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Physician Contract Glossary · Compensation

Guaranteed Financial Assistance

Guaranteed financial assistance is money a hospital or group advances you, often with strings, to help you start.

This is upfront money meant to get you off the ground: an income guarantee, a draw against future collections, or a hospital recruitment subsidy. It feels like a gift in your first year. It usually is not. Most of these arrangements come with a repayment or forgiveness schedule tied to you staying a set number of years, and leaving early triggers a bill.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Treat every dollar of upfront assistance as a loan until the contract proves otherwise. Read the forgiveness timeline and know exactly what you would owe if you left in year two.

Related terms

Stop being recruited. Start choosing.

You are about to sign something the senior people in your program signed without reading.

They had no guide either. You do. Start with the option that costs you nothing: see every practice that is actually out there before anyone hands you a contract.

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