Division of labor can make medical practice a commercial enterprise

If a doctor in a group practice takes over the administrative tasks and therefore no longer performs any significant treatments, the practice becomes a commercial enterprise.

A group practice can become a commercial enterprise if one of the doctors is primarily responsible for the organization, administration and management of the practice and only provides his own medical consulting and treatment services to a limited extent. This was decided by the Rhineland-Palatinate Fiscal Court in the case of a joint dental practice on the grounds that, in the case of a self-employed partnership, each partner must fulfill the characteristics of independent work in his or her own person. A physician owes a highly personal and individual work performance to the patient and must therefore perform a substantial part of the medical services himself. In principle, a certain division of labor is harmless, but it is necessary that each partner of the joint practice participates in the teamwork in the typical medical field by virtue of his personal professional qualification.