Experts Invited | The Leading Business Education Network for Doctors, Financial Advisors and Health Industry Consultants

Next Generation Physician Recruitment

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Filling the Funnel with Candidates

By Susan L. Theuns; PA-C, CPC, CHC

The best-kept secret about physician recruiting is to keep the funnel filled with a pool of candidates. With the dearth of primary care physicians – and some specialists for example – modern healthcare organizations can’t afford to wait for doctors to beat a path to their door; they have to go after the physicians they want. That means generating a sizeable list of prospects on the front end to narrow it down to the 100 or so doctors who will be called for an initial conversation. From there, the team may do some 50 telephone screening interviews to generate five site visits in order to select the one perfectly matched prospect who will sign on the dotted line.

The Prospect List

Depending upon the opportunity, there are a number of ways to generate a list of prospects:

Direct mail using a purchased list of physicians culled from criteria such as medical specialty and current geographical location. The American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Medical Association [AMA], and licensure boards can supply these lists. The organization sends direct mail announcing the opportunity and then has a team member follow-up with outbound calling. If the physician is not interested, the caller should ask if s/he knows someone who is.
Personal calls following recruitment fairs and specialty meetings.
Advertising in medical and specialty journals and on the web, Twitter, etc.
Resident campaign using posted flyers and announcements.
Physician networking based on group member recommendations.
Medical Staff Office contacts at the local hospital.
Networking through specialty or group management organizations. Some organizations offer free on-line job postings for members.
Affiliations with residency programs.

Screenings and Interviews

From the initial pool of candidates, the internal recruiter must call prospects and conduct preliminary screenings to verify licensure status and board certification, gather professional and personal details about the candidate, and answer his or her questions about the opportunity. Whenever possible, research should be done to secure the prospect’s home or cell telephone number. Calling prospects in the evening at home gives them more time and privacy to talk freely.

www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

Assessment

Although this screening step generates a smaller list of credible prospects that meet the search criteria generated at the beginning of the recruitment process, it is a more viable one.

Front Matter: Front Matter BoMP – 3

About the Author: Susan Theuns has an extensive background in healthcare, business management, facilities/operations and compliance that spans three decades. She holds degrees in Allied Health and Business Management and has been a Certified Physician Assistant for 32 years. She is also a Certified Professional Coder and is certified in Healthcare Compliance. Susan has published a variety of articles for Coding Edge, Healthcare Compliance Today, and the Group Practice Journal and serves on the Advisory Board for Ingenix. Her professional memberships and affiliations include the American Medical Group Association, National Honor Society in Business Administration (Delta Mu Delta), Health Care Compliance Association, American Academy of Professional Coders, and the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants. She was MedStar Health’s Compliance Director of the Year in 2003 and is currently Administrative Director of Physician Practices for Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Conclusion

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Health Dictionary Series: http://www.springerpub.com/Search/marcinko

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/product/9780826105752

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

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Filed under: Experts Invited, Practice Management | Tagged: Physician Recruitment, susan theuns | 1 Comment »

Search Guidance for a Chief Medical Security Officer

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

A Business Case Model

By Richard J. Mata MD MS CIS

The Mighty-Soft Hospital is a futuristic 1,500 bed fortress-like facility operating with a state-of-the-art dual wired-wireless infrastructure complete with computerized physician order entry system, radio frequency inventory device (RFID) control tags, and integrated electronic medical records (EMRs) that are the envy of its competitors and vendors, and offer a formidable strategic competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Now, imagine the potential liability, PR disaster and chagrin when its enfant terrible CEO is told of a massive security breach similar to the ChoicePoint and Lexis-Nexis fiascos. The ID theft involves release of critically protected healthcare financial, employment, clinical, and contact information for all of its patients, employees, physicians, business associates, and affiliated medical personnel.

Suddenly, senior management is charged with the task of establishing the new position of Chief Medical Security Officer (CMSO) for Mighty-Soft, and navigating a crisis management dilemma never previously faced by the formerly HIPAA-compliant electronic giant.

The CMSO is to be a senior level management position responsible for championing institutional security. Awareness of electronic and HIPAA policy and procedure developments, while working to ensure compliance with internal and external standards related to information security, is vital. The CMSO is to report directly to the CEO and the CIO.

The Search Committee developed the following list of CMSO duties and responsibilities:

Chair the hospital’s Information Security and Privacy Committee in its policy development efforts to maintain the security and integrity of information assets in compliance with state and federal laws, and accreditation standards.
Provide project management and operational responsibility for the administration, coordination, and implementation of information security policies and procedures across the enterprise-wide hospital system.
Perform periodic information security risk assessments including disaster recovery and contingency planning, and coordinate internal audits to ensure that appropriate access to information assets is maintained.
Work with the financial division to coordinate a business recovery plan.

Serve as a central repository for information security-related issues and performance indicators. Research security or database software for implementing the central repository, and note that a server based system could be useful for a Wide Area Network (WAN), so this information can be shared with the enterprise-wide hospital system. Develop, implement, and administer a coordinated process for response to such issues.
Function when necessary as an approval authority for platform and/or application security and coordinate efforts to educate the hospital community in good information security practices.
Maintain a broad understanding of federal and state laws relating to information security and privacy, security policies, industry best practices, exposures, and their application to the healthcare information technology environment.
Make recommendations for short- and long-range security planning in response to future systems, new technology, and new organizational challenges.
Act as an advocate for security and privacy on internal and external committees as necessary.
Develop, maintain, and administer the security budget required to fulfill organizational information security expectations.
Demonstrate effectiveness with consensus building, policy development, and verbal and written communication skills.
Possess the clear ability to explain information technology concepts to audiences outside the field.
Become the public face for the Mighty-Soft Hospital’s legacy security system.

Minimum Qualifications:

MD, DO, DPM, DDS, DMD, with bachelor’s/master’s degree in computer science or related field or equivalent experience.
Three or more years of experience in the healthcare industry.
Five or more years of experience in information security.
Eight or more years of experience in information technology.
In-depth understanding of network and system security technology and practices across all major computing areas (mainframe, client/server, PC/LAN, telephony) with a special emphasis on Internet related technology.

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience with electronic medical devices.
Specific experiences in the healthcare industry.
Familiarity with legislation and standards for PHI and patient privacy.
Demonstrated successful project management expertise.
Professional certification, e.g., CISSP, CISA, PMP.
Experience with student record/higher education laws.

Key Issues:

What is your IT hardware infrastructure and how are security-related devices deployed?
What security requirements are imposed by federal and state authorities on your institution?
What would you consider the most important criteria for choosing a CMSO?
What relationship will the CMSO have with the CIO, CMIO and CEO?
What level of security education/training do you consider necessary for your hospital community?
What are the key security issues your CMSO will have to address?
What are the key privacy issues?
What are the key risk management issues?
What are the pros and cons of EHRs for your institution?
What do you see as the EHR priorities for your CMSO?
What are the security issues of EHRs for your institution?

Assessment

How would you select a CMSO?

Conclusion

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

PRACTICES: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
HOSPITALS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466558731
CLINICS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439879900
ADVISORS: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org
FINANCE: Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
INSURANCE: Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors
Dictionary of Health Economics and Finance
Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security
Dictionary of Health Insurance and Managed Care

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Career Development, Experts Invited, Information Technology | Tagged: chief medical security officer, CIO, CISA, CISSP, HIPAA, LAN, PMP, RFID, Richard Mata, WAN | 2 Comments »

Healthcare Reform at a Glance

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

A One-Stop-Look-See with Comparisons

By Staff Reporters

Link: Health-Care-Reform-Comparison-in-Brief

[Courtesy: BuckConsultants]

Conclusion

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Health Dictionary Series: http://www.springerpub.com/Search/marcinko

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/product/9780826105752

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: Career Development, Experts Invited, Health Economics, Health Insurance, Health Law & Policy, Research & Development | Tagged: ACA, Affordable Care Act., BuckConsultants, healthcare reform, ObamaCare | 2 Comments »

Seeking Healthcare Administration Experts and Contributing Print Authors

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Healthcare Organizations [second edition]

By Ann Miller RN MHA

[Executive-Director]

Greetings ME-P Readers, Experts and Subscribers,

As you may know, we are now preparing the next edition of our book: Healthcare Organizations [Management Strategies, Operational Techniques and Case Studies]. And so, we solicit your interest in crafting new material or simply updating original chapters for subscriber, ACPE, Barnes & Noble, MGMA, ACHE and related distribution channels.

Tentative Table of Contents [400 pages]

On the Origins and Development of Quality Initiatives in Healthcare
Competitive Analysis of the Contemporary Healthcare Ecosystem
Capital Formation Strategies for Healthcare Entities
Inventory Management and Economic Order Quantity Analysis
Improving Operations and Management to Achieve Objectives
Financial and Clinical Features of Hospital Information Systems
Managing Health Information Technology Security Risks
Monitoring, Managing and Enhancing Hospital Revenue Cycles
Patient [Customer] Relations Management in Healthcare
Healthcare Organization Compliance Processes and Tactics
Reviewing OSHA Standards and Health Policy Practices
Operational Impact of HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley and the USA PATRIOT ACT
Understanding Continuous Healthcare Process Improvement
Using Medical Informatics to Track Health Care
Appreciating Six-Sigma Healthcare Quality Improvement
Hospital-Flow Through Efficiency and Logistics.

Editorial support is available, and you would enjoy increasing subject-matter notoriety, exposure and public relations in an erudite and credible fashion. ME-P expert reader synergy seems ideal and our time line for submission is ample in a prose writing style that is “wide, and deep.” Scheduled release is 2012.

Assessment [first edition]

Foreword: http://healthcarefinancials.com/aboutus.aspx

Style and format: http://healthcarefinancials.com/Documents/Clinical%20and%20Financial%20Features%20of%20Hospital%20IT%20Systems.pdf

Prior authors: http://healthcarefinancials.com/contributors.aspx

TOC: http://healthcarefinancials.com/Documents/TABLE%20OF%20CONTENTS.pdf

We look forward to working with you and appreciate your continued “crowd-sourced” interest in this important body of work. So, please advise me of your interest: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

Conclusion

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Health Dictionary Series: http://www.springerpub.com/Search/marcinko

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/product/9780826105752

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Book Reviews, Breaking News, Experts Invited, Health Economics, Health Insurance, Healthcare Finance, iMBA, Inc. | Tagged: david marcinko, healthcare writers, journalists, medical writers | Leave a comment »

About Consent Care.Net

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

The Case for Fully Informed Consent

By Dr. Martin Young

MBChB, FCS(SA)Otol.

martin@carespace.net

The issue of ‘informed consent’ is an ever present bugbear in all healthcare systems around the world, raising its head time after time in journals, weblogs, healthcare administration policies and, above all, medical malpractice lawsuits. Every mention emphasizes the need for improving this difficult issue, but in spite thereof little seems to change. ConsentCare is a new initiative aiming at addressing the challenges of facilitating and enhancing informed consent.

Why the big deal?

Medical ethicists have long known that, if trust is indeed the cornerstone of the successful doctor-patient relationship, that subjecting a person to medical or surgical treatment without discussing all aspects thereof wherever possible, i.e. fully informed consent, constitutes a betrayal of that trust.

Common opinion asserts that good informed consent creates better mental preparation for surgery, decreased anxiety, shorter hospital stays, earlier recognition of complications by patients before they become serious, and a generally higher success rate and satisfaction rate for the surgery.

70% of the detail of discussion about surgical detail and risk held in doctors’ rooms is forgotten by patients by the time the consultation is over. Patients are ordinarily asked to consent to surgical procedures ‘on the spot’ without access to the detailed documentation of the risks of those procedures that they can consider in their own time and own comfortable environment.

A person knowing all the information about his or her procedure acts as another measure of control to avoid outright human error, such as the wrong operation, or operating on the wrong side.

Almost every case of litigation following surgery will address the adequacy of the consent process.

The right to full knowledge about medical or surgical interventions is entrenched as a human right, even legally enforceable by inclusion in the constitutions of some countries.

No longer is a successful surgical outcome adequate protection against litigation, particularly where the consent is deemed to have contained inadequate information.

In an environment where litigation is on the increase, and expectations, demands and knowledge by the public have heightened, adequate and fully informed consent is one of the few protections doctors can apply both to their own benefit and to that of their patients.

The challenges

Good informed consent is not just presentation of a form that demands the patient’s signature on the bottom. The process is dependent on all aspects of a good doctor-patient interaction, i.e. positive and empathetic communication, good bedside manner, open and frank discussion of alternatives and costs, opportunity to ask questions, to seek independent advice, and to make decisions based on full disclosure of relevant facts. The result can however be a valuable clinical record of benefit to all role-players in the process of having a surgical procedure.

