If this group sells in year two, what happens to my rate, my tail, and my covenant?

Assume the sale happens, and read the contract as if it will. In anesthesia this decade, a sale is a live possibility, and your contract decides what survives it. Three things are exposed. Your rate, your tail, and your covenant.

Part of the Anesthesiology New Attending hub.

Your rate

When a group sells, one of three things usually happens. The buyer takes over your existing contract, which is called assignment, or the buyer puts everyone on new paper, or the buyer purchases the stock or equity and the employing entity does not change at all. If your contract can be assigned, your terms carry over, at least until the contract's term runs out. If the buyer is going to repaper everyone, your rate is up for negotiation again, and you are negotiating with someone who just bought the group and has their own numbers in mind. In a stock or equity sale, nothing gets assigned because the employer is technically the same company, so the assignment clause never triggers. Only change of control language covers that case.

So read the assignment clause. Can the group assign your contract to a buyer without your consent? And if the buyer offers you a new contract, can you say no without owing anything?

The consent question is the key one. If the group can assign your contract without your consent, you could wake up working for a company you never agreed to join, under terms you negotiated with someone else. If you have a consent right, you have negotiating power at the moment of sale. Know which one you have.

Your tail

If you are on a claims made malpractice policy, somebody has to cover claims from your time at the old group. If the selling entity dissolves after the sale, who owes that tail? The seller might not exist anymore. The buyer might say it is not their problem. And you could end up holding the bill for coverage on cases you did before the sale.

Ask the group now who is responsible for tail if the company is sold, and whether the buyer's policy covers your prior acts, and get the answer in the contract. This is the kind of question that gets a shrug before a sale and a fight after one. The time to pin it down is before anyone is thinking about selling, which is right now.

Your covenant

Does your noncompete assign to the buyer? If it does, a company you never agreed to work for could enforce a noncompete against you. And check whether your covenant reaches the buyer's other sites. A covenant that names only the facilities you signed up for is one thing. If it reaches affiliates, successors, or future sites, a large platform buyer's map could be a lot bigger than the one you signed up for.

Sign a noncompete covering three hospitals, then the buyer owns thirty. If your covenant assigns and reaches affiliates, it could now reach ten times as many sites without you agreeing to anything new. Read the successor language carefully.

Negotiate a change of control exit

The most useful thing you can negotiate now is a change of control exit. That is a clause that says if the group sells, you can leave within a set window without paying the clawback, without buying your own tail, and without the noncompete following you. It is much easier to get before any sale is on the table, because right now nobody is thinking about it except you.

Groups do not always agree to it. But asking tells you something. A group that has no plans to sell usually does not mind giving you that protection. A group that fights hard on it might be telling you more than they mean to. It is a negotiation ask, not a legal right, and whether your contract can even be assigned to a buyer depends on the contract and your state.

What you do with that information is up to you. At least you will know what happens to your job on the day the group changes hands.

Framework box: sale exposure

Published October 10, 2026. Last reviewed October 10, 2026.