Appalachian Emergency Physicians

“We were unable to review the final return with board members prior to filing with the irs. The final return was provided to board members we could reach.”

“Explanation: every covered person as defined by the conflict of interest policy adopted by the board of directors were subject to that policy. As part of said policy, every covered person completed a conflict of interest disclosure statement in accordance with the requirement of the conflict of interest policy.”

“Explanation: aep had entered into professional service contracts with physicians to assist aep in providing emergency service coverage to hospitals. These agreements included fixed rates and bonuses based on productivity or achieving quality, patient satisfaction scores or other quality metrics. The methodology or amount of the bonus was fixed and set in advance within each contract. Bonus formulas are based upon reached predetermined and objectively verifiable performance metrics. In addition to addressing excess benefit, private inurement and private benefit concerns, aep's compensation arrangements were structured in a manner to comply with applicable fraud and abuse laws that apply to health care providers. Aep had negotiated each of its compensation arrangements at arm's length. The agreements include commercially reasonable terms and conditions with a compensation arrangement that is consistent with fair market value for the services rendered. The terms and conditions of such arrangements were are set through good faith negotiations among the relevant parties in an effort to be consistent with similar arrangements for other health care providers providing similar services in similar specialties within southwestern virginia and northeastern tennessee. National physician compensation survey data (e.g. Mgma physician compensation survey) and other objective comparable data was used as the basis for setting physician compensation arrangements. Aep also utilized the services of nationally-recognized valuation firms to evaluate compensation arrangements to ensure that they were consistent with fair market value and were commercially reasonable. In addition to compensation received for provision of physician services, aep's president, josh puhr, receives pay as an independent contractor for his duties and responsibilities as president.”

“Former director moody, received compensation from aep as an independent contractor for provision of physician services to hospitals serviced by aep. His contract, similar to puhr's, followed the same process used for aep physician contracts that is described for part vi, line 15a.”

“Explanation: the conflict of interest policy, in addition to other governing policies, is available upon request. All corporate policies and corporate financial statements are also available upon request. Form 990, part vii, section a - compensation of directors and officers explanation: aep does not compensate its officers and directors except as follows: president/director puhr and former director moody were paid by aep for physician services they provide to hospitals. In additio, puhr receives additional compensation, as approved by the board, for his services to the organization as president.”

“Aep was established to fulfill a need for emergency provider services and stabilize coverage of emergency services at mountain states health alliance (msha) hospitals in southwest virginia and northeast tennessee when the need for such coverage had been unable to be fulfilled by other emergency medicine providers in the community. As a regional provider of emergency medicine services, aep also experienced some difficulty in maintaining a sufficient number of providers to fully staff the msha hospitals without utilizing locum tenens (temporary) providers. Msha determined that contracting with a national provider of emergency medicine services would likely make a larger pool of providers available to fulfill the coverage needs of its facilities and terminated its contracts with aep. Because the msha hospitals were aep's only clients, aep determined that it was in the best interest of the organization to cease operations, wind up its business and terminate its corporate entity.”

“Physician fees 47,582 0 0 collection service fees 99,485 0 0 total 147,067 0 0”

“Transfer cash to msha -805,415 transfer accounts payable to msha 1,194,920 prior period adjustment -99,913 total 289,592”