The demands of taking fully informed consent are considerable. No patient is the same, and a standard ‘one size fits all’ approach cannot take this into consideration. The same can be said for the doctor taking the consent. All have individual approaches and styles that should facilitated by the consent process. Again, ‘one size fits all’ is as inappropriate for doctors as it is for patients. The challenge for doctors is in documenting the process for both their patients’ and their own benefit. Without technological assistance this is impossible to do, for example, to the satisfaction of a medical malpractice lawyer hell-bent on proving medical negligence.

Solutions

ConsentCare was designed taking all these considerations into account, but preserving the traditional and familiar signed document as a final result . A web-based platform was used, making the system accessible to both doctors and patients through a doctor portal and a patient portal, and opening the possibilities of direct doctor-patient communication around the specified procedure. Call it if you like a ‘mini-Facebook’ around the consent process.

On logging in a doctor adds a new patient, and proceeds through progressive steps, selecting procedure name, adding or editing graphics, and having editorial control over the content at all stages. An “editor’s” function allows preset information to be saved, speeding up the process for subsequent consents.

For all procedures a detailed consent document specific to the doctor, patient and procedure is produced in pdf form within a few minutes. This can be emailed to a patient beforehand, edited digitally using tablet PC’s, or printed out and discussed on the spot, leaving all options open as per the doctor’s preferences.

The potential

No other process leaves better evidence of a doctor’s ethical approach, transparency, patient care and responsibility than the informed consent process. This is a document that should be in the patient’s possession as well as in the medical record, an ethical yardstick of due diligence. It gives very little clinical detail away other than a patient’s name, the procedure, and likelihood of expected risks. As such, this can assist the detailed case management of patients, warn nursing staff of anticipated complications, and allocate patients to different levels of post operative care. It becomes a valuable nursing tool, not just a medicolegal hassle.

The record of a doctor’s approach to his patients in terms of attention to informed consent can be an ethical yardstick that raises that doctor’s profile above the rest. In an era of doctor and hospital ratings, rising healthcare costs, rising litigation, and increasingly limited resources, all payers, i.e. patients, funders and insurers, could benefit from recognizing where their money is best spent.

The doctor’s excuse “I don’t have the time” should no longer be relevant. Technology takes care of that issue. The consent process is so important, and with such cost-saving potential in the long term, that time considerations should be far secondary to ethical considerations. In an era where low markups on doctors’ services promote the push to do high numbers of procedures, the consent process could be the one determinant to start reversing that process.

So, doctors, please make the time, cut the volumes, but, funders and insurers, make sure the doctor does not pay a financial penalty, and is remunerated properly for work done properly. And malpractice insurers, please take note, and lower premiums for users.

Herein lies the true potential of facilitated informed consent, a ‘win-win’ for everyone involved.

Our position

ConsentCare is a working proof-of-concept, available for ‘reskinning’ to the designs of any users /institutions, with the same design elements applied to the final document, and can be hosted on private servers.

Interested users are invited to sign in on the website at www.consentcare.net for more information and a look around with basic functionality, and to contact me for more information.

Conclusion

Channel Surfing the ME-P

Have you visited our other topic channels? Established to facilitate idea exchange and link our community together, the value of these topics is dependent upon your input. Please take a minute to visit. And, to prevent that annoying spam, we ask that you register. It is fast, free and secure.

Conclusion

Your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

PRACTICES: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
HOSPITALS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466558731
CLINICS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439879900
ADVISORS: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org
FINANCE: Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
INSURANCE: Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors
Dictionary of Health Economics and Finance
Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security
Dictionary of Health Insurance and Managed Care

Filed under: Ethics, Experts Invited, Information Technology, Practice Management, Professional Liability | Tagged: consentcare, Dr. Martin Young, informed consent, medical consent forms, surgical consent forms | 5 Comments »

Quality Business Issues in the 21st Century

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

A Revisit – Circa 2011

By Henry H. Goldman PhD, CPCM

[Risk Management Associates International, LLP]

Dear Ms. Ann Miller RN MHA

I’ve attached an article which might be of interest to your ME-P readers, subscribers and clients.

It’s new and can easily be modified to meet your healthcare needs.

Link: QUALITY ISSUES IN THE 21ST CENTURY[1]

Assessment

Although this essay is not medically specific, the general concepts are applicable to the healthcare industrial complex.

About the Author

Henry H. Goldman PhD

Executive Managing Partner
Risk Management Associates International, LLP
5005 SW Raintree Circle
Lee’s Summit, MO 64082

Henry H. Goldman, Ph.D. is the Managing Director of the GOLDMAN-NELSON GROUP (USA), a global management consulting and executive training organization that he founded in 1981. Dr. Goldman’s areas of expertise include supervisory and management training, decision-making and problem solving, team building, international financial management, and strategic planning. He is frequently invited to facilitate programs and workshops on such diverse subjects as “Leading Organizational Change,” “Decision-Making for Managers,” “Budgeting in the Borderlands,” as well as issues dealing with global business and finance. Goldman recently served as Co-Editor of Taking Stock: A Survey on the Practice and Future of Change Management (Berlin, 2005). He has worked with executives and managers, worldwide, to develop an understanding of management and financial concerns in a global marketplace. He has conducted training programs along the Pacific Rim, Southern Africa, and the Middle East and among the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union. His clients include MGM Studios, Lucent Technologies–China, General Motors, Hughes Aircraft Company and Citizens’ Development Corps. He served as adjunct professor of management at the University of Macau, China, where he taught “Team Building” to MBA students. He is currently affiliated with the National Graduate School and Boston University’s Center for Executive Education. Dr. Goldman was recently appointed to the Mine Relief Global Business Council to assist in the remediation of land mines, world-wide, with a particular focus on the Turkey-Syria border.

Conclusion

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Health Dictionary Series: http://www.springerpub.com/Search/marcinko

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/product/9780826105752

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: Experts Invited, Practice Management, Quality Initiatives | Tagged: Business Quality Initiatives, Henry Goldman PhD | 1 Comment »

Improving Revenue Cycles at a West Coast Public Hospital?

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Ask an Advisor?

www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

Mr. Johnson was the chief financial officer (CFO) of a 222-bed teaching hospital in southern California. Mr. Johnson recognized a lot of problems with the processes within the various revenue cycle departments he managed which impacted cash flow for the facility. Mr. Johnson met with the hospital chief executive officer (CEO) to express his concerns and the fact that he felt his existing staff did not have the expertise to fix many of the problems they were facing.

Ms. Thomas, the hospital CEO, agreed with Mr. Johnson’s evaluations and concerns and the two prepared a package for the Board of Supervisors to submit a request for proposal to several revenue cycle improvement vendors. This request was approved by the Board and sent to several vendors with known successful track records in this area. During the next several weeks the responses were evaluated and a final vendor selected.

It was determined through a Revenue Cycle Performance Evaluation completed by the vendor prior to the kick-off of the engagement that the largest opportunity for improved cash would be to address the bottlenecks in the cash flow, the excessive days in accounts receivable, the backlogged accounts in denied claims and improved process through the entire revenue cycle at this public hospital.

When the engagement began, the net days in accounts receivable were 103 and the time from discharge to final bill was 33 days. The vendor was engaged for a four-year period to provide cash acceleration and revenue cycle improvement on a “pay for performance” [P4P] fee structure. A historical review of the hospital’s financial data determined an average monthly collection amount (baseline) the hospital was achieving each month prior to the start of this engagement. The P4P fee structure required the vendor to reach the baseline each month before the hospital was required to pay any profession fees for the services of the vendor.

KEY ISSUES:

What could the hospital do to realize immediate benefits with regard to:

– accelerated cash flow?

– reduced days in accounts receivables?

– streamlined revenue cycle processes?

– better trained existing staff?

– return on investment?

MORE: Rev Cycle Mgmnt

Conclusion

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Health Dictionary Series: http://www.springerpub.com/Search/marcinko

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/product/9780826105752

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: "Ask-an-Advisor", Experts Invited, Practice Management | Tagged: cash conversion cycles, hospital revenue cycles, P4P, Revenue Cycle Performance Evaluation | 2 Comments »

CBO Director Elmendorf Discusses Budget Deficits

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Considering the Fiscal Commission Recommendations

By Children’s Home Society of Florida Foundation

Last week, on February 10th, the House Budget Committee held a hearing and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Elmendorf discussed the federal budget deficit. Director Elmendorf emphasized the importance of addressing the deficit and also noted that the Fiscal Commission recommendations are a useful addition to the current discussion.

Of Paul Ryan

Chairman Paul Ryan noted that there still is a major problem with unemployment. According to Chairman Ryan, the recession ended in June of 2009 and between that time and December of 2010, “payroll employment rose by a mere 6/100 of 1% (0.06%).” Chairman Ryan noted that it is essential to restore growth in America. He advocated “low taxes, reasonable regulations sound money and spending restraint.”

Of Chris Van Hollen

Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) also responded to Director Elmendorf. He indicated a willingness to address the deficit. Rep. Van Hollen suggested that “Democrats and Republicans must work together now to put our nation on a fiscally sustainable path and we stand ready to do that.”

Assessment

However, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) expressed concern that Chairman Ryan was focusing excessively on spending rather than on tax deductions. Rep. Doggett noted, “Dollar for dollar, cutting funding for cancer research or local law enforcement has the same effect on the deficit as closing a tax loophole that allows a Wall Street corporation to benefit by stashing their tax dollars offshore.” Rep. Doggett suggests that tax deductions will need to be reduced in order to address the deficit challenge.

Conclusion

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Health Dictionary Series: http://www.springerpub.com/Search/marcinko

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/product/9780826105752

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: Alternative Investments, Breaking News, Experts Invited, Financial Planning | Tagged: Chris Van Hollen, COngressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, Fiscal Commission, Lloyd Doggett, Paul Ryan | 7 Comments »

Meet Speaker Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Management Expert, Social Media Pioneer, Journalist and Financial Advisor

www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

I am available for a limited number of speaking engagements each year. As social media’s leading integrated voice for medical and financial service professionals, the ME-P voice was noted by the WSJ.com in 2009, which said that ”This website is packed with great information.” And, medical information technology and eMR guru Alberto Borges MD recently opined “You do have an exceptional website”.

The ME-P’s Reach

With over 250,000 visitors, the ME-P is among the web’s most influential and prominent platforms. I frequently discuss the precarious intersection among medical practice management, financial services, health economics and related social media in keynote speeches, panel discussions, and media interviews.

Journalist

I also use my two decade long medical, surgical, business management and financial advisory practice and journalistic experiences to engage the private practice community, culminating in the third edition of our book: The Business of Medical Practice [Transformational Health 2.0 Skills for Doctors].

Locale

I am based near Atlanta, GA, so travel for speaking opportunities is not problematic and very inexpensive.

Curriculum Vitae

Here is my CV: DEM Formal CV

Please contact me if you’re interested in having me engage your divese audience: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

Sincerely,

Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA

Certified Medical Planner™
www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

My Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Health Dictionary Series: http://www.springerpub.com/Search/marcinko

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/product/9780826105752

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: Book Reviews, CMP Program, Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Health Economics, Practice Management | Tagged: david marcinko, www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com, www.certifiedmedicalplanner.com | 3 Comments »

Fed Chair Bernanke Defends Bond Purchases

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Before House Budget Committee

By Children’s Home Society of Florida Foundation

Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke appeared on February 9 before the House Budget Committee. He defended the plan by the Federal Reserve to purchase another $600 billion of government bonds. This would bring the total holdings of the Federal Reserve to approximately $2.6 trillion. Previously, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates close to zero and purchased $1 trillion of bonds to support the financial markets.

Rationale

Chairman Bernanke pointed to four factors that in his view justified the additional bond purchases.

First, the unemployment level continues to be approximately 9%.

Second, he expects unemployment to remain high and inflation to remain low “for some time.”

Third, it is likely the federal funds rate will remain quite low as long as there is high unemployment and low inflation.

Fourth, the initial purchase of $1 trillion of bonds and the proposed additional $600 billion bond purchase are both appropriate and manageable. He suggests that there will be opportunity “to tighten monetary policy when needed.” The Federal Reserve has sufficient capability to sell the bonds and reduce its holdings as needed.

Fiscal Policy

Chairman Bernanke also addressed fiscal policy. He noted that it is important “to put the budget on a sustainable trajectory.” Chairman Bernanke spoke approvingly of the plans advocated by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. He suggested that there is now a “much-needed conversation” on the deficit.

