained by the business in most cases. Another reason why you might choose to incorporate is that there can be numerous tax benefits. These benefits include additional deductions for expenses and it may be possible to reduce the amount of taxes paid to Social Security.

Also, a healthcare lawyer can assist a new medical practice understand and come into compliance with applicable state and federal regulations. These regulations are often updated, and it is important for a medical practice to follow such regulations as failure to do so can result in fines and additional review by regulators.

Finally, a lawyer can help you decide if you need to trademark your office name and take the necessary steps to make sure that any intellectual property associated with your practice is protected.

Remember all communications between a lawyer and client are privileged, which is another benefit of working with a lawyer. This means that the communications between you and your lawyer cannot be reviewed by a third party even if there is a court order in place.