How to Create a Charter for a Health Care Services Business
- 1). Review the health care licensing laws from your state department of health. States like Pennsylvania and Michigan lay out clear requirements for what they need included in a company's charter documents in order to approve a license to operate.
- 2). State your company's purpose. Spell out the exact type of services you will provide and to whom you will provide them. Your target population can -- and in many cases should -- be broad. Michigan, for example requires health care providers to state among other things, that they will make their services available to all people and groups in need of care, that they will work as an intermediary with Medicare and that the business will provide financial assistance when needed to make its services available to those in need.
- 3). Describe your business' form of governance. Whether you have a corporation, limited liability company or limited liability partnership, you need to delineate who will be in charge and what your governing mechanisms will be -- such as board of directors meetings for corporations. You should include spelling out any key positions or managers beyond the ownership if you intend to have an administrator or supervising clinician who is not an owner.
- 4). Relate your organization's charitable aims and goals if you are creating a health care nonprofit. Perhaps you intend to provide immunization services to those below the poverty line or you will work to provide a certain standard of medical care for anyone in your community if you are starting a new hospital. Be as clear and detailed as possible as this can affect your nonprofit status as well as licensing.
- 5). Describe any relationships your health care service has with other companies such as a parent or affiliate. Include information on how relationships affect governance and legal responsibilities. If the new health care business is a subsidiary of another company, then you should also expect to furnish additional information in your application to the state department of health, as Pennsylvania requires.
