Re: Sample contracts

[Steve Verno]

Im not saying this to suck up to Lynda but she is 1,000% correct. I get emails all the time from billers who ask tons of questions about their termination by the provider.  I ask a simple question: What does your contract say?"  Most of the answers are Contract?  I dont have one or it doesnt say anything about termination.  These billers tell real horror stories.  They're being fired and face possible lawsuits.  They are looking for free legal help.  I am not a lawyer and cant help them.  The provider has hired a lawyer to protect themselves.  I know we wish to keep our costs down but to protect ourselves, sometimes we need to spend the $125 for the lawyers time. 

In 1975, I was on my way to Germany.  I ws going to rent my home to a soldier in my unit.  I thought I could trust her.  I got a cookie cutter agreement.  I also took it to the base JAG office (Army lawyers)  They said it was OK but they didnt recomend it. It had too many loopholes.  The soldier never paid her rent and sold everything in the house.  MY lawyer said there was no way I could take her to court without it being dismissed.  The agreement was so bad.  It was a lesson I learned the hard way.  In the end, I had her evicted, I contacted my former commander and informed him of the non-rent payment.  She was given non-judicial punishment, lost rank and pay. 
While in Germany, she sent a real nasty letter, making all kinds of threats.  That got her a courtmartial and jail time.

the collection agency we did hire wanted us to use their one page contract.  There were many things it didnt address, especially termination.  I guess people think that they will never be fired.  Our contract was 35 pages long.  Most of it addressing termination.

Some billers dont think about being terminated.  When I was negotiating a contract with a debt collection agency, it took 7 months long. The contract was designed by our in house lawyer. 4 of those months were coming up with the termination clause.   

[Danni R.]

Cyndee's sample contract is here:

http://medicalbillingandcoding.net/med_bill_forum/smf/index.php/topic,674.msg17379.html#msg17379

[Danni R.]

Cyndee had one posted in our forum. I'll try to locate her post for you. Please bear with me.