Opinion ID: 2582398
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Dr Martinez's employment terms with the University of Nevada, School of Medicine

Text: In order to provide context for the parties' appellate arguments, we first briefly discuss the terms of Dr. Martinez's employment with UNSOM. Dr. Martinez left private medical practice in 1997 to become employed as a full-time, tenure-track faculty member of UNSOM. As a condition of his employment, he agreed to join UNSOM's nonprofit medical practice plan entity, University of Nevada, School of Medicine Multispecialty Group Practice, Inc. This entity is also known as MedAssociates. Like many medical practices, MedAssociates coordinates and performs administrative services for its member physicians. These include billing, collections, accounting, and credentialing of member physicians; providing clinical practice facilities, equipment, malpractice insurance, and support staff; and securing paying patient referrals through health insurance plans. Patients and medical service insurers remit payments for services to MedAssociates, a portion of which it distributes to UNSOM for physician salaries. The remaining revenues defray MedAssociates' general operating overhead and nonmedical employee salaries. UNSOM employed Dr. Martinez under a written contract signed by his department chairman the dean of UNSOM, and the chairman of MedAssociates' board of directors. According to the terms of his agreement with MedAssociates, Dr. Martinez could not provide private patient care outside the scope of his services with MedAssociates without the written approval of his direct supervisor, the UNSOM department chairman. Although UNSOM determined Dr. Martinez's compensation and issued his pay-checks, his salary upon annual contract renewal was dependent in part upon his annual revenue production through MedAssociates. This arrangement notwithstanding, Dr. Martinez received a regular paycheck even if MedAssociates did not collect enough revenue to cover the agreed base salary. Finally, by virtue of his association with UNSOM, Dr. Martinez received retirement and other benefits through the State of Nevada. In summary, although MedAssociates manages the employment of its support staff, UNSOM manages the employment of MedAssociates' member physicians and nurse practitioners. District court proceedings The district court ultimately issued a judgment declaring that Dr. Martinez was not entitled to the benefits of sovereign immunity. In particular, the court concluded (1) that Dr. Martinez's treatment of Mr. Maruszczak was a nongovernmental function performed on behalf of MedAssociates, a revenue-generating entity separate from UNSOM; and (2) that, regardless, proprietary activities of government, such as the practice of medicine, do not enjoy sovereign immunity protections, qualified or otherwise, as a matter of law. Dr. Martinez appeals. [3]