By: Dave Davidson
There will likely come a time in your practice when you find yourself considering whether you should maintain a relationship with a patient. It may be that the patient is non-cooperative. Or the patient may refuse to pay his or her bill, or to follow a reasonable payment plan. Even more significantly, the patient may have engaged in behavior that is disruptive to your practice. For whatever reason, you are questioning the value of the relationship.
In those situations, the law does allow a physician to terminate a patient from his or her practice. However, careful analysis must be done in these situations, and there are several steps that should be followed. The risk of a claim of abandonment or of professional negligence makes it important to protect yourself, your practice, and the licenses of the providers within your group. You may already have a process spelled out in your policies and procedures, and if you do, that process should be followed. However, make sure your policy at least covers the points below.Continue reading
