Contracts with practitioners
Partnership, room-sharing and service agreements that reflect how the clinic really works, with attention to the elements that characterize an employment relationship under Brazilian labor law.
Sector advisory · healthcare
Legal advisory for clinics: contracts, medical records, liability and professional councils
A clinic deals with patients, self-employed practitioners, health insurers, sensitive data and professional councils at the same time. Each of those relationships has its own rules and a typical point of failure.
Straight answer: the most common legal risks in clinics
Problems concentrate on five fronts: the relationship with practitioners who work as self-employed or through a company and may claim an employment relationship; storage and sharing of medical records and health data, which the Brazilian data protection law (LGPD) treats as sensitive data; civil liability for results, especially in aesthetic procedures; consumer relations, with duties of information and refunds; and inquiries by professional councils, which may reach both the practitioner and the technical director.
This page is for partners, technical directors and administrators of medical, dental, aesthetic, physiotherapy and psychology clinics and laboratories. We serve companies throughout the State of São Paulo, Brazil, with meetings at our Paulista or Tatuapé offices or by video call, and act before the São Paulo courts (TJSP), the labor courts (TRT-2, TRT-15), the federal court (TRF-3) and administrative bodies.
Work fronts in advisory for clinics
Medical records and LGPD
Legal basis for processing health data, 20-year retention, patient access, sharing with insurers and incident response.
Informed consent
Procedure-specific forms describing risks, alternatives and limits in understandable language. They are the main evidence in disputes about results.
Insurers and claim denials
Contracts with health plan operators, accreditation rules, challenging denied claims and de-accreditation without adequate notice.
Consumer relations
Packages, deposits, cancellation and refunds follow the Brazilian Consumer Code. Clear rules before contracting prevent consumer agency complaints and small-claims suits.
Councils and the technical director
Liability of the technical director for advertising, facilities and third-party practice. Defense in inquiries and ethics proceedings.
Where problems usually start
Verbal agreements with practitioners
Percentage-based pay, a schedule controlled by the clinic and exclusivity without a written contract are the classic ingredients of a labor claim.
Advertising results
Before-and-after photos, promises and prices on social media attract council scrutiny and reinforce claims of an obligation of result.
Data in messaging apps
Exams and patient photos exchanged on personal phones are the most frequent and hardest-to-contain security incident.
How the advisory works in practice
1. Diagnosis
Meeting and document review to map risks by front: people, data, patients, councils and corporate structure.
2. Structuring
Review of contracts, forms and policies, with short training for reception staff and practitioners.
3. Ongoing support
Responses to notices, negotiation with insurers, administrative and judicial defense when necessary.
Clinics with more than one practitioner must define in writing who is the technical director and what each practitioner is individually liable for. Without that, liability tends to fall on the whole clinic.
Frequently asked questions from clinics
Can a practitioner who bills through a company claim an employment relationship?
Yes, if in practice there is subordination, personal work, regularity and pay. The contract helps, but what decides is how the relationship works day to day.
How long must the clinic keep medical records?
Twenty years from the last entry for paper records; digitized records under Law 13,787/2018 may replace the physical ones, provided integrity and authenticity requirements are met.
Can a patient dissatisfied with an aesthetic result demand a refund?
In aesthetic procedures, Brazilian case law tends to treat the obligation as one of result. Detailed informed consent and the procedure record are the main defenses.
Official references and related pages
Reference legislation for clinics in Brazil. Actual application depends on the specialty, the corporate structure and the contracts in force.
Want to map your clinic's risks?
Send a description of the structure and contracts through the secure channel. The screening identifies the priority fronts and the appropriate advisory format.