Termination of the Physician-Patient Relationship: Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Withdrawing from a patient relationship can be done appropriately and ethically in a variety of circumstances. If you don’t terminate the physician-patient relationship in an appropriate manner, you may be liable for patient abandonment. One must ensure patients are given an appropriate period of time to find a new provider. What constitutes an appropriate time period for termination can depend on specialty, practice location, patient condition, third-party payer agreement, state statutes, medical ethics, and various other factors. To highlight the various scenarios that can lead to abandonment claims, this Claims Rx presents brief case studies from a variety of sources, including NORCAL Group closed claims files and risk management specialists’ reports, appellate court opinions, and medical journal case reports.