Paul Ryan

House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) agreed that it is important to address the deficit. He observed that the projected $1.5 trillion deficit this year would increase the publicly-held debt. That public debt was 40% of the economy in 2008 and will rise to 69% of the economy by the end of the year.

Chairman Ryan stated, “Endless borrowing is not a strategy. We must restore the foundations of economic growth – low taxes, spending restraint, reasonable regulations and sound money – to help restart the engines of economic growth and job creation.”

Chris Van Hollen

The Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee is Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). He indicated to Chairman Bernanke, “I commend you and your colleagues at the Fed for using various forms of monetary policy to promote maximum employment and stable prices.” However, Rep. Van Hollen also agreed that it is important to create “a responsible plan to bring down and then eliminate the primary budget deficit.”

Conclusion

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Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/product/9780826105752

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

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Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

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Filed under: Breaking News, Experts Invited, Financial Planning | Tagged: Ben Bernanke, Chris Van Hollen, Federal Reserve, House Budget Committee, Paul Ryan | 1 Comment »

Understanding the Collaborative Shift in Bedside Manner

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Doctor-Patient Relations in the Modern Era

[By Mario Moussa PhD]

[By Jennifer Tomasik MS]

[By Dr. David E. Marcinko MBA]

www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

When it comes to the doctor-patient relationship, Health 2.0 needs guidelines. Several leading health providers have begun to call for them. We think guidelines would, among other things, help define the right mix of virtual and live communication.

Our relationship strategies take a step in this direction. Such a framework can be used to start a productive dialogue among health providers about social media. A hospital committee or some other governing body could easily use Web 2.0 tools—a blog or a wiki—to start the discussion. Before long, there would be ample case material to flesh out general principles.

Health 2.0 Needs Guidelines

Guidelines would also address a big barrier to using Health 2.0: getting paid. Currently reimbursement policies do not cover electronic communication, so physicians have little financial incentive to use it. In a 2003 study, only 9% of physicians were willing to use e-mail to communicate with patients. This has something to do with old habits. But it has a lot to do with payment schedules, too. Guidelines should feature the research that shows the positive health outcomes of strong physician-patient relationships and how social media tools help build relationships. In today’s “pay for performance” market, these outcomes help build credibility for wired communication.

Training Support

We also think Health 2.0 guidelines need to be supported by training. Studies show that training in interviewing and interpersonal skills produces substantial differences in the quality of care. Training in Health 2.0 communication would likely have a similar impact.

Assessment

Paradoxically, as patients can access and control more data, they have a greater need for trusted physicians who communicate well using various mediums. As Ted Epperly, President of the American Academy of Family Physicians, has said, patients need “wise counsel” in sifting through the prodigious amounts of information available via Health 2.0. And physicians as well as patients need to learn how to navigate this environment. No longer the sole authoritative source of medical information, physicians need to adapt, becoming an experienced partner and guide for inquiring patients. Training can help doctors get comfortable in this new role.

Conclusion

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Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Anderson, James G., Eysenbach, Gunther, and Rainey, Michelle R. “The Impact of CyberHealthcare on the Physician–Patient Relationship.” Journal of Medical Systems. 27 (2003): 67 – 84.

Kaplan, Sherrie H., Greenfield, Sheldon, Gandek, Barbara, et al. “Characteristics of physicians with participatory decision-making styles.” Annals of Internal Medicine. 124.5 (1996): 497–504

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Experts Invited, Op-Editorials, Quality Initiatives, Recommended Books, Research & Development | Tagged: American Academy of Family Physicians, bedside manner, health 2.0, Jennifer Tomasik, Mario Moussa PhD, Ted Epperly, www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com | 4 Comments »

How Investors View Financial Advisors?

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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A Public Opinion Survey

Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA CMP™

www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

Boston-based Dalbar company is a surveyor of financial information for the mutual fund industry. About a decade ago Dalbar released a nine-part survey on personal financial advice to measure the level of demand for advice that existed back then and to ascertain consumer preferences, expectations, beliefs, and sources for personal financial advice.

Now, please allow me to suggest that all FA colleagues use the results to evaluate your current practices and planed initiatives to determine how current thinking must change to meet today’s and tomorrow’s needs. And so, we now share some of the results of this survey.

Customer Expectations of Personal Financial Advisors

• Investors and prospective investors expect their personal financial advisors to educate them about investments and to minimize the taxes they pay.

• Unrealistic expectations present a major problem to personal financial advisors. The expectations for advisors to produce the highest returns, prevent investing mistakes, and avoid losses set the stage for disappointment in the future, thus undermining the public trust of advisors.

• Advertising, training, compensation, and industry practice is out of step with customer expectations. This survey indicates that emphasis in all these areas should be directed to vastly simplify education, increase use of tax saving strategies, and help investors to define financial goals.

Demand for Personal Financial Advisors

• Of the consumers surveyed, 89% report the need for a personal financial advisor for assets of $100,000 or more. This contradicts the notion that a growing number of people prefer to do-it-themselves. This finding presents the advisor with an opportunity: The demand for advice is higher than the market would suggest.

• The demand for advice, as measured by the Advice Demand Index (ADI) is highest among those who prefer to pay for advice through commissions. The ADI is highest for commission-payers at 93%, followed by those who prefer to pay a percentage of their assets (92.5%). Flat-fee payers have the lowest demand for advice, at just 88.7%.

Importance of Personal Financial Advice Functions

• Consumers unanimously agree that the ability of their advisor to provide clear explanations of investment alternatives, to be available when needed, and to keep them informed of their investment status are the most important financial advice functions.

• Consumers revealed that the delivery of a comprehensive written financial plan is the least important function that their advisor performs.

Assessment

This report was not physician specific so one wonders how applicable it is to medical providers; especially the “no-desire” for a financial plan part?

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Are the results still valid today; or after the 2008-09 “flash crash”? Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

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Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: "Advisors Only", CMP Program, Experts Invited, Financial Planning | Tagged: David Edward Marcinko, financial advisors, stock-brokers, www.certifiedmedicalplanner.com | 5 Comments »

Are Financial Services “Professional” Certifications Important? [A Poll]

Posted on December 29, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Often of Murky Respect – Usually Confusing to Clients

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA, CMP™

http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

[Editor-in-Chief]

There are more than 100 “certifications” which represent the often nebulous field of “financial advisory, or planning credentials” that presently exist in the market place today.

Some of these “professional” designations are awarded to individuals in the financial planning or financial “advisory” space after [some] diligent study, and [often not so] arduous testing; others not so.

And so, are such “credentials” more important to you, or your clients; pleas opine.

More:

Enter the CMPs

Disclaimer: I am a reformed Certified Financial Planner®, Series 7 [stock-broker], 63 and 65 license holder, and RIA representative who also held all applicable insurance and security licenses.

Filed under: "Advisors Only", CMP Program, Experts Invited, Financial Advisor Listings, Financial Planning | Tagged: certified financial planner, certified medical planner, CMP, financial advisors, financial planners, RIAs, stock-brokers, www.certifiedmedicalplanner.com | 9 Comments »

What is Universal-Variable Life Insurance and How Does it Work?

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Insurance Basics for Medical Professionals

By By Jeffrey H. Rattiner, CPA, CFP®, MBA

After determining the need for insurance and the amount to purchase, the doctor-client and financial planner’s next task is to match those needs to the client’s objectives to determine what type of policy the client should purchase. The life insurance industry features more products today than ever before. One reason for this change is that, clearly, the insurance industry has expanded its product base to become more competitive. Another reason is that clients’ needs are constantly changing and the insurance companies must keep up with those needs or run the risk of having funds withdrawn from their companies. New and different types of life insurance products are here to stay. Since life insurance represents a significant part of a doctor-client’s risk-management program, planners have to be versed in the specifics of the varied product base.

Definition

Universal variable life insurance is a hybrid of universal life and variable life insurance. It lets policyholders adjust premiums and reconfigure the death benefit level. The cost of this increased flexibility depends on the equities that are invested.

Similarity to Variable Life Insurance

Similar to the variable life contract, the policyholder gets to choose the investment medium under this contract, with no guaranteed cash value levels or growth. Policyowners are given the choice of option A death benefits (face amount only) or option B death benefits (face amount plus cash value). Because of the daily changes in cash value, however, option B is often not available. Premiums and death benefits are flexible and not guaranteed.

Assessment

Universal variable life policies are most appropriate for people with changing financial needs or long-term needs and for those who are willing to give up all guarantees in exchange for policy and investment flexibility.

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. What kind of life insurance do you have doctor, and is it enough? Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

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Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

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Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

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Filed under: Experts Invited, Insurance Matters, Risk Management | Tagged: Jeffrey H. Rattiner, Universal Variable Life Insurance, variable life insurance | 1 Comment »

“A Guide to Sound Money”

Posted on December 12, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

The ME-P Recommends

By Staff Reporters

“A Guide to Sound Money”, by economist Judy Shelton PhD from the University of Utah, is a 19 page report on global finance, the value of money as a standard unit of worth, inflation, the USD and related monetary issues.

Link: http://www.soundmoneyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Booklet-SMP-Guide-Spread-PDF1.pdf

We highly recommend it for all doctors, financial advisors and ME-P readers and subscribers

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Health Dictionary Series: http://www.springerpub.com/Search/marcinko

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/product/9780826105752

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: Book Reviews, Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Funding Basics | Tagged: “A Guide to Sound Money”, global finance, gold, inflation, Judy Shelton PhD, USD, value of money | 1 Comment »

Understanding Patient [Client] Satisfaction

Posted on November 28, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

The Fine Art of Exceeding Expectations

By Dr. David E. Marcinko MBA, CMP™

By Dr. Gary L. Bode CPA

www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

Patient [client] satisfaction occurs when patient perceptions exceed their expectations. They get an intangible “something extra” from the visit, above what they paid for. We’ll concentrate on managing patient perceptions of their physicians in this ME-P. It is applicable to financial advisors [FAs], as well.

Note that when patient expectations match their perceptions, mutual obligations are fulfilled, making both practitioner and patient “even”.

Clinical Results

The clinical result, within a relevant range, is only part of the patient’s perceptions. Numerous unconscious impressions comprise the remainder. We’ve all had patients love us despite a less than optimal result. We’ve all had patients angrily leave the practice over some non-clinical matter like a trivial billing dispute. A patient’s perception of any health care service is colored by a vast array of prior experiences that set up current expectations. The patient is pleased to the extent that his current perceptions exceed his pre existing expectations. This encompasses far more than the clinical result (within a relevant range), and includes such non-treatment issues as the demeanor of the staff, condition of the physical premises, psychological comfort during the visit, etc.

Patients Talk

Remember, all patients talk about you anyway. In the past, a happy patient told four others about what a nice doctor you are. Today, patients post website comments or blogs immediately after their visits. They are more likely to complete treatment and follow instructions, thus obtaining a better medical outcome, and, generating additional fees for the practice. They pay quicker, cause less bad-debt and help create a pleasant environment for us to work in.

Un-Happy Patients [Clients]

An unhappy patient vehemently tells nine others, onground or online, what a nasty greedy rip-off artist you are. Sad, but true! They are not as likely to complete treatment, thus incurring a less than optimal result, and generate fewer fees. They pay slower, if at all, create a stressed environment and detrimentally affect the attitude of other patients in the office.

Try to eliminate problems that might cause negative perceptions (i.e., a filthy restroom) and implement controls that help assure positive perceptions.

A Soft Science

Patient satisfaction is a soft managerial science. It is a numbers game. Most patients don’t pre- define what would be “acceptable” from this encounter, but have vaguely defined ranges of prior expectations anyway, gleaned from a lifetime of health care related experience. Any variance between these this “acceptable” range of expectations and each trivial encounter invokes some degree positive or negative feeling in the patient.

Total Perceptions

The total perception of the office experience is an aggregate of multiple trivial, often subliminal, observations. Patient satisfaction is an intangible and amorphous process complicated by:

Inter patient variables: Significant differences between patients in their “expectations”.
Intra patient variables: A single patient can perceive the same thing or situation differently at different times, depending on uncontrollable variables like mood, or, context of occurrence which may (sometimes and/or partially) be controllable by the practice.
Luck of the draw” in physical variables: Does Sally or Mary escort the patient to the exam room? Was it the blue or green exam room? Did the last patient to use the rest room, five minutes ago, leave a disgusting mess?
Heterogeneous staff variables: Even with appropriate training, people are not machines and have their own quirks.

