Provided by:  Jennifer Kirschenbaum, Esq.

August 21, 2018

 

 


 
To discuss your MLMIC questions and concerns, contact Robert Plosky, Esq. at Rplosky@kirschenbaumesq.comor at (516) 747-6700 x. 329; you can also reach Taryn at TCrimi@Kirschenbaumesq.com or Jennifer at Jennifer@Kirschenbaumesq.com.    



To answer the first question we hear, depending on the circumstances we would not recommend you ask us to take a MLMIC payout open issue on contingency - for others, we would take on contingency where it makes sense for you.  Many of you (who are employers) have a lot of money outstanding and contingency simply will not benefit you.  
    

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Sidebar by Jennifer re: MLMIC Payout

There are so few wins for the physician practice owner this past decade, so few.  The burden of positioning yourself as employer takes an economic and emotional toll most lifetime employees never really understand or appreciate.  Here, we have an easy win.  As the employer you chose MLMIC to carry your professional liability insurance.  You paid the premiums to protect your practice and employees.  If like most contracts we drafted over the years OR reviewed, the insurance section of the agreement is not part of the "compensation", but a necessary prerequisite to employment, or continued employment in its own section of the employment agreement.  Likely some or all of the premium cost was borne by the employer, and the type, carrier and coverage limits dictated by the employer.  The cost of maintaining malpractice is a natural operating expense for most practices.  

For those of you I have had to get in the trenches with, you know I navigate with a core set of tenets - that in a dispute or negotiation, the most unreasonable person generally wins.  The second being, paying good money towards a potential bad outcome is a total and absolute waste.  And another mindful concern of mine (there are many more!), standing on principle in most instances will likely leave you with less money and even less satisfaction.   Despite what I consider to be a realistic approach to our broken dispute resolution process (littered with ulterior motivations - mostly by my fellow attorneys), I view the MLMIC payout as a battle worth fighting where you have the goods. There are just so few wins for an employer and to lose a right to a win that for some is a substantial amount, from my perspective, is untenable if you have the support.  Here, the obvious choice to me (and the employees I have spoken with to date acknowledging same when asking me of they should sign over the money) is you must at a minimum assess the strength of your claim to the anticipated payout.  Do not roll over as a capitulating party without attempting to retain control of a return on your investment towards your current or prior human capital.  


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