How to Close Up Shop and Get Out of the Game
By Nora Ciancio
In today’s post-COVID healthcare setting, aggressive patients, understaffing, and changing facility or parent company politics have many healthcare providers hanging up their stethoscopes early. For many providers, giving up the game can be as easy as turning in their two weeks’ notice, but when you own your practice, the process can be a little more complicated.
The first decision for any provider with an ownership interest in their practice will be how to close the doors. Are you selling? Are you transferring patients to another partner? Are you simply closing the doors? The answers to these questions will determine your legal obligations to your patients and what steps you must take with your licensing Board.
All patients should be provided adequate and proper notice as soon as possible prior to any changes made in the practice including change in providers, transfer, sale, or closure. Generally, it is advisable to provide at least 30 days’ notice to patients and to provide continued care and prescriptions through that period to allow patients to seek out alternate providers, if desired.
For a sale or closure, patients must be notified electronically or by mail at their last known address and notice must be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the geographic area of the practice.
Your next responsibility will be to ensure that you properly handle patient records. It is imperative that patient notices contain clear instructions and provide patients with the opportunity to receive records or have them transferred at their request within a reasonable time frame. If you are closing, this may mandate the need to pay a third-party company to store records and respond to these requests on your behalf or to keep trusted clerical staff to respond to such requests.
When patient care and maintenance of records are sorted out, you can turn your attention to what to do with your healthcare license. Make sure all your personal and practice information is up to date with your licensing Board, including mailing addresses and emails. In most cases, practitioners can leave their license active until the next renewal cycle, at which time they can simply request an inactive license. Notably, if any provider is planning on working part-time, consulting, or plans to return to practice in the near future, then they should maintain an active license. Any pending investigations or disciplinary actions may also impact whether you should keep a license active at the time of retirement.
Professionals are here to help. Please seek guidance or legal assistance with the sale or closure of your practice or transfer of patients.
Nora Ciancio is an attorney with Goodman Allen Donnelly and is focused on representing healthcare professionals in licensing and discipline matters before their professional boards. She also offers representation in Medicaid and Medicare provider appeals, credentialing and third-party payor audits, as well as advises practices on regulatory and compliance issues. goodmanallen.com