A Multi-Faceted Amorphous Subject

By proactively anticipating the entire visit, from the patient’s perspective, the practitioner can structure and arrange things such that most patients have, mostly positive perceptions, most of the time. This can be done despite all the potential heterogenicity of the above factors. Patient satisfaction can be improved in any office, and can be done by anyone.

Because patient satisfaction is a multi-faceted amorphous subject, there are multiple correct approaches to the subject and no “cook book” recipe on how to proceed. Try and get the big picture. Identify the worst areas and fix them. Identify the best areas and reinforce them. Proceed slowly. It can be done one facet at a time. Adapt things to your own managerial style and personality. Be completely open to suggestion and change. Be aware that patient relationship and satisfaction implementation strategies frequently overlap.

Assessment

The tone of this post is equally applicable to financial advisors and medical management consultants.

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. How do you define patient [medical professionals] or client [FAs] satisfaction? Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

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Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: Ethics, Experts Invited, Practice Management, Quality Initiatives | 2 Comments »

Celebrating National “Opt-Out” Day with Video

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Wednesday – November 24, 2010

From the Electronic Privacy Information Center

Today is the day that ordinary citizens stand up for their rights, stand up for liberty, and protest the federal government’s desire to virtually strip us naked or submit to an “enhanced pat down” that touches people’s breasts and genitals. You should never have to explain to your children, “Remember that no stranger can touch or see your private area, unless it’s a government employee, then it’s OK.”

Goals and Objectives

The goal of National Opt-Out Day is to send a message to our lawmakers that we demand change. No naked body scanners, no government-approved groping. We have a right to privacy and buying a plane ticket should not mean that we’re guilty until proven innocent. This day is needed because many people do not understand what they consent to when choosing to fly.

The Details

Here are the details:

Who?

You, your family and friends traveling by air on Wednesday, November 24th 2010

What?

National Opt-Out Day. While the government doesn’t always like to advertise this, you have the ability to opt-out of the naked body scanner machines (AIT, or Advanced Imaging Technology, as the government calls it). All you have to do is say “I opt out” when they tell you to go through one of the machines. You will then be given a pat down.

Where?

At an air-port near you.

When?

Wednesday, November 24, 2010. That’s right: November 24 – one of the busiest travel days of the year! We want families to sit around the dinner table, eating turkey, talking about how a government employee molested them at the airport. We hope the outrageous experience then propels people to write their Member of Congress and the airlines to demand change.

Why?

We are sick of “security-theater.” These naked body scanners do not make us a more secure nation. In fact, the scanners, which use radiation, may not even be safe for our long-term health. The government should not have the ability to virtually strip search anyone it wants. Why should a government employee get to see a naked scan of a passenger, and do who knows what in the back room while viewing that image? We have already heard stories of TSA officials laughing at small genitals and making certain women go through the machines or taking off extra clothes, reducing them to tears. This is absolutely sick behavior. If you don’t like it and don’t want to be virtually strip searched, then too bad says the government. To try and make everyone comply with the naked body scanners, the government has made the alternative worse! With their enhanced pat downs, TSA now touches the genitals and private areas of men, women and children with the front of the hand! We do not believe the government has a right to see you naked or feel you up just because you bought an airline ticket. There are better, less invasive security measures that can be taken.

How?

By saying “I opt out” when told to go through the bodying imaging machines and submitting to a pat down. Also, be sure to have your pat down by TSA in full public – do not go to the back room when asked. Every citizen must see for themselves how the government treats law-abiding citizens.

More info:

follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/nationaloptout
now on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/optoutday
*a special thanks to http://www.wewontfly.com for the FB page*

For more information on these machines and to read stories of what happens when you use the naked body scanners or opt out, please visit:

Assessment

To file an incident report, use the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s site: http://www.optoutday.com/

Editor’s Note: The ME-P staff, and our team of medical and nursing professionals, believe that there is no safe threshold for ionizing radiation; including flat plate medical and dental X-rays, CT scans and AIT, etc. The epidemic of diagnostic radiation pollution must stop!

Conclusion

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Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

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Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

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Filed under: Experts Invited, Op-Editorials, Quality Initiatives, Videos | Tagged: Advanced Imaging Technology, Electronic Privacy Information Center, ionizing radiation, National Opt-Out Day, TSA | 5 Comments »

Useful Managed Care Provider, Staffing, Activity and Financial Trends

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Part Two

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA

[Publisher-in-Chief]

If you read this ME-P regularly or have read my earlier blogs, you know that I am writing a book on practice management for the private medical practitioner.

The Business of Medical Practice [Transformational Health 2.0 Skills for Doctors]; third edition: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

Link: Front Matter BoMP – 3

A recent story in the Chicago Tribune on the difficult business life of private practitioners today reminds me that I need to keep my nose to the grindstone.

For example, according to the sanofi-aventis Pharmaceutical Company Managed Care Digest Series, for 2008-10, the following patterns and comparative trend information has been empirically determined and may provide a basic starting point for medical practitioners to share business management, facilities, personnel, and records information for enhanced success www.managedcaredigest.com

Mid-Level Provider and Staffing Trends

Mid-level provider use increased among multi-specialty groups, especially in those with more than half of their revenue from capitated contracts. Use also rose with the size of the practice and was highest with OB/GYN groups.
Medical support staff for all multi-specialty groups fell and was lowest in medical groups with less than 10 full-time equivalent (FTE) physicians. However, groups with a large amount of capitated revenue actually added support staff. Smaller groups limited support staff.
Compensation costs of support staff increased and the percentages of total operating costs associated with laboratories, professional liability insurance, IT services, and imaging also increased. Support staff costs increase with capitation levels and more than half of all operating costs are tied to support staff endeavors.

Managed Care Activity and Contracting Trends

More medical group practices are likely to own interests in preferred provider organizations (PPOs) than in HMOs and the percentages of groups with managed care revenue continues to rise. Multi-specialty and large groups also derive more revenue from MCOs than single specialty or smaller groups.
Managed care has little effect on physician payment methods that are still predominantly based on productivity. Physicians were paid differently for at-risk managed care contracts in only a small percentage of cases.
Most medical groups (75%) participating in managed care medicine have PPO contracts. Group practices contract with network HMOs more often than solo practices. Single-specialty groups more often have PPO contracts.
Capitated lives often raise capitation revenues in large group practices. Group practices are more highly capitated than smaller groups or solo practices. Almost 30% of highly capitated medical groups have more than 15 contracts and 22% have globally capitated contracts.
Higher capitation is linked with increased risk contracting. Larger groups have more risk contracting than smaller groups.

Financial Profile Trends

Medicare fee-for-service reimbursement is decreasing. Highly capitated groups incur high consulting fees.
The share of total gross charges for OB/GYN groups associated with managed care at-risk contracts is rising while non-managed care, or not-at-risk charges are declining.
Capitated contracts have little effect on the amount of on-site office non-surgical work. Off-site surgeries are most common for surgery groups, not medical groups.
Half of all charges are for on-site non-surgical procedures.
Highly capitated medical groups have higher operating costs and lower net profits.
Groups without capitation have higher laboratory expenses than those who do.
Physician costs are highest in orthopedic surgery group practices. Generally, median costs at most specialty levels are rising and profits shrinking.

Assessment

Obviously, the above information is only a gauge since regional differences, and certain medical sub-specialty practices and carve-outs, do exist.

Part One: Useful Managed Care Patterns and Procedural Utilization Trends

Conclusion

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

DICTIONARIES: http://www.springerpub.com/Search/marcinko
PHYSICIANS: www.MedicalBusinessAdvisors.com
PRACTICES: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
HOSPITALS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466558731
CLINICS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439879900
ADVISORS: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org
BLOG: www.MedicalExecutivePost.com
FINANCE:Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
INSURANCE:Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Book Reviews, Career Development, Experts Invited, Health Economics, Health Insurance, Health Law & Policy, Information Technology, Managed Care, Practice Management, Recommended Books, Touring with Marcinko | Tagged: Business of Medical Practice, capitation, david marcinko, healthcare administration, HMOs, hope hetico, Managed Care, PPOs, Practice Management, www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com | 1 Comment »

Mental and Physical Well-Being for [Physician] Boomers and Their Retirement Plans

Posted on November 4, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Somnath Basu PhD MBA

President – AgeBander
Thousand Oaks, CA

A Pew Research Center study[1] on the effects of financial stress on health finds 42.4% of respondents in a survey on the subject indicated that their health had been affect by financial problems. The study also found that 1 in 8 baby boomers were raising children, planning for retirement and at the same time caring for their elderly parents. This is the unfortunate reality for many baby boomers who face the implications of being a sandwich generation.

The Boomer Spectrum

For boomers across the spectrum of age (1945-64) financial stress has also contributed significantly to relational strife and has exacerbated many medical conditions. It has been linked to depression and sleep disorders and has been known to negatively affect the autoimmune and digestive system. For retirees who find themselves on a limited income with few options for augmenting that income the additional stress of financial problems has certainly been detrimental to their mental, emotional and physical well being. For such retirees who had an improper perception of their retirement needs the realization of the truth is definitely overwhelming. For others, who had thought they had planned ahead and were diligent, are now wrestling with guilt and remorse over their failure to provide for their retirement years. These individuals too are likely also facing fairly severe mental health conditions related to retirement security. Additionally these retirees will likely look back on the sacrifices they did make and feel these were in vain further exacerbating the state of their mental health. This in turn leads them also to resist reasonable advice because their fears make them more suspecting of any advice including the reasonable ones.

The Emotional Culprits

Two of the chief culprits have been the tendency of boomers (as a solace, all other generations suffer from these same problems though boomers have been most affected) to overestimate and have overconfidence about their financial knowledge and understanding of key financial concepts. Their lack of knowledge about overestimating themselves and being overconfident about their understanding of key financial concepts has proved to be detrimental to many a boomer’s health and well being in retirement. This is mainly due to these weaknesses leading them to not having enough funds for their retirement expense needs. A national collaborative strategy initiative on this problem has identified five action areas needed to help alleviate this problem – the need to educate consumers on the areas of financial policy, education, practice, research, and coordination. The reality is that when retirees are affected mentally, physically and emotionally (leading to overconfidence and over optimism), their financial decisions become faulty due to acting on their perceptions of retirement risk. This makes them tend to drastically under-estimate their retirement expenses. In such cases they experience or will experience significant reductions in their quality of retirement life. To ensure that expectations of retired life are realistic and risk perceptions are aligned to realistic and achievable goals are the first steps for boomers to ascend in order to improve the quality of their overall mental and physical health in retirement.

Objective Retirement Planning

An objective of planning for retirement thus becomes the need to find some kinds of lifelong guaranteed pensions since it is well known and understood that retirees who have such luxuries are many times more satisfied in retirement than their peers. The more satisfied in retirement the better mental and financial well-being one has. The main thrust in achieving such a mental state is to understand the importance of a secure and assured income that arrives in the bank consistently every period (such as monthly or bi-weekly).

Perception too plays a big role in mental health as does the security of regular income. However, those receiving Social Security as their regular income are known to be less satisfied than others. Studies show that Social Security benefits carry a “hand-out stigma” for those who rely on them for their well being. From the boomers perspective, living a simpler life but funding retirement from a disciplined pension fund approach (using 401(k) funds, IRAs, personal financial portfolios, etc.) ensures the chances that their mental and physical well-being in retirement will not be reduced in any way by their financial well-being. Now is the time for boomers to exact such a lifestyle and bring in a certain semblance of stability in the vision for the rest of their lives.

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. What are your retirement plans and how does this essay impact on them; if at all? Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

Notes: [1] http://personalfinancefoundation.org/research/efd/Negative-Health-Effects-of-Financial-Stress.pdf

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Filed under: Experts Invited, Retirement and Benefits | Tagged: retirement planning, Somnath Basu, www.certifiedmedicalplanner.com | 3 Comments »

On the Election Results of November 2010

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Gauging the Impact of the Affordable Care Act?

Question:

ME-P readers and others have been asking us – what does the election outcome mean for health care and the ACA?

Answer:

In short, not as much as many think, according to Steve Pizer JD and Austin Frakt PhD of the Incidental Economist.

Link:

http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/what-the-election-means-for-health-care/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheIncidentalEconomist+%28The+Incidental+Economist+%28Posts%29%29

Conclusion

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US Budget Deficits Require Both Spending Cuts and Tax Increases

Posted on November 2, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

The CRFB Speaks

By Children’s Home Society of Florida Foundation

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) has published a release on October 20 that discusses some of the options to tackle the federal deficit. According to a Bloomberg News poll, there are two major issues that are foremost in the minds of voters as they go to the polls on November 2nd. The first is jobs and the US economy. The second issue focuses on federal finances and the budget deficit.

