A. Absolutely. For a number of reasons a Anesthesia Coverage Agreement is critical to your success. It not only outlines the responsibilities you have in providing anesthesia coverage for the facility/hospital, but it also outlines who you are, how you plan to provide service, sets forth the facts on how you are to be reimbursed for your services, direct billing to patients and their third party carriers, or a salary scheme directly with the facility. If your anesthesia practice allows you to directly bill your patients and / or their third party payers for your services there are a number of additional items that this type of agreement should cover. Examples of these items are allowance of access -free of charge- to all medical record documents necessary for billing and claim submission purposes, access to patient demographic and insurance data, as well as a clear indicator that you are not an employee of the facility/hospital nor are you involved in any aspect of the facility/hospital’s billing for any anesthesia supplies and / or equipment. Of course any legal binding contract should be reviewed by an attorney; however, several of the necessary issues that need to be addressed within the actual contract are missed by attorneys who’s primary concern is the legal interpretation of the agreement. Issues associated with HIPAA need to be addressed and you may be asked to sign a Business Associates agreement with the hospital/facility.