Health Administration Responsibility Project
"Corporate Practice of Medicine"

The "Corporate Practice of Medicine" doctrine was used in older times to defeat attempts to hold employers of doctors vicariously responsible for the malpractice of their employee doctors.

Modern cases, especially those since the passage of Federal and State HMO Acts, have not allowed HMOs to escape liability on this basis.
See: Sloan v. Metropolitan Health Council, 516 NE2d 1104 (Ind 1987)

However, the concept has been used to prevent hospitals from enforcing employment restrictions on departing doctors.
See: Berlin v. Lincoln Health Center

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