By Nicholas Gaudiosi

I’ve thought for months about how to write this article and actually get my point across without sounding like a psychic, because I certainly don’t possess an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses. The fact is, I’m not a psychic and I don’t have a crystal ball; if I did, I wouldn’t be working for a medical malpractice insurance company. But, since I’m just a regular guy and I work for HPIX, I feel it is my obligation to raise awareness among physicians and their …

By Lucia Francesca Bruno, JD, LLM, MBA

The proverbial statement, “You only get one bite at the apple” couldn’t be truer than when negotiating a Physician Employment Agreement.  Whether you’re the head of a medical practice inviting an experienced physician to join the group, or a resident contemplating a Letter of Intent, fair and effective negotiations are paramount to establishing a long-term working relationship.

Forethought, preparation, and the ability to listen are essential to success.  Regrettably, by the time most physicians realize that the terms of their Agreement are less than propitious …

By Tracy Krulik

In 1998 I wound up in a South Florida emergency room following a week of nausea, vomiting, and frail-octogenarian-like weakness. After a brief exam, an overnight stay in the hospital, and an endoscopy, the internist sent me home with motility drugs to combat his diagnosed cause of my problems — gastroparesis. That was the start of my nine-year illness, which was misdiagnosed at every turn. Mine is a story of how I survived a medical odyssey that included a tumor on my pancreas as well as …

By Patricia A. Costante

Thanks in part to the widespread attention of concussions among high-profile professional athletes, the medical community, many states and other groups have recognized that these types of head injuries can also have a devastating impact on young athletes. Second and third concussions could have long lasting and even catastrophic effects. As the 2011-2012 school year gets into full swing, physicians have an opportunity to take a proactive role in addressing what’s become a serious medical issue among those 18 and younger.

Startling statistics

Research on the prevalence and impact …

By Dr. Michael West

Two classes of physicians are slowly forming, those who use electronic medical records and digital mobile technology and those who stick with paper charts. You might call these the digital haves and the digital have-nots.

No one among my friends and colleagues has yet pooh-pooh’d the idea of mobile tech, but I admit that the mobile tech crowd is still fairly small in the world of electronic healthcare. The bottom line is that most doctors are still on paper charts.

In my case, though, my EMR and mobile technology are …

By Franklin Rooks Jr., PT, MBA, Esq.

Introduction

Health savings accounts (HSA’s) were created under “The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, as a consumer-driven mechanism to combat rising medical inflation.  They promote savings for future health related expenses and allow consumers to be more judicious with their health care expenditures.  HSA’s are becoming increasingly popular.  In 2011, 35 percent of organizations provided health HSAs, up from 29 percent in 2007.[1] Two reasons may be behind their rise in popularity.  First, HSA’s are accompanied by a generous tax …

By Lynn Lucas-Fehm, MD, JD

Most of us recall the literary character Dr. Watson who served as the steadfast confidant, supporter, physician and assistant to the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes.  Now there is a new Watson in our midst, an artificial intelligence computer developed by IBM and named after IBM’s first president Thomas J. Watson.

After handily defeating the formidable human Jeopardy champions, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings, Watson’s developers have expanded the computer’s medical databases to create what may become the ultimate digital collection of medical information. However, what truly sets …

Larry C. Kerpelman, Ph.D.

As a result of a freak fall while jogging, my wife, Joanie, sustained a subdural hematoma.  It took three emergency room visits, two hospitalizations, one neurosurgery, and several months of rehabilitation before she regained her lost capacities. During her first hospitalization, we became acquainted with the hospitalist’s role which, while not new in the United States, was new to us.  In the book I wrote about our experience with her injury, treatment, rehabilitation, and recovery, I included a commentary on the hospitalist phenomenon as we experienced it …

By Daniel M. Bernick, Esq., M.B.A

When I first started as a health care attorney and consultant, 20 years ago, my mentor remarked that compensation planning for physician groups was probably the most challenging type of consulting assignment that our firm handled.  In the years since, after performing many such assignments, I agree.

On its face, choosing a compensation formula may appear to be a simple task.  It is not a highly technical problem.  There a number of standard formulas (see addendum to this article) and virtually all groups use one of …

By Thomas Lloyd

Recent stock market volatility has caused a collective feeling of nausea for most Americans this past month who have seen their investments suffer considerable drops in value over concerns of another recession and debt issue in Europe. The Standard and Poors 500 stock index has dropped 17 percent of its value since late July and stocks overall finished last week with a 4 percent decline.[1] The Chicago Board Options Exchange Market Volatility Index, a popular measure of the implied volatility of S&P 500 index options and offten referred …