10/10/2016     James Koon, DPM

Things to Do When Selling or Merging a Practice

Since there are so many of us merging/becoming
employed/retiring, perhaps this may be an
opportune time to help others out. For
instance, what do you do when an insurance
company requests an overpayment refund from
almost two years ago when your office has been
closed/not doing business in a year?

Are people aware that you should keep old
medical and financial records for seven? There
are likely to be storage costs for that which
can be very expensive over that time frame.

Do people know they are required by the state
to tell the radiation board that you’ve sold
your x-ray unit or that you are no longer using
the unit or that you threw it in the trash or
that you sold it. They will want to know.

Do people know there is value in old X-rays for
silver recovery? Do they know who to call? Do
they know shredding of old stuff will be
necessary? Do they know who to call and how
much it will cost?

What do you do with equipment that you will no
longer need? (Computers, credit card machines,
fax machines, waiting room chairs, x-ray
processors, miscellaneous equipment) Will there
be additional taxes on that income?

Do people know how expensive tail insurance is?
Believe me, it is incredibly expensive. (Mine
was $18,600!!!)

What is the best protocol for informing
patients that you are moving or closing? There
are rules for placing notice in the local
newspapers. It was very expensive (more than
$1000 to do it the “official” way - you can’t
just run a classified ad). Do people know to
budget for that?

Keeping the entity alive as a corporation for
an additional period of time is necessary.
Claims will continue to be collected. There
will be accounting costs to close out the
corporation. There may still be payroll taxes
to pay.

The state will want quarterly returns to be
completed and any penalties to be paid. They
will likely want continued Unemployment
Compensation money if you don’t tell them you
are no longer in business.

If you’re breaking a lease there will be
potential penalties to pay. If you have to
sell your building are you prepared to float
the costs until it actually is sold. That
could take a year or more. There will be
taxes, utilities, maintenance, etc.

Do you have the money to continue to pay the
phone company to play the “that number has been
changed to……” message for a number of months.
They won’t do it for free. (about $45/month)

Business License’s can’t not be paid — you have
to inform the city that you are no longer in
business.

Are your association fees paid up if you are in
a condo style office? Is there a separate
contract for that you will be breaking and owe
money for?

Moving costs to another office can be
expensive. You will need to purchase many,
many boxes for everything. Do people know U-
Line is an excellent source for this stuff? Do
they know boxes alone may cost you close to
$500.00?

Did you fill out the forwarding address form
for the post office?

Did you inform your staff of the new payment
arrangements/health insurance details at the
new clinic? Are you able to take your staff to
the new clinic? Is there a different pay scale
at the new clinic?

Are you going to be on salary or formula at the
new clinic? For how long? Will it be enough to
live on until you do go on formula? If not,
and you dip in to the old corporation’s money
you will have

James Koon, DPM, Winter Haven FL

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