The Review Podcast

While negotiating an employment contract often results in changes to its terms, sometimes the edits are more significant than others.
A physician could see a $300,000 increase in yearly compensation, the complete removal of a non-compete clause, or important scheduling and work location changes in their favor.
Physician contract attorneys Zach Beare and Kyle Claussen provide some examples of the biggest negotiation wins they have seen physicians achieve. They also explain the general circumstances, negotiating leverage, and employer misjudgment that allow such large changes to happen.

Dr. Bryan Carmody, also known as "The Sheriff of Sodium" on social media channels, joins attorney, Kyle Claussen, to discuss the current and future employment landscape for physicians.
Primarily, Dr. Carmody gives his thoughts on the physician shortage, or lack thereof, explaining how the real problem may be improper distribution of physicians across specialties and locations. This in turn reduces patient access to the right care at the right time.
Dr. Carmody and Kyle also address how AI could affect physician jobs and access to care. Will AI replace much of what physicians do? Will it provide additional care in underserved areas or at traditionally inconvenient appointment times? Learn more in this podcast episode!

When joining a private practice, a physician may encounter a recruitment agreement, which is a document separate from the employment contract.
New or smaller practices may not have funds immediately available to hire a physician, particularly a highly-paid specialist. Since a nearby hospital system will value services and procedures that the newly-hired physician performs, they effectively loan money to a practice in order to pay the physician. This is all accomplished through a recruitment agreement.
The physician who signs the recruitment agreement then has an obligation to both the private practice and the hospital system. They will often have to practice in the same geographic location for a certain number of years, or risk repaying some of the compensation originally offered by the recruitment agreement.
Physician contract attorneys Lauren Kaufman and Kyle Claussen explain the purpose of recruitment agreements, the obligations they place on physicians, how they interact with employment contracts, and more.

For most physicians, signing an employment contract is the first major step toward reaching their financial goals. The dramatic increase from a trainee's compensation to that of an attending opens up new doors, allowing physicians to truly start paying off debt and investing.
Further optimizing an employment contract for higher compensation and career longevity from the start will provide the stable income needed to reach financial goals quickly and prevent burnout.
Dr. Jim Dahle of The White Coat Investor joins Resolve CEO and attorney, Kyle Claussen, to discuss physician finances, contracts, and more, including:
Dr. Dahle's background and The White Coat Investor's mission
What financial planning means for physicians and how contracts factor in
The importance of knowing fair compensation based on specialty and location
How working as a W2 employee compares to being a 1099 independent contractor
Optimizing a contract for burnout prevention and career longevity
The shift of physicians from private practice to employed settings
How physicians can discover their worth and advocate for themselves

It is becoming more common for physicians to feed their employment contracts through an AI system prior to seeking professional help or signing. Even Resolve offers an "Instant Review," which utilizes an attorney-trained AI model to spot problematic clauses and gauge the risks of signing a contract as is.
However, having only AI review a contract comes with its own risks. AI systems will sometimes misinterpret important contract language, indicating the terms are better or worse than they actually are.
AI review is often a great way to quickly understand the bulk of a contract, but physicians likely need detailed, hands-on review from a specialized attorney to fully grasp what they are signing.
In this episode, attorneys Zach Beare and Kyle Claussen discuss the pros and cons of AI contract review and describe some of their personal experiences with different AI systems.

Physicians are particularly prone to burnout for a variety of reasons. Long hours, unpredictable call schedules, administrative burdens, and general lack of autonomy are among the contributing factors.
But what if improving physician well-being and preventing burnout could all be accomplished by correcting one important document?—an employment contract.
Mary Wolf, an executive coach and president of Veritee Partners, joins the show to explain how her physician clients struggle with burnout and what she recommends as a solution. Mary and Resolve CEO, Kyle Claussen, discuss how an employment contract might be edited to improve work-life balance and avoid burnout before it ever starts affecting a physician.

A non-compete clause is a type of restrictive covenant which limits where an employee can go to work after they leave their job. Typically, a non-compete will specify employer locations, geographic areas around those locations, and a timeframe during which the employee is not allowed to work for a competitor in those areas.
Unfortunately, non-compete clauses are common in healthcare, and they can be extremely detrimental to physicians when they need to leave their current employers. If a non-compete is too restrictive, it could force a physician to move to a different city, county, or state for a new job.
Attorneys Lauren Kaufman and Kyle Claussen describe how non-competes are usually structured in physician employment contracts. They also explain how physicians should handle non-competes and what the current legislative trends are for these clauses.

The FIRE movement is a lifestyle strategy focused on becoming financially independent as soon as possible in order to retire early. Physicians, depending on their spending and saving habits, can be well positioned to quickly reach FIRE.
Dr. Leif Dahleen, a (retired) anesthesiologist, is the founder of Physician on FIRE, a website providing financial education in the form of blog articles and courses to physicians pursuing some level of FIRE.
Dr. Dahleen visits the podcast discuss his career, the creation of Physician on FIRE, and how the right employment contract terms can help physicians become financially independent and even retire early.

Today, the majority of physicians are employed by corporate entities like hospitals or large health systems. However, there are still plenty of doctors joining private practices, perhaps with partnership tracks outlined in their employment contracts.
Contracts for private practice can be structured differently than those for purely employed settings, and details surrounding partnership need to be absolutely clear before ever signing an agreement. Attorneys Kyle Claussen and Skyler Mickelson describe what physicians should expect from these contracts and how terms might need to be negotiated.

For a J-1 waiver application to be approved, a physician's employer and employment contract must meet certain requirements. For instance, the contract must offer full-time employment for at least three years and exclude any sort of non-compete clause. The employer must also be located in an area which is federally designated as "medically underserved."
Immigration attorney, Angela Lopez, revisits the podcast to explain these requirements in more detail and discuss how they might vary depending on location, employer type, and other factors.