Self-employment and responsibilities

At some point, every doctor asks himself whether they should do their professional practice in a self- employed and owned medical center. For most doctors, possessing a medical center is still the ideal career perspective. Having a medical center means cooperating with responsibility, self- employment, and independence, which leads to professional fulfillment. Medical knowledge, healing skills, and therapeutic skills are best implemented in ones medical center. Additionally, a self- employed doctor is not only committed to the Hippocratic oath, but he also bears responsibility for his commercial enterprise medical center.

Business medical center Concept

The doctor needs a medical center start-up concept that forms the basis for his management style. This is made up of nine interdependent positions that must be considered if economic success is to be guaranteed.

The doctor should focus on the following things:
-the patient-oriented medical center location and the medical center rooms
-the structural composition and number of future patients
-the need, nature, and extent of investment, e. g. in medical-technical equipment -the timely financing of investment projects
-selection, deployment, and management of staff
-the creation of money reserves for future tax payments

-repayment of loans, i.e., repayment and interest rates of borrowed funds acquired for self- employed activities

-sufficient preventive education (also for the family) for periods of illness and old age -the use of liquid funds from the practice income for the private life

Adviser

Due to a large number of single-payment questions, a proper transfer from employee to self- employed can only be realized with competent advisors because wrong decisions can lead to significant losses.

An attorney with experience in health insurance law is indispensable for the legally correct written execution of the contract.

Some contracts also require notarial certification, particularly when a share of the medical center is acquired and the practice is continued as a Community medical center. If the contracts involve the transfer of property, notarization is necessary.

Together rather than alone – Community medical center

“Cooperation” should no longer be a foreign word for doctors!

While other freelance groups knew the benefits of collaboration for their clients and themselves early on, healthcare professionals have only taken this path in recent years. Through cooperation with other healthcare professions, client benefits and economic benefits can be achieved. In recent years, many doctors have been increasingly using traditional forms of joint medical centers, Doctors- GmbH, partner companies, and medical job sharing as a first opportunity for cooperation.

More extensive forms of cooperation have emerged in recent years. Since 2004 – also the Medical Care Centre. Due to the legally permitted possibility of cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral cooperation, integrated care becomes an interesting option for many healthcare professionals to collaborate in some service areas.

Established forms of cooperation

One form of medical cooperation is a joint medical center. A joint medical center inherits the collaboration between two doctors in the same healthcare profession. The advantage of a joint medical center is the cost reduction resulting in higher margins per client as the staff, medical equipment, and rooms are shared. These services are then billed under a common billing number from the KV/KZV. The proceeds then flow into a common pot, from which the costs for the operation of the practice are paid. The doctors work together under a common stamp, practice sign, and letterhead.

Another form of cooperation is the medical center community. Interdisciplinary cooperation is possible here. A medical center community is an association of two or more doctors for the joint use of the medical center rooms, staff, equipment, and other facilities. There is, however, no joint billing. This is due to the differentiation of the doctor’s niches, as the providers of a medical center community can provide services from different medical areas (e.g orthepedic and gynecology).

Medical care center

Since the approval for a contract-based doctor’s seat, several contract doctors from different disciplines can work in a medical care center and be admitted together to contract medical care. The activity can be carried out either in the context of self-employment or in an employee relationship.