CFRB Suggestions

The CFRB suggests that there are four potential options for reducing expenditures and one for increasing revenue.

1. Fraud, Waste and Abuse – A favorite comment of all political candidates is that he or she will reduce fraud, waste and abuse. While there may be some savings, this historically has been a fairly modest part of actual deficit reduction.

2. Strengthen Social Security – Congress will need to address methods for strengthening Social Security. The Social Security program used to run a substantial surplus each year. However, in 2010 the federal deficit will total approximately $40 billion. That is, the amounts received by Social Security will be $40 billion lower than the amounts distributed for benefits.

Social Security

By 2020, Social Security could be running a $100 billion deficit. Social Security Trustees have stated, “The projected trust fund shortfalls should be addressed in a timely way so that necessary changes can be phased in gradually and workers can be given time to plan for them.”

3. Healthcare – The Congressional Budget Office notes that the current healthcare programs could require nearly one-half of the federal budget by 2030 or 2040. Therefore, there will need to be further changes in healthcare in order to make the program fiscally sustainable.

4. Defense – Defense expenditures in 2010 were 4.7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This amounted to $692 billion. Defense Secretary Gates has acknowledged that there may be opportunities to eliminate some weapons systems and reduce expenditures.

5. Increased Taxes – The CFRB release states, “It is very difficult to lay out a credible deficit plan that would not increase taxes. It is also very difficult to develop a comprehensive plan that would not raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 per year.” The potential for increased taxes has focused on income taxes, capital gains taxes, estate taxes and a consumption tax such as a gas tax or a value added tax.

Assessment

The Fiscal Commission appointed by President Obama is expected to issue a report in December that discusses these issues.

Editor’s Note: Your editor and this organization take no position with respect to the many financial and tax options that are available to Congress. This information is offered as a public service to our readers.

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. How does this state of affairs affect the healthcare industrial complex? Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

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Useful Managed Care Patterns and Procedural Utilization Trends

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Part One of Two

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA

[Publisher-in-Chief]

If you read this ME-P regularly or have read my earlier blogs, you know that I am writing a book on practice management for the private medical practitioner.

The Business of Medical Practice [Transformational Health 2.0 Skills for Doctors]; third edition: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

Link: Front Matter BoMP – 3

And, a recent story in the Chicago Tribune on the difficult business life of private practitioners today reminds me that I need to keep my nose to the grindstone.

For example, knowing your medical contract negotiation objectives, gathering information on the choices of contracts and discount payment systems, and understanding the pitfalls to watch for when evaluating a contract are the keys to any successful negotiation process.

Reimbursement Contract Negotiations

According to the sanofi-aventis Pharmaceutical Company Managed Care Digest Series, for 2008-10, the following pattern and trend comparative information has been empirically determined and may provide a basic starting point for practitioners to share business management, facilities, personnel, and other records for enhanced contract negotiation success.

www.managedcaredigest.com

Procedural Utilization Trends

Among all physicians in a single-specialty group practice, invasive cardiologists averaged the most encounters with total hospital inpatient admissions down from the prior year. However, encounters rose for cardiologists in multispeciality group practices.
Echocardiography was the most commonly performed procedure on HMO seniors, followed by coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Group practices performed cardiovascular stress tests for circulatory problems most often.
CT studies of the brain and chest were the most common studies for HMO seniors, while MRI head studies were the most common diagnostic test on commercial HMO members.
Colonoscopy was the most common digestive system procedure on senior HMO members, while barium enemas were more common on commercial members.
Hospital admission volume decreased for allergists, family practitioners, internists, OB/GYNs, pediatricians, and general surgeons.
Internists ordered more in-hospital laboratory procedures than any other physicians in single-specialty groups.
Non-hospital MD/DOs used in-hospital radiology services most frequently, continuing a three-year upward trend.
Pediatricians averaged the most ambulatory encounters, down from the prior year.
Non-hospitalist internists ordered a higher number of in-hospital laboratory procedures than any other single medical specialty group, but allergists and immunologists increased their laboratory usage.
The number of ambulatory encounters increased for general surgeons, while group surgeons had the most cases. Capitated surgeons, of all types, had a lower mean number of surgical cases than surgeons in groups without capitation. Surgeons in internal medical groups also had more cases than those in multi-specialty groups.
The average number of total office visits per commercial and senior HMO visits fell, along with the number of institutional visits for both commercial and senior HMO members.
The average length of hospital stay for all commercial HMO members increased to 3.6 days but decreased to 6 days for all HMO members.
The total number of births increased for commercial HMO members served by medical group practices, and decreased for solo practitioners.
More than one-third of all medical groups use treatment protocols, rising from the year before. Multi-specialty groups were more likely to use them than single-specialty groups, who often develop their own protocols. The use of industry benchmarks to judge the quality of healthcare delivery also increased.
Outcome studies are most common at larger medical groups, and multi-specialty groups pursue quality assurance activities more often than single-specialty groups.
Provider interaction during office visits is increasingly coming under scrutiny. Patients approve of cardiologists more frequently than allergists and ophthalmologists.

Assessment

Obviously, the above information is only a gauge since regional differences, and certain medical sub-specialty practices and carve-outs, do exist.

Part Two: Useful Managed Care Provider, Staffing, Activity and Financial Trends

Conclusion

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FINANCE:Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
INSURANCE:Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Book Reviews, Career Development, CMP Program, Experts Invited, Health Economics, Health Insurance, Health Law & Policy, Healthcare Finance, Managed Care, Practice Management, Quality Initiatives, Research & Development | Tagged: Business of Medical Practice, david marcinko, DOs, EHRs, EMRs, healthcare administration, HMO, hope hetico, Managed Care, Managed Care Digest Series, MDs, medical outcomes, medical practice management | 2 Comments »

On the US Budget Deficit in 2010

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Now North of $1.3 Trillion Dollars

By Children’s Home Society of Florida Foundation

The federal fiscal year for 2010 concluded on September 30^th. The Office of Management and Budget and Department of Treasury have released the official figures for fiscal year 2010. The deficit was $1.294 trillion.

Geithner Speaks

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner noted that the cost of the financial rescue of banks and automotive companies was lower than expected. He stated, “By carefully managing the emergency initiatives to stop the financial panic and by accelerating our exit from those investments, we have significantly lowered the cost to taxpayers, bringing the costs of the financial rescue down by more than $240 billion this year.”

TARP

The Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP) cost to Treasury was $9 billion in 2010. During this year, the Federal Government also spent $52.6 billion to support the housing industry through troubled lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Deficit Concerns

The deficit declined slightly from 10% in 2009 to 8.9% of the 2010 gross domestic product (GDP). Tax receipts for 2010 were $2.16 trillion or 14.9% of the economy. Government expenditures were $3.45 trillion or 23.8% of the economy. Senate Budget Committee Ranking Minority Member Judd Gregg (R-NH) expressed concern about this deficit and noted, “These abrupt and shocking changes in our fiscal situation cannot be dismissed as “inherited” problems when the tally of the majority’s spending spree has climbed into the trillions.”

Assessment

The Fiscal Commission appointed by President Barack Obama is developing a plan to reduce the deficit. The target for the Fiscal Commission is to reduce the current 8.9% GDP deficit down to 3% of GDP within five years.

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Filed under: Accounting, Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Funding Basics, Taxation | Tagged: Children's Home Society of Florida Foundation, Fannie Mae, federal deficit, Freddie Mac, Judd Gregg, TARP, Tim Geithner, Troubled Asset Recovery Program, US deficit | 3 Comments »

Calling All Financial Advisors, Brokers, EAs, CFPs, CPAs, CFAs and RIAs to Contribute

Posted on October 23, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Contribute Your Insights to the ME-P

By Ann Miller RN MHA

[Executive-Director]

You are cordially invited to contribute to the ME-P; one of the nation’s fastest growing professional networks for financial advisors, accountants, stock brokers, RIAs and their physician and medical professional clients.

Send in a Post or Comment

Original posts or comments are encouraged.

Read why: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/why-post-with-us/

Sample post: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2010/06/10/current-retirement-investment-options-for-physicians/

Assessment

So, send in your original posts or comments, today!

Become a thought-leader for the ME-P.

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How Should Financial Advisors Prospect and Make Sales Calls to Doctors?

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Improving Contact, Communication and Closure

By Corporate Health Group [with ME-P modifications]

It doesn’t matter if you’re cold-calling a doctor’s home or office, making a return visit or have a scheduled office appointment – if you call on the doctor prospect without knowing the MD, person or background of the physician’s office, it’s all an attempt at futility (or worse, humiliation). So, don’t create the habit of an unprepared financial advisor or salesperson.

The Opening

A good financial advisor or salesperson has a plan for directing the conversation and positioning the desired outcome. The most important piece of the conversation to script is the opening questions as they can make or break the tone of your entire meeting and, ultimately, impact the outcome.

The Steps

As your call or meeting progresses, consider these steps:

Focus questions on the doctor, their practice, business or personal needs.
Use questions to first establish a dialogue to share and learn what is most important to them.
Value the information they share with you and look for ways to respond that will provide a solution.
Demonstrate your sincerity in learning about the physician.
Probe, probe and probe again.
Work through the layers of information to understand their emotional and task reasons for the purchase.
Use questions to learn their frame of reference.
Questioning will reveal their ideas for potential solutions.
Learn the value and priority of finding a solution and the doctor’s sense of time frame, finances and value-added options.

Summarize the Questions

This will ensure you capture input correctly and “take their pulse” before moving forward to the next step.
Develop your solutions.
Address medical practice, business and personal reasons for buying.
Make sure your solution is benefit-oriented.
Don’t “Feature Dump.” Anyone can match your products or service features – it’s you and the benefits that set you apart and cannot be [so] easily replicated.

Assessment

Follow these tips and techniques to help you become a prepared, knowledgeable, and intuitive financial advisor or consultative and successful salesperson.

Conclusion

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FINANCE:Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
INSURANCE:Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors

Filed under: "Advisors Only", Alerts Sign-Up, Career Development, Experts Invited, Marketing & Advertising | Tagged: cold call openings, cold calls, Corporate Health Group, financial advisors, financial products, physician sales, sales calls, selling to doctors | 4 Comments »

Join the ME-P “Thought-Leader” Pipeline

Posted on August 29, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Modern Finance and e-Health Culture Devotees Wanted

By Ann Miller RN, MHA

[Executive-Director]

Doctors are not always totally hip and do not always know what’s going on in popular culture. Actually, many have no idea what is going on outside of the walls of the hospital; but we’d really like to know.

Health 2.0

Thus, the “thought-leader” pipeline concept was born. The Pipeline is a team of elite individuals that actually are hip and in the know when it comes to the financial advisory and business sides of medical practice. These super cool technical individuals are known as ME-P “thought-leaders” and help keep us up to date about Health 2.0 collaboration. Think you’re up for the task?

Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

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Congratulations Somnath Basu PhD

Posted on July 17, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

ME-P Thought-Leader and 2010 USDLA Award Winner

[Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching Award]

By Ann Miller RN, MHA [Executive-Director]

The United States Distance Learning Association, the nation’s premier distance learning association since 1987 recently presented its 2010 International Distance Learning Awards, the premier awards for the distance learning industry. And, ME-P thought-leader Somnath Basu PhD, MBA was a category winner.

These prestigious awards are presented annually to organizations and individuals, and recognize four categories of excellence: 1) 21st Century Best Practice Award; 2) Best Practice Awards for Distance Learning Programming; 3) Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching Awards; and 4) Outstanding Leadership by an Individual Award.

United States Distance Learning Association

The USDLA International Distance Learning Awards are created to acknowledge major accomplishments in distance learning and to highlight those distance learning instructors, programs, and professionals who have achieved and demonstrated extraordinary achievements through the use of online, videoconferencing, and satellite/video delivery technologies globally.

The USDLA Awards

USDLA International Distance Learning Awards honors organizations with its 21 Century Best Practice Awards. This award category recognizes outstanding leadership in the field of distance learning for an agency, institution, or company incorporating blended or individual distance learning technologies.

In addition, the Awards for Best Practice in Distance Learning Programming are presented to outstanding organizations, which have designed and delivered outstanding and comprehensive Best Practices for individual programs or a series of programs through online, videoconferencing, and satellite delivery technologies.

www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Award levels include Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze categories. The Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching Awards honors outstanding instructors whose programs demonstrate extraordinary achievements in a distance learning environment for teachers or trainers. Award levels include Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze categories.

