Change to Medical/Legal Activities Q&A

In August, Members approved a resolution that faculty will directly contract and bill for the Medical/Legal work they perform, apart from CU Medicine.

How are Medical/Legal services defined?

Medical/Legal services are a subset of consulting and occur when a faculty member is providing a professional opinion to or for the benefit of an attorney, a judge or an administrative agency, whether in a judicial or an administrative proceeding or in contemplation of one, including when the Member serves as an expert witness or as a consultant to or for the benefit of the individuals/entities involved in the legal or administrative proceeding.

Examples of Medical/Legal services include:

Testimony/Expert witness at a trial
Record review in preparation for a legal case
Report or letter preparation to support a legal case
Deposition
Independent Medical Exam (IME)
DORA – expert opinion for licensing review

How are Consulting services defined?

Consulting services refer to all professional advice or services that do not involve direct patient care (e.g., services performed for the medical equipment or pharmaceutical industry, start-up companies or other corporations or universities). For the avoidance of doubt, all revenue related to Consulting services must still be assigned.

Examples of Consulting services include:

Speaker at a conference
Participant on a corporate or advisory board
Member of data safety monitoring board
Advisor to a research study or project
Product development consultant
Curriculum or program development
Teacher/Trainer/Personal Coach

What about Clinical services and agreements?

All contracts and revenue associated with clinical activities or supervision will continue to be managed by CU Medicine.

Examples of Clinical services include:

UCH, UCHA, CHCO, DHHS, VA agreements
Community Outreach work with small hospitals or clinics
Faculty “Moonlighting” work at a medical facility
CMS Agreements (e.g. GUIDE program)
CU Medicine clinic agreements (leases, supplies, etc.)
Medical Director or Hospital Administration work
Clinical Lab agreements
Support for professional sports teams
Uncompensated clinical work (to ensure liability coverage)
Activities that require a Site of Practice

When are the changes effective?

CU Medicine has set the following implementation schedule for the transition of Medical/Legal activity:

Immediate - Faculty members who are entering new arrangements with law firms or administrative entities or who are just beginning work on a new case may enter into those relationships and bill their own work immediately. They no longer need to request CU Medicine to send a bill for this work. If any law firm is confused regarding the change from CU Medicine to the faculty member, CU Medicine will provide communication to clarify the change. If a faculty member wishes to continue having CU Medicine process medical/legal billing, the faculty member may continue to submit requests to ContractBilling@cumedicine.us through September 30, 2025.

October 1 – As of this date, faculty members may no longer submit requests for billing new medical/legal cases/services to ContractBilling@cumedicine.us. CU Medicine will, if desired by the faculty member, continue to process billing and collections related to open cases in the CU Medicine system until each case concludes or the contract ends. CU Medicine will continue to track open retainer balances and refund remaining balances as appropriate. If CU Medicine holds an existing contract or retainer for a provider, additional information will be sent to those providers.

Please note that the change only relates to Medical/Legal activity.

If a faculty member chooses to continue to use CU Medicine’s Services for the wind-down of existing agreements, will the current assessments be charged?

Any funds collected by CU Medicine will follow the current CU Medicine process, subject to assessments, consulting earnings thresholds and department incentive plan protocols.

What happens with existing outstanding Medical/Legal invoices?

CU Medicine will collect all outstanding invoices. These collections will be managed through the existing CU Medicine process.

What are the compliance requirements for providers that perform Medical/Legal work for their own benefit?

Faculty may not use university resources to perform this work including billing or scheduling assistance from CU staff and meeting space. Use of University email addresses for Medical/Legal work is discouraged. All work must be done on personal time.

Are faculty able to record Medical/Legal collections into their CU Medicine or SOM accounts to use for discretionary purposes or to offset salary? Are departments allowed to bill for Medical/Legal activities in these cases?

No, all proceeds will be paid directly to the faculty member in their personal capacity and the faculty member is individually responsible for all billing and tax encumbrances.

Does department leadership have decision making authority on Medical/Legal work that providers can perform or can department leaders request a review of Medical/Legal activity/collections?

A faculty member can perform this work in their personal capacity and all work must be done on personal time. Department chairs may issue guidelines to clarify faculty expectations.

Is the change in Medical/Legal retrospective to the beginning of the fiscal year?

No, the Medical/Legal process is a prospective change.

How does malpractice or liability coverage change if providers are engaging directly for Medical/Legal work?

Medical/Legal work will not be covered by any CU insurance. However, Medical/Legal work has limited legal exposure as no physician relationship is created.

Can the faculty market themselves as University of Colorado faculty for Medical/Legal work if they are now contracting outside of CU Medicine?

Yes.

Do these votes have any impact on existing activities that Members can currently perform outside of CU Medicine (current non-assignable income)?

No. The existing ability of faculty to directly receive “non-assignable income” as defined in the Member Practice Agreement remains unchanged. “Non-assignable income” currently includes “Exempt Honoraria” which is generally defined by the SOM as 1) modest one-time payments by a non-profit organization for lectures, articles, visiting professorships and service on boards and 2) one-time or recurring reimbursement for participation on NIH, VA, and other governmental study sections. “Non-assignable income” also currently includes royalties, licensing fees and other income from publications, editorial services, patents, copyrighted materials and trade secrets (assuming the Member is in compliance with university policies on commercializing intellectual property).