Medicine & the Law

If you are hired by a practice that is receiving hospital assistance, you may be asked to sign a hospital assistance agreement. This agreement should be drafted so that it is fair to all parties to the transaction.

CMS continues to struggle to define, explain and implement it nearly 19 years since Congress first began regulating physician referral relationships under Pete Stark’s leadership. The latest attempts appear as a “Phase III Final Rule” and as further tinkering in the 2008 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.

Whatever the challenge, it is important for each physician owner to objectively consider their rights and obligations so that they can make the best decisions for themselves and the practice.

Physician investors should consider a variety of options for turning their investments around, and even if the investment cannot be salvaged, should carefully develop a strategy to cut their losses to the extent possible.

A helpful guide to the “twelve ways of business” to better understand the disability insurance claims process.

The CMS published final rules amending regulations with respect to the physician self-referral prohibition, commonly known as Stark. Some of the most drastic and positive changes were made to the physician recruitment exception.

Your evidence can help you to avoid a judgment or at least avoid a severe award. Your evidence (or lack of it) is also what causes a plaintiff’s attorney to take on a plaintiff’s case in the first place.

Developing a basic – but effective – compliance program need not be overwhelming or overly expensive.

If properly planned out, organized and implemented, a merger may indeed result in a larger group which would be stronger as one unit than the individual practices were prior to them coming together. This generally results in maintaining or increasing the total market share of the doctors involved.

We need to be prepared to deal with the carrier’s evidence-gathering methods so that there is no miscommunication or misunderstanding about your practice area, specialty or billing methodology.