A Medical Corporation Checklist To Help You Stay In Compliance Legally
A person can be overwhelmed by incorporating their medical practice, causing them to feel stressed by the unknown that comes with it. Don’t let yourself feel stressed out. Instead, use the checklist listed below to get a better understanding about the legal compliance for your medical corporation.
A Look At Incorporation
Forming A Medical Corporation – The two basic choices you have include the C or S corporations. Medical corporations are quite tricky in law so it’s advisable to consult an attorney who knows a good deal of medical corporation law to draw together your corporate documents, regardless of what they are.
Fictitious Name Permit – This is considered a DBA or a name that’s not the legal name of a medical corporation. In the majority of cases, a person will need to get an invented name permit from the Division of Licensing/Medical Board. You may also need to do a “separate fabricated name” filing with the local county recorder’s office.
Shareholders/Buy-Sell Agreement – If the practice has more than one doctor/ owner, then it’s in the best interest of the company to get shareholders to keep watch over the relationship with the partners. These agreements will save persons a ton of money should the relationship between the partners goes south.
Buy-sell agreements will determine disputes between warring partners. This includes exit provisions in cases where partners are not able to work together any longer. It’s sort of like an economic divorce for partners.
Federal Employer Identification Number – Make sure to obtain your EIN from the IRS or its website.
Bank Accounts – Once you’ve got the incorporation articles and your EIN, it’s time to open your bank accounts.
Pick Your Location – The first thing you need to do is have a general location picked out. Once you do this, you need to look into the local zoning requirements to ensure that you can even do a medical practice in that location. Make sure that you talk to the planning/permits department for this as well as other local requirements of your “proposed” location.
Real Property Lease – A very important contract you’ll be signing is the office lease. A lease is a contract that binds you to that location for quite some time. You’ll continue to pay rent even if the practice fails to make any real money. This is an area that you should an attorney at your side.
Trademarks – If you plan on having a medical practice that relies on a particular business name/trademark, you need to ensure of anyone else in that area having the rights to use the name. Be sure to check out the Internet to find anyone using the name for medical practices within your region. If the Internet search yields no trademark issue, you need to trademark. However, if there are issues, speak with an attorney to find out what you need to do now.
Local Business License – Be sure to get your business license in the city you plan to operate in.
Seller’s Permit – If you plan on selling merchandise, you’ll need a seller’s permit, which you’ll obtain from the California State Board of Equalization.
Employer Filings and Withholdings – If your business has employees, you’ll need to file a DE-1 form with the California EDD. Once you do this, you will always have to be in compliance with the employment law. Make sure to employ the services of a payroll company to handle all the employee wage withholdings.
Workers’ Compensation and Other Insurance – Once you hire employees to work for you, you’ll need an insurance broker to deal with the workers’ compensation insurance. According to law, you must have workers’ compensation. Be sure to have an experienced broker to buy your professional malpractice insurance.