Finally, the Outstanding Leadership by an Individual awards recognize those who have demonstrated strong, innovative skills for the development and/or administration of programs or who are recognized scholars in the field of distance learning globally.

About Dr. Basu

http://www.callutheran.edu/schools/business/graduate/cif/

Somnath Basu PhD is program director of the California Institute of Finance in the School of Business at California Lutheran University where he’s also a professor of finance. He can be reached at (805) 493 3980 or basu@callutheran.edu See his agebander at work at www.agebander.com

Assessment

The 2010 USDLA International Distance Learning Awards were presented to five major sectors of distance education and training and include the Pre-K – 12, Higher Education, Corporate, Government and Telehealth markets. The 2010 USDLA International Awards were presented at the USDLA International Awards Ceremony, on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 during the USDLA National Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Conclusion

Feel free to congratulate Somnath directly by sending him an email: basu@callutheran.edu

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Filed under: Breaking News, Career Development, CMP Program, Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Media Mentions and PR | Tagged: California Institute of Finance, Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching Awards, School of Business at California Lutheran University, Somnath Basu, United States Distance Learning Association, USDLA, USDLA International Distance Learning Awards, www.certifiedmedicalplanner.com | Leave a comment »

How the ME-P Views Client Engagements and Consultations

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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An Expert Led – Future Focused Firm – Enhancing Doctor and Advisory Practices

By Ann Miller RN, MHA

[Executive Director]

ME-P consultants use advanced analytics, medical practice intelligence, education, deep experiential insight and publications to deliver measurable value across the full continuum of the independent health care administration and integrated economics and financial services space. Our team includes DOs, CPAs, MDs, DPMs, MBAs, PhDs, CFAs, MSFSs, CFPs®, RNs, CMPs™ and health care leaders, business leaders and CXOs. All have extensive strategic, operational, academic, technological, business and financial experience, certifications and licenses.

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Typical Clients

Our clients include medical practices, hospitals and health systems; financial advisory firms RIAs and BDs; pharmaceutical companies, academic medical centers and physician organizations; private equity and investment firms, health insurance providers and medical device manufacturers are included. We help build a foundation for improving care delivery, related financial services sector performance and overall matrix or organizational advancement through the systems we implement. And, we enable our clients to:

Evaluate current performance, identify improvement areas and drive progress over time
Uncover opportunities to capture market share and grow volumes
Anticipate future demand using our proprietary forecasting model
Adopt innovative care delivery processes and structures to meet clinical, financial and service goals
Develop informed, effective leadership teams to drive organizational change and growth
Launch seminars, lectureships, collaborative workshops and speaking engagements.

The ME-P Difference

Along with the ME-P website, here is how we are different: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

ME-P is future-focused

We have a track record of predicting trends that keep you ahead of the competition. We continuously scan the horizon to anticipate changes that will transform practices, clinics, hospitals, the financial services industry, RIAs and medical practices.

ME-P is expert-led

Our experts collaborate with you to form powerful relationships, support critical decision making, address challenges and uncover opportunities. We bring a unique understanding of your challenges—many of our experts are former financial services colleagues, physicians, CXOs, insurance agents, executives and nurses, etc.

ME-P is data-driven and action-oriented

Our solutions are grounded in proprietary analytical tools and data. By combining expert insight and data intelligence, we develop recommendations that may empower you to grow top-line and bottom-line performance today and in the future.

ME-P is core to health entity and business process

Through value-added analysis and intelligence, our healthcare business solutions become key tools and drivers for your current and future plans www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. What benchmarks do you use for consulting engagements? Are doctors and FAs more or less likely to retain a consulting firm in today’s competitive environment? Are these two consulting sectors more or less integrated today than yesterday?

Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, be sure to subscribe. It is fast, free and secure.

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Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Dictionary Series: http://0ga191.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

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Sponsors Welcomed: And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

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Filed under: Career Development, CMP Program, Experts Invited, iMBA, Inc., Media Mentions and PR | Tagged: david marcinko, financial services, healthcare consultants, ME-P, medical executive post, medical practice management, Practice Management, seminars, speaker's, www.certifiedmedicalplanner.com, www.healthcarefinancials.com | Leave a comment »

A New Model for Planing Physician Retirement Needs

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Understanding Age Banding

By Ann Miller RN, MHA

[Executive Director]

From time to time, our readers send in e-books, files or e-chapters, pamphlets or other material they have created for client, educational or marketing use. Some of it may be worthwhile; some not so. Nevertheless, these publications are often a good place to start the conversation, or thought-process on related topics.

They will be occasionally offered as a complimentary membership feature of the Medical Executive-Post.

Age Banding [author]
Somnath Basu PhD, MBA [www.clunet.edu/cif]
[Director California Institute of Finance]

Link: AgeBander

Disclaimer

No advice offered. We make no copyright claim to these works. Veracity and information should be considered time sensitive. Always consult a professional for your situation.

Assessment

Feel free to send in your own material for the benefit of all Medical Executive-Post readers and subscribers.

Conclusion

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FINANCE:Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
INSURANCE:Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors

Filed under: Experts Invited, Op-Editorials, Retirement and Benefits | Tagged: age bander, age banding, agebander, California Institute of Finance, california lutheran university, retirement planning, Somnath Basu | 5 Comments »

Personalizing the Doctor or Client’s Living Will

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Helping Financial Advisors Plan Future Medical Decisions

By Ann Miller RN, MHA

[Executive Director]

From time to time, our readers send in e-books, files or e-chapters, pamphlets or other material they have created for client, educational or marketing use. Some of it may be worthwhile; some not so.

Nevertheless, these publications are often a good place to start the conversation, or thought-process on related topics. They will be occasionally offered as a complimentary membership feature of the Medical Executive-Post. We trust they are beneficial to you.

Your Life – Your Choices [authors]

Robert Perlman MD
Helen Starks MPH
Kevin Cain PhD
William Cole PhD
David Rosengren PhD
Donald Patrick PhD

Link: Your life – your choices

Disclaimer

No advice is offered. We make no authorship nor copyright claim to these works. Veracity and information should be considered time sensitive. Consult a professional for your situation.

Assessment

Feel free to send in your own material for the benefit of all Medical Executive-Post readers and subscribers. All works will be considered; but not necessarily published.

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P feature appreciated. Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, be sure to subscribe. It is fast, free and secure.

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Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed

And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: Estate Planning, Ethics, Experts Invited, Op-Editorials | Tagged: allow natural death, Estate Planning, Helen Starks MPH, Kevin Cain PhD, living wills, natural death, Robert Perlman MD | 2 Comments »

Reporting Tips for Covering High Risk Health Insurance Pools

Posted on June 8, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

A Call to all ME-P Citizen and Investigative Journalists

By Hope Rachel Hetico RN, MHA

[Managing Editor]

According to our colleagues from the Association of Health Care Journalists [AHCJ], the federal government and states are scrambling now to create temporary high-risk pools for the medically uninsurable by July 1, 2010. As one of the first provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to go into effect, it will serve as a test case for implementation of the new law and it should be closely followed.

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Some states with existing high risk pools are passing laws to ensure their programs comply with the new federal rules and are eligible for some of the $5 billion in federal funding. Other states are refusing to alter their programs and ceding responsibility to the federal government.

But, apart from being a policy story, it’s of great interest to all our ME-P readers, viewers or listeners who have pre-existing conditions and are struggling to find coverage.

Avoid HI Scammers

Finally, don’t be scammed into buying fake health insurance. With unemployment high and complicated health care changes under way, scammers see big opportunities. Here’s how to avoid getting hurt.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourHealth/scams-peddle-fake-health-coverage.aspx

Assessment

And so, we now ask our ME-P citizen journalists or investigative reporters to cover this topic for story tips, suggestions, comments and related posts. We hope to add your insights and resources as the story develops.

Conclusion

Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, be sure to subscribe. It is fast, free and secure.

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Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

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Sponsors Welcomed

And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: Experts Invited, Health Insurance, Industry Indignation Index | Tagged: AHCJ, Association of Health Care Journalists, health insurance pools, high risk health insurance pools, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act | Leave a comment »

The Economics of Stock Market Fear for Physicians

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Panic Control and the Possibility of Severe Financial Degradation

By Somnath Basu PhD, MBA [www.clunet.edu/cif]

[Director California Institute of Finance]

An experiential learning of mammoth proportions occurred several weeks ago in the financial markets. The absolute 10 minute freefall of the prices of stocks and bonds, without any pre-notification froze the hearts of many physicians and lay others both in, and outside, of the investment community. The possibility of a one trillion dollar loss had suddenly and unexpectedly turned real. It happened in a matter of minutes. This experience of panic, of the possibility of a severe economic degradation of life becoming immediately real, is like none other that most of us can ever remember experiencing. Even the 1987 crash happened over a large part of that Monday. Like then, this time too there is no known reason of why it happened, though attempts are being made to understand the cause(s). Whatever the reasons may be, it will not change the experience we had of the realization of the fear of a sudden and unexpectedly large loss.

Event Analogies

Before going deeper into the experienced fear, it is useful to provide some analogies to the event. If the meltdown in the financial markets of 2008 was like an earthquake, then this was like a severe aftershock. It is also similar to going down one of those severe roller coaster freefalls that some may consider very undesirable. Alternately, what makes a 30 year old physician be mostly unconcerned about his/her lack of retirement savings while a 60 year old doctor in the same poor condition is much more concerned. Obviously, the possibility of a lower quality of economic life is much more real for the elder than the younger. In such cases we would expect the fear of an economically degraded life to spur people to take preventive or remedial action.

Understanding Fear

To truly understand our responses to fear, we need to go deeper into our minds. According to behavioral psychologists and neurologists both, there are various segments within our mind. For example, one segments of our mind (the frontal lobe) is understood to process analytical tasks. Similarly, other parts of our brain (the older limbic system composed of mammalian and reptilian brains) react to and affect/control our emotions and fear. When we are faced with an immediate threat, this older system takes over control of our reactions and often drives us towards instinctive responses and will not, in general, make the analytically reasoned response. It is similar to learning about all the different ways we need to behave in the wild if we came across a bear. When people actually are faced by such a situation, they rarely remember all their learning and respond with their instincts. Those are the limbic responses. In other words, when threats are real, our emotional mechanisms will dominate our rational mind and we will react according to our older and longer existing nature.

Shocked Limbic System

Such was the effect of the financial freeform. In those 10 minutes the economic shock to our limbic system was the first of its kind, in terms of magnitude. While discussions are held about sudden unexpected losses, typically the impact of sudden huge losses in a very very short period of time is rarely thought of in very meaningful ways because the probability is so very low. This time, it did actually happen! We will bear some consequences which will begin playing themselves out slowly over this summer. For one, the investing nation will be much more circumspect about stocks and other volatile financial instruments. In a more technical way, our risk aversion as a nation will have suddenly increased. This will have an impact on both trading volume and security market prices and eventually on portfolio values. How younger physicians and other investors will react is less known.

www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Assessment

Finally, there is one important lesson in behavioral finance for us all – and that is for medical professionals to find competent financial advisors and planners who can safely herald all people in these times. It also is probably an important point to understand why the portfolios of older physicians should consider safety of principal first whilst the younger ones focus on growing their wealth.

Editor’s Note: Somnath Basu PhD is program director of the California Institute of Finance in the School of Business at California Lutheran University where he’s also a professor of finance. He can be reached at (805) 493 3980 or basu@callutheran.edu. See the agebander at work at www.agebander.com

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Would anyone like to discuss neurotransmitters or chime in on the flight or fight response? Are these very human reactions any different for doctors? How about feelings of “fear” or stock-market “panic attacks?”

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Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

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Sponsors Welcomed

And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

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Filed under: Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Investing, Risk Management | Tagged: behavioral economics, behavioral finance, California Institute of Finance, california lutheran university, financial fear, Somnath Basu, stock market, www.certifiedmedicalplanner.com | 1 Comment »

Survey for Financial Advisors and Industry Leaders

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Tell Us What You Think!

By Staff Reporters

Your Subjective Impressions

The Medical Executive-Post would like to hear your insight on the most pressing issues facing financial advisors, accountants, stock-brokers, insurance agents and financial services industry leaders. Your insights and comments will aid us in our continued commitment to develop content and features that best fit your needs, and the needs of the organizations you lead.

www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Assessment

And so, as a member of the financial services sector, what keeps you up at night? Is it controlling costs? Obtaining and retaining quality advisor, brokers and agents? Implementing fiduciary accountability and/or quality initiatives and the flight to RIAs, etc? How about the recession or housing bust? Or, our favorite … difficult physician clients?

