The Ethics Requirement That No One Wants (and Many Are Unable) to Face: The Solutions

A. Steven Frankel, PhD, JD

CEO, The Steve Frankel Group, LLC

The Easiest (but, thus far, Ineffective) Solutions:

A. Do-it-yourself

At first blush, the most reasonable implementation of the professional society ethics codes requiring us to prepare for unanticipated terminations of practice, due to death or disability, is to find a colleague who’s willing to make an agreement that s/he will take care of the ministerial functions required to close a practice and transfer patients/clients and their files when needed. Such agreements would necessitate some risk (in the sense that there’s no way to predict which colleague will need the services first) and would require that you thoroughly acquaint the colleague with your practice, provide lists of the best people to refer your patients/clients when the time comes, how to access the files, how to know which patients/clients are/aren’t currently being seen (and thus be able to determine which are in need of being contacted right away), what the accounts payable and receivable look like, where the office lease is, how to arrange for the phone company to forward calls to the helping colleague, and on, and on...

I have advocated that colleagues who make these kinds of deals with each other also take out a term life policy of $10,000 to $20,000, naming each other as beneficiaries, because of the enormous time and effort needed to take on the closing of a colleague’s practice.

As may not surprise you, colleagues consistently report that they cannot find others who are willing to make these types of deals.

B. Let your county professional society do it for you:

One might think, given that the ethics codes that require us to prepare for such circumstances are easily a decade old, that local professional societies (e.g., your local friendly county professional association) would have warmed to this problem. After all, given that there's any truth to the nasty rumor that county professional societies are suffering from acute Loss Of Membership Syndrome (that's a "V-code," in case you were wondering) in these hard economic times, you might think that this problem would be the secret to their rehabilitation and success. After all, county professional societies have the most direct contact with the "rank and file" professionals in their jurisdictions, and might actually be able to get a hefty fee from new and old members if they could provide a practice closing service for members. Are they doing it? Hardly.

Humbly, SFG is Leaping Into the Breach:

So here's what I think. I think that we (SFG) can put together a nation-wide practice wind-down program that will bring subscribers to the program, their patients/clients, their loved ones and their professional malpractice companies a great peace and nothing but kind thoughts/remembrances. As part of our Dawn-to-Dusk ^TM professional practice series, we plan to initiate a wind-down program that will provide the right kind of preparation and implementation of plans to:

1. Transfer patients/clients to appropriate clinicians, with records, providing continuity of care.
2. Provide for record retention/destruction consistent with jurisdictional requirements.
3. Manage the business-financial aspects of a practice (e.g., office leases, subscription services, managed care contracts, etc.).
4. Protect the loved ones who are in the midst of grieving your loss.
5. Deal with the legal system, together with your malpractice insurance company, in the event of questionable attempts to invade the privacy and confidentiality of professional records.

So When Might the SFG Wind-down Program Commence?

As we have been planning our program for over a year, we are confident that we will open our doors in January of 2010.

How Can You Get Involved?

If you have an interest in being an "early bird" registrant in our wind-down program, either as a subscriber, as a closer, or both, please contact our Executive Director, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Mark will get you on the list(s) relevant to your interests/needs and will keep you posted on our progress.