The answer is yes. Virtually all employers are open to hearing questions and requests for changes within your employment contract. The exception to this would be if the physician has already had extensive back-and-forth or negotiation with the employer. If that has happened, the attorney may be limited in how much more to negotiate. In this type of situation, pushing too much more could come across as too aggressive. This is why it’s important for the physician to team up with an attorney as soon as possible, and to delay negotiating with the employer until you do.

That doesn’t mean that the employer will accommodate all or any of the physician’s requests.  It simply means that most employers are open to discussing anything at the start.  Accordingly, the biggest risk to the physician is that the employer says “no” to the physician’s requests.  Given this, the physician ought not hold back at all.  The physician need not be hesitant, shy or afraid to ask questions or make requests for contract modification at this stage.

Only a very small percentage of times from our experience, an employer may react less favorably to negotiation at this stage. Our attorneys have determined that this occurs less than 1 percent of the time from their experience working with over 5,000 physicians to negotiate their contracts.  Also, in our experience, when this happens, it is usually a sign that the employer may not be a good fit anyway.  We would not recommend working for an employer who’s not open to discussing contract details.  This unfortunate dynamic is normally the sign of an employer that is unbending, has poor communication in the workplace, and has unfriendly employment conditions.