Plan

Just opine and tell us what you think!

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Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

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And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

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Filed under: "Advisors Only", Experts Invited, Surveys and Voting | Tagged: accountants, EAs, financial advisors, financial services industry | 2 Comments »

Survey for Physicians and Health Industry Leaders

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Tell Us What You Think!

By Staff Reporters

Your Subjective Impressions

The Medical Executive-Post would like to hear your insights on the most pressing issues facing doctors, physician and nurse-executives, CXOs and healthcare administrators. Your insight and comments will aid us in our continued commitment to develop content and features that best fit your needs, and the needs of the organizations you lead.

Assessment

And so; as a member of the healthcare industrial complex, what keeps you up at night? Is it controlling costs? Obtaining and retaining quality physicians, nurses and medical providers? Implementing clinical quality initiatives, etc?

Plan

Tell us what you think.

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Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed

And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Experts Invited, Surveys and Voting | Tagged: health administration survey, healthcare administrators, healthcare industrial complex, nurse executives, physician-executives | Leave a comment »

CRM Considerations for a Health 2.0 Medical Practice

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

The Build vs. Buy vs. Outsource Conundrum

By DeeVee Devarakonda MBA

There are several options to build, buy or outsource a medical practice Customer Resource Management infrastructure. And, there are advantages and disadvantages to all three options. I will review all three for our ME-P readers.

Build:

Rapid technology advances are transforming the business landscape. This makes it very challenging for healthcare organizations to keep abreast of the technologies, to train and manage resources on tools, to grapple with cross-functional, cross-departmental dynamics and build the CRM application. In addition mergers/ acquisitions and other market realities can make CRM operations complex and distract healthcare organizations from delivering excellent patient experience.

It is very tempting for small healthcare organizations to think they can develop what they need in-house themselves. May be May be not. It is very essential to stay focused on your main business and see if the solution is available elsewhere. Figure out if you are in the business of whatever you are doing or let us say in the business to develop patient survey tool or a low-end database. It is best to get outside help wherever you are dealing with an initiative/ task that is not your core competence or where it is to your strategic advantage- be it time-to-value or cost savings.

Buy:

Depending on your business needs you can either buy CRM package solution and implement or build best of breed solutions that are suited to your business needs. You need to pay very close attention to what the software vendors are promising. Naturally they will be more interested in making the sale, than advising on whether it integrates well with your existing technologies, so the onus is on you as a buyer to ask the right questions and make appropriate purchases.

Outsource:

Especially for very young healthcare organizations today, outsourcing can be an option worth exploring to de-risk technology decisions. Outsourcing de-risks marketing program – avoids unnecessary, upfront, massive capital investment and will also equip the marketers with the flexibility to ramp up or down as situation demands. Outsourcing does not mean healthcare organizations can wash their hands off the CRM function. Still it is the business that will have to provide the strategic direction and control the CRM process and outcome. There are also Application Service Provider (ASP) solutions which de-risk technology decisions.

Assessment

One of the attractions of going the hosted route becomes very clear when you have a two doctor practice marketing medical services that require 24×7 availability of information, transaction and service. They have attractive pricing that encourage “pay as you go” paradigm which is of enormous help to young businesses. However, the disadvantages of an ASP [SaaS] are: 1) you can’t integrate with your other enterprise systems for patient 360-degree view 2) you can’t customize to reflect your exact needs 3) you can’t work offline, which can be a disadvantage if you are a mobile “new-wave” medical practice.

MORE: CRM Marketing

Channel Surfing the ME-P

Conclusion

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

PRACTICES: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
HOSPITALS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466558731
CLINICS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439879900
ADVISORS: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org
FINANCE: Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
INSURANCE: Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors
Dictionary of Health Economics and Finance
Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security
Dictionary of Health Insurance and Managed Care

***

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Career Development, Experts Invited, Information Technology, Practice Management | Tagged: CRM, CRM applications, Customer Resource Management, DeeVee Devarakonda | 4 Comments »

Be a Financial Services Whistle-Blower!

Posted on May 19, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Have You Ever Worked in the Financial Services Industry?

By Ann Miller; RN, MHA

[Executive-Director]

Do you have experience in the financial services sector? Have you ever worked for a broker-dealer, or on Wall Street, or for a wire-house, financial advisory or planning firm, or even an insurance company, retail, commercial or investment bank?

If so – the Medical Executive Post is interested in your gossip, insider information, knowledge, personal opinion, insight or related hearsay – both positive and negative. Remain anonymous or be named outright.

Please contact us today: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

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Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

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Sponsors Welcomed

And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

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Filed under: "Advisors Only", "Ask-an-Advisor", Ethics, Experts Invited, Op-Editorials, Risk Management | 4 Comments »

Seeking ME-P Readership Opinions on eMRs

Posted on May 15, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

ADVERTISEMENT

An Exercise in Crowd-Sourcing

By Chris Thorman

Senior Marketing Manager
www.SoftwareAdvice.com

I just finished an essay about market share in the EMR industry and I wanted to give ME-P readers a heads up about it.

Here is the link: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/medical/ehr-software-market-share-analysis-1051410/

Essay Content

In the article, I break down:

The size of the outpatient EMR market;
What EMR vendors have the most physicians using their system; and,
What EMR vendors have the most practices using their systems?

Assessment

As I’m sure you can imagine; it was a tough project to get accurate numbers on. And, I’d like to get more eyes on it so we can clear up any discrepancies. Sort of a ME-P reader “crowd sourcing” project if you will. So, all thoughts on our findings are appreciated. I can be contacted directly here by email, or below: chris@softwareadvice.com

(512) 364-0118
(800) 918-2764 (toll free)
(360) 838-7866 (fax)
Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

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Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed

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Filed under: Experts Invited, Information Technology, Op-Editorials | Tagged: ARRA, chris thorman, EHRs, EMRs, health information technology, HITECH, SoftwareAdvice.com | 2 Comments »

Become a Whistle Blower in the Healthcare Industrial Complex

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Have You Ever Worked in the Medical Profession?

By Ann Miller; RN, MHA

[Executive-Director]

If you ever worked for a private medical practice, health insurance company, third party administrator or payer, hospital, public health clinic, VA or anywhere else in the healthcare space, we’d like to hear from you.

Tell the Medical Executive-Post about your work conditions, doctors or nurses, management shenanigans, or the politics and your observations of what is happening at your healthcare organization. Gossip, insider information, knowledge, personal opinion, insight or related hearsay – both positive and negative – is sought.

The clinical, financial, legal, insurance, pharma or administrative scenes are all fertile grounds for exposure and transparency. You may remain an anonymous tipster, or we will publish your identity upon request for additional credibility.

Please email MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com or call us at: 770.448.0769

Please contact us today: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

Conclusion

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Filed under: "Doctors Only", Career Development, Experts Invited, Insurance Matters, Professional Liability, Quality Initiatives, Risk Management | Tagged: CPT codes, medical billing, medical errors, medical fraud, medical upcoding, medical whistleblower, never-events, wrong site surgery | 34 Comments »

The International Health Care Rationing Conference

Posted on May 4, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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Appreciating Parallels for the Emerging US Healthcare System?

By Mahsa Ghari

Aim of the Conference

In the late 1990s, the Dutch government started to experiment with ‘regulated competition’ in social health insurance. A milestone was the new Health Insurance Act in 2006 introducing a compulsory health insurance scheme for the entire population, carried out by (for-profit) health insurers, contracting individual and institutional health professionals. Safeguarding equal access, the new health insurance scheme introduced several preconditions like compulsory insurance, a basic benefit package, the prohibition of risk selection, a risk-equalization fund, etc. The idea of competitive health insurance was combined with deregulating hospital planning and liberalizing health care tariffs.

Merit Considerations

In the new scheme medical need is still decisive in health care access decision-making, but merit-considerations are becoming important too. Shortening waiting times, priority arrangements were considered and/or introduced, based on non-medical criteria. Simultaneously, in terms of financing, health status has become important due to own payments-arrangements, limited insurance package options, etc. At the same time, health status disparities due to socioeconomic inequalities seem to be increasing.

Under these circumstances, confronted with increased health spending, we can expect the “R” word becoming more eminent in the Dutch health care debate.

Relevant Rationing Questions

Emerging relevant questions are:

Who is responsible for rationing (markets, governments, bureaucrats, MDs or others)?
How does it function (explicit or implicit)?
What are relevant selection criteria (QUALYs, DALYs, health status, sex, age, etc)?
To what extent is current rationing just?
What can be done to make it more just?
How will health care rationing affect equal access to health care?
What is the relationship between rationing and differences in health status etc?

There is a wealth of literature in political theory, as well as in health care policy, economics, social medicine and law addressing these issues. What is needed is a consideration of the values involved, and the impact of, policy decisions on the expression of these values.

The Erasmus Observatory

Therefore, the Erasmus Observatory organized an international conference to discuss health care rationing from a wide range of perspectives.

Speakers

The following speakers have confirmed their contribution:

Dr. Bert Boer, Executive member of the Health Care Insurance Board (ethics)
Prof. Werner Brouwer (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (economics)
Prof. Norman Daniels (Harvard University) (philosophy, medical ethics)
Prof. Leonard Fleck (Michigan State University) (philosophy)
Prof. Colleen Flood (Toronto University) (law)
Dr. Anand Grover (Special Rapporteur United Nations) (law)
Prof. John Harris (University of Manchester) (bioethics)
Prof. Frances Kamm (Harvard University) (philosophy)
Prof. Johan Mackenbach (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (public health)
Prof. Alan Maynard (University of York) (economics)
Prof. Chris Newdick (University of Reading) (law)
Prof. Erik Nord (University of Oslo) (economics)
Prof. Bettina Schöne-Seifert (Münster University) (medical ethics)
Dr. Keith Syrett (University of Bristol) (law)

Assessment

The conference language will be in English, in Rotterdam on 9 – 10 December 2010, The Netherlands: info@erasmusobservatoryonhealthlaw.nl

Registration: CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FORM[1]

Conclusion

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And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: Ethics, Experts Invited, Health Law & Policy, Sponsors | Tagged: Dr. Anand Grover, Dr. Bert Boer, Dr. Keith Syrett, Dutch health care, Erasmus Observatory, healthcare rationing, national healthcare, Obama care, Prof. Bettina Schöne-Seifert, Prof. Colleen Flood, Prof. Erik Nord, Prof. Frances Kamm, Prof. Norman Daniels, Prof. Werner Brouwer, socialized medicine | 5 Comments »

How to Post on the ME-P

Posted on April 24, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

A Post is not a Comment

By Ann Miller; RN, MHA

[Executive Director]

The number of comments to our ME-P posts has increased of late, and we are grateful.

Now, an increasing number of subscribers, readers and visitors are asking how they might contribute an original or modified post [not comment to a post] for our target MEP audience. And so, we offer the following guidelines.

Essay Format

Essays should be original and may not be submitted to other publications, blogs or listservs without permission. Essays must target our audience and be in the following format:

Topic Name
Subtopic Name
Author Name and Affiliation
Introduction
Body of Essay
Assessment:

Please be concise and limit your essay to 300-500 words or less. Use spell and grammar checker. A digital photo in JPEG format is optional.

Assessment

You must be a subscriber to post an essay or article. Subscribers are reminded that they have an ethical obligation to disclose any potential conflicts of interest when commenting on any product, company or service. So, be sure to subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Get our Widget: Get this widget!

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Sponsors Welcomed

And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: "Advisors Only", "Doctors Only", Career Development, Experts Invited, Op-Editorials | Tagged: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com, www.certifiedmedicalplanner.com, www.healthcarefinancials.com, www.healthdictionaryseries.com, www.medicalbusinessadvisors.com, www.MedicalExecutivePost.com, www.PodiatryPrep.com | Leave a comment »

Share your Mind and Thoughts with Us

Posted on April 17, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Contribute to the ME-P

By Staff Reporters

Got anything you would like to share with our ME-P community? You can contribute your knowledge and experience by choosing any, or all, of the appropriate items from the list below:

Blog Entry

A blog is a regularly updated journal or diary made up of individual posts shown in reversed chronological order. Each member of the site may create and maintain a blog-type silo.

Forum Topic

Create a new topic for discussion in the more than 50 topical forums.

Static Page [Advertisements]

If you want to add a static page, like a “contact” page or an “about” page, please notify us for advertising rates.

Survey or Poll

A prose survey, or poll, is a multiple-choice question which visitors can vote on.

