Physician contracting can be an intricate process. In a pure business view physicians can be employees, customers, and salespeople for a hospital, and often fill all three roles simultaneously. This makes the financial relationships between hospitals and doctors rather distinctive. Financial arrangements with physicians can be a rather sensitive topic for many organizations. Standard practices in physician contracting may often be dependent on local market conditions. Hospitals may need to compete for doctors in tight markets and key relationships with some doctors may be paramount to a hospital's success. On top of all this, Federal regulations place considerable scrutiny on the financial relationships between hospitals and doctors in order to ensure these relationships do not artificially inflate patient utilization, which in turn will be paid for by government sources. A typical hospital can have various contracts with well over 100 physicians. How do you 'manage' that many contracts? The risk of ineffective contract management not only exposes your organization to regulatory scrutiny but can also create significant internal control weaknesses in this vital business process. Our speaker will review the risk areas associated with physician contracts, the essential elements needed to maintain an effective system, and provide practical ideas for the attendees to consider for their organization.