> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.practiceownersguide.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Bring on associates or partners

> More clinical capacity without giving away equity you'll regret — or withholding it until your best clinician leaves to compete with you.

**Goal:** more clinical capacity without giving away equity you'll regret, or withholding it until your best clinician leaves to compete with you.

## Associates: the employment questions

* **Compensation model.** Base salary, percentage of production or collections, or hybrid with a draw. Note the difference: a percentage of *collections* makes the associate share your payer-collection reality; a percentage of *production* doesn't. Use specialty compensation surveys, not guesswork.
* **The credentialing lead time.** An associate can't bill payers until [credentialed](/guides/get-credentialed): 90 to 180 days. Sign offers accordingly and plan the gap consciously.
* **Restrictive covenants.** Clinician non-competes are state-dependent and shifting. Several states now restrict physician non-competes outright. Draft with current local counsel.
* **Malpractice.** Occurrence vs. claims-made, and who pays **tail coverage** on departure. Decide it in the offer letter, not the exit interview.
* **Classification.** A full-schedule associate is an employee under any honest test. Misclassification is actively enforced.

## Partners: the equity questions

```mermaid theme={null}
flowchart TD
    A{Associate wants equity} --> B[What are they buying?<br/>agree the valuation METHOD first]
    B --> C[How do they pay?<br/>cash / bank-financed buy-in / earn-in]
    C --> D[What changes?<br/>split pay-for-production from<br/>return-on-ownership]
    D --> E[Buy-sell agreement<br/>death, disability, license loss,<br/>exit, expulsion, deadlock]
```

* Agree the valuation *method* in writing before emotions attach to a number.
* Practice lenders [finance buy-ins](/guides/get-a-practice-loan). Earn-ins need documented milestones or they get litigated.
* Keep production pay separate from ownership returns. Equal profit splits with unequal production is the classic partnership resentment.
* **The buy-sell agreement is the whole game.** Write it while everyone likes each other.
* Licensing constraint: in most states only same-licensed professionals can own the PC ([CPOM](/concepts/cpom-and-the-pc)). A non-clinician "partner" can't hold PC equity. That road leads to the [MSO structure](/guides/sell-or-scale).

## The banking corollary

Partners mean shared control of money, so controls stop being optional: dual approval over thresholds, role-based access, clean distribution mechanics, and reporting both partners actually see ([banking structure](/concepts/practice-banking-structure)). Many partnership disputes are, at bottom, information asymmetry about the bank account. Fix it with permissions, not lawyers.