Essay or Story Line

Stories and essays are articles and posts in their simplest form: they have a title, a teaser and a body, but can be extended by other modules. The teaser is part of the body too. Stories may be used as a professional post, or for products and news articles.

Get our Widget: Get this widget!

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Subscribe Now: Did you like this Medical Executive-Post, or find it helpful, interesting and informative? Want to get the latest ME-Ps delivered to your email box each morning? Just subscribe using the link below. You can unsubscribe at any time. Security is assured.

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed

And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: Career Development, Experts Invited, Nominations Sought, Sponsors | Leave a comment »

Events-Planner: March 2010

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

ADVERTISEMENT

Events-Planner: MARCH 2010

By Staff Writers

“Keeping track of important health economics and financial industry meetings, conferences and summits”

Welcome to this issue of the Medical Executive-Post and our Events-Planner. It contains the latest information on conferences, news, and relevant resources in healthcare finance, economics, research and development, business management, pharmaceutical pricing, and physician/entity reimbursement! Watch for a new Events-Planner each month.

First, a little about us! The Medical Executive-Post is still a relative newcomer. But today, we have almost 17,500 visitors and readers each month from all over the country, in addition to our growing subscriber base. We have been a successful collaborative effort, thanks to your contributions. As a result, we are adding new resources daily. And, we hope the website continues to provide the best place to go for journals, books, conferences, educational resources, tools, and other things you need to establish the value your healthcare consulting and financial advisory intervention. And so, enjoy the Medical Executive-Post and our monthly Events-Planner with our compliments.

A Look Ahead this Month

March 1: Print Edition Healthcare Journalism: If you would like to “step-up-your-game” and be considered as a peer-reviewed contributor to the third print edition of: The Business of Medical Practice [Health 2.0 Profit Maximizing Techniques for Savvy Doctors]; contact Ann at: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com. There are several chapter topics still available. Now, the important dates:

March 1-4: HIMSS-10 Conference, Atlanta, GA
March 4-5: Medicare RAC Summit, Washington, DC
March 6-9: BISA Annual Convention, Westin Diplomat, Hollywood, FLA
March 7-9: ABA Wealth Management and Trust Conference, Biltmore, AZ
March 11: Health Plan Innovations Conference, Orlando, FLA
March 13: AORN Congress, Denver, CO
March 14: Health Facility Planning, San Diego, CA
March 25: World Healthcare Congress on HI-TECH, Washington, DC
March 29: HIT and the Future of Managed Care Industry Forum, NY

Please send in your meetings and dates for listing in the next issue of our ME-P Events-Planner: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

Subscribe Now: Did you like this Medical Executive-Post, or find it helpful, interesting and informative? Want to get the latest E-Ps delivered to your email box each morning? Just subscribe using the link below. It’s free. You can unsubscribe at any time. Security is assured.

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Filed under: Experts Invited | Tagged: AORN, BISA, Events-Planner, HI-TECH, HIMSS, HIT, Managed Care, medicare, RAC Summit | Leave a comment »

Submitting a Guest Post to the ME-P

Posted on January 30, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Make your Voice Heard

By Hope Rachel Hetico; RN, MHA

[Managing Editor]

The Medical Executive-Post is a growing and influential media voice with over 150,000 readers, and followers.

Out Reach Efforts

You can reach this influential audience by submitting a guest opinion piece on anything related to non-clinical health care. Newspaper reporters and editors read the ME-P regularly, so this is always an opportunity to expose your writing to major media outlets.

Format, Length and Style

Articles of about 500-1,000 words in length and free of grammatical and spelling errors are preferred. Accepted pieces will not only be published on the blog, but may be syndicated elsewhere. Several professional medical management and financial services organizations already contribute to us, as well as individual physicians, advisors, and consultant readers. Photographs and .jpeg images are encouraged.

Become a Thought-Leader

There is also an opportunity to become a regular contributor to the ME-P, or thought-leader, after several high-quality guest posts have been accepted and published.

Our Philosophy

Remember the words and philosophy of Dr. David Edward Marcinko, our Publisher-in-Chief:

“You allow others to frame the discussion for you – positively or negatively – if you do not contribute your own ideas, thoughts and opinions.”

Assessment

Articles for consideration can be emailed directly to us at any time: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this ME-P are appreciated. Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, be sure to subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Get our Widget: Get this widget!

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed

And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: "Advisors Only", "Doctors Only", Career Development, Contest Entrance, Experts Invited, Media Mentions and PR | Leave a comment »

Meet Shahid N. Shah MS [Our Newest IT Thought-Leader]

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

And Textbook Contributor, Too!

By Ann Miller; RN, MHA

[Executive Director]

Shahid N. Shah is an internationally recognized healthcare thought-leader across the Internet. He is a consultant to various federal agencies on technology matters and winner of Federal Computer Week’s coveted “Fed 100” Award, in 2009.

Professional Career

Over a twenty year career, Shahid built multiple clinical solutions and helped design-deploy an electronic health record solution for the American Red Cross and two web-based eMRs used by hundreds of physicians with many large groupware and collaboration sites. As ex-CTO for a billion dollar division of CardinalHealth, he helped design advanced clinical interfaces for medical devices and hospitals. Mr. Shah is senior technology strategy advisor to NIH’s SBIR/STTR program helping small businesses commercialize healthcare applications.

He runs four successful blogs: At http://shahid.shah.org he writes about architecture issues; at http://www.healthcareguy.com he provides valuable insights on applying technology in health care; at http://www.federalarchitect.com he advises senior federal technologists; and at http://www.hitsphere.com he gives a glimpse of HIT as an aggregator.

Industry Awards

Mr. Shah is a Microsoft MVP (Solutions Architect) Award Winner for 2007, and a Microsoft MVP (Solutions Architect) Award Winner for 2006. He also served as a HIMSS Enterprise IT Committee Member. Mr. Shah received a BS in computer science from the Pennsylvania State University and MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland.

Assessment

Shahid is also contributing the chapter on HIT in the third edition of our book “Business of Medical Practice” [Transformational Health 2.0 Profit Maximization for Savvy Doctors], now in-progress www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

Channel Surfing

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Conclusion

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

PRACTICES: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
HOSPITALS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466558731
CLINICS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439879900
ADVISORS: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org
FINANCE: Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
INSURANCE: Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors
Dictionary of Health Economics and Finance
Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security
Dictionary of Health Insurance and Managed Care

Filed under: Book Reviews, Experts Invited, Information Technology | Tagged: Business of Medical Practice, Cardinal Health, Computer Week, health information technology, HIMSS, HIT, Microsoft MVP, NIH, Red Cross, Shahid Shah | 1 Comment »

Get an iMBA Inc Second Opinion

Posted on December 12, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Integrating Medical Practice Management with Personal Financial Planning

By Ann Miller; RN, MHA

[Executive-Director]

Second opinions are sometimes necessary in medicine because a misdiagnosis can have significant consequences.

Thru-put and Follow-up

The same is true for your medical practice and personal financial planning goals. Another perspective may help determine if your portfolio is properly aligned, or your practice efficiently designed to achieve your goals with complete thru-put and follow-up.

Assessment

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/schedule-a-consultation/

Link: www.MedicalBusinessAdvisors.com

Get our Widget: Get this widget!

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Experts Invited, iMBA, Inc., Media Mentions and PR, Sponsors | Tagged: david marcinko, iMBA, Inc., medical executive post, second opinions, www.medicalbusinessadvisors.com | Leave a comment »

How Much Do “Financial Advisors” Pay for Doctor [Any Client] Prospect Leads?

Posted on November 13, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

More Than you Think in this Murky Advertising World – but – Are Matching Services Effective?

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko; MBA, CMP™

[Publisher-in-Chief]

Recently, I received the sixth telephone cold call from one Mr. Tim Smith [866 952 4065], in as many months, regarding a service called Prospect Match of Concord California. It purports to match financial advisors with pre-screened clients [like affluent doctors] in my area.

Of course, because of their high quality selection process, only three advisors are “needed” in my locale. I also received this email sales-service pitch.

The Introductory e-mail Sales Pitch

We are hosting a live presentation with Ilene Hirsch of ProspectMatch, and new agent Wayne Dunlap will show you a service that will prospect for you—even in a terrible economy. See How Wayne Dunlap invested $1,094 in his business to earn $39,560 and does it again and again. Join us for 30 minutes and learn how Wayne:

Outsources his prospecting, and was
Introduced to 73 new prospects; resulting in 23 appointments and in 9 sales.

Thank you
Eric Palmer (800) 290-7226
www.Brokersalliance.com

About Prospect Match

“ProspectMatch helps financial professionals who are wasting time and earning too little. If you are earning less than $100,000 a year, you’re either not serious, or doing the wrong things and we can show you what to do. If you are earning $100,000-$300,000 annually, you’ve figured some things out. But those who use our systems see their income top $500,000 annually because they spend their days doing marketing the right way, talking to motivated affluent prospects and they sell the right way.”

Link: www.ProspectMatch.com

Costs

The blog states that there is a one time non-refundable registration [fixed-cost] fee of $149; so that prospects meeting their selection criteria are assigned to me exclusively. For each prospect match, the charge is an additional $20 [variable-cost] fee. This is known as a hybrid business cost model.

Assessment

Here are a few interesting thoughts and co-incidences for further ME-P subscriber consideration and commentary:

The site is a pre or post-retiree sales lead generator for the 45 +age market for annuities; typically the most commission loaded and profitable financial product in the industry today. The fear of Obama-care may be self-promoting for annuities.
It appears to be geared more for insurance sales agents; not RIAs or fiduciaries.
The service appears to help mitigate the so-called national “do-not-call” prohibitions.
Explanatory sales booklets and other customized self-promotional literature are available for an additional surcharge, along with other premium upgrade services.
We have been getting more than the usual number of contacts recently, either to buy our ME-P mailing list [not for sale-confidentially assured], or to purchase an AMA. APMA or ADA mailing list for doctors, podiatrists and dentists. These folks are apparently unaware of our medical affiliations.
How do you feel about being called a “prospect” or book-of-business?
I am not – and have never been – a member of the Financial Planning Association [FPA], and I haven’t been a certified financial planner for the last three years; having quit that organization in abject disgust after more than a decade [read related posts – why?]. So, how and why did they target me? Big mistake, too.

Disclosure

I am not a member of the AMA; 82% of eligible [cogent and modern] physicians are not. But, I am founder of the www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com for fiduciary advisors and medical management consultants.

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this Medical Executive-Post are appreciated. What are the good and bad points of this service? Has any FA used it and what is your experience with it? As a doctor, how do you feel about being targeted as a “prospect” by a third-party head-hunter? Be sure to give the website a click and tell us what you think?

We will try to contact Tim, or other representative of this advertising/marketing program, for an email interview. Let’s be objective.

Feel free to review our top-left column, and top-right sidebar materials, links, URLs and related websites, too. Then, be sure to subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Filed under: Ethics, Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Insurance Matters, Op-Editorials, Point-Counter Point, Retirement and Benefits | Tagged: 866 952 4065, Eric Palmer. Brokers Alliance, Ilene Hirsch, Prospect Match, Tim Smith, Wayne Dunlap, www.BrokersAlliance.com, www.ProspectMatch.com | 21 Comments »

Become a Published Print Author with Us

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

The Business of Medical Practice [3^rd Edition]

By Hope Rachel Hetico RN, MHA, CMP™

[Managing Editor]

Dear Colleagues and ME-P Champions

As you may know, we are commencing work on the third edition of our best selling book: The Business of Medical Practice

TOC 1st: http://www.amazon.com/Business-Medical-Practice-Maximizing-Doctors/dp/0826113117/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231111232&sr=1-8

TOC 2nd: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759

Invitation to Contribute

Accordingly, we would be honored for you to consider contributing a new or revised chapter, in your area of expertise, for a low-effort but high-yield contribution. Our goal is to help physician colleagues and management executives benefit from nationally known experts, as an essential platform for their success in the healthcare industry. Many topics are still available: [health accounting; law, policy and administration; Medicare fraud and abuse; cloud computing; and finance and economics, etc].

Support Always Available

Editorial support is available, and you would enjoy increasing subject-matter notoriety, exposure and public relations in an erudite and credible fashion. As a reader, or preferably a subscriber to the ME-P, your synergy in this space may be ideal. Time line for submission of a 5,000-7,500 word chapter is ample, and in a prose writing style that is “wide, not deep.”

A Health 2.0 Initiative

And, be sure to address health 2.0 modernity. Update chapters from the second edition are also available.

Definition: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/emerging-healthcare