What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? South Carolina
My Sole Proprietorship company hire Independent Contractors to perform in home speech services to children. We hired a new Independent Contractor (Speech Pathologist) that is starting next week. She has worked for her former employer several years, but has no signed contract with them. She worried about the owner letting her go on the spot once she told him she was leaving (she saw this with other contractors) so she was going to give no real notice. She told her clients she was changing companies and they all told her they wanted to go with her. An Early Interventionist she worked with notified the owner about the Therapist leaving and he decided to call our company and bad mouth the Therapist. The owner has sense also spent the majority of a day calling each of her clients and bad mouthing her and spreading false information and then told the therapist whether she provides a resignation letter or not it would be her last day. The owner also expressed the possibility of legal action on the therapist as she has all the speech records of the clients and that we would need to request the records from him and not have the therapist just bring it with her. Do the clients and their records technically qualify as the Independent Therapist as their is no contract signed and the records are in the possession of the Therapist? Also what can she do about the false comments (I consider harassment) and unprofessionalism by the owner? Also with her coming on board we don't want to have any HIPPA violations with using client information and he is claiming she is soliciting his clients. We also don't want him to drag a request and not provide release of records as he is obviously mad ( Through this hiring process we determined he is more than likely committing Medicaid fraud and the Insurance company knows this now). Any help/advice would be appreciated.
Thank you,
My Sole Proprietorship company hire Independent Contractors to perform in home speech services to children. We hired a new Independent Contractor (Speech Pathologist) that is starting next week. She has worked for her former employer several years, but has no signed contract with them. She worried about the owner letting her go on the spot once she told him she was leaving (she saw this with other contractors) so she was going to give no real notice. She told her clients she was changing companies and they all told her they wanted to go with her. An Early Interventionist she worked with notified the owner about the Therapist leaving and he decided to call our company and bad mouth the Therapist. The owner has sense also spent the majority of a day calling each of her clients and bad mouthing her and spreading false information and then told the therapist whether she provides a resignation letter or not it would be her last day. The owner also expressed the possibility of legal action on the therapist as she has all the speech records of the clients and that we would need to request the records from him and not have the therapist just bring it with her. Do the clients and their records technically qualify as the Independent Therapist as their is no contract signed and the records are in the possession of the Therapist? Also what can she do about the false comments (I consider harassment) and unprofessionalism by the owner? Also with her coming on board we don't want to have any HIPPA violations with using client information and he is claiming she is soliciting his clients. We also don't want him to drag a request and not provide release of records as he is obviously mad ( Through this hiring process we determined he is more than likely committing Medicaid fraud and the Insurance company knows this now). Any help/advice would be appreciated.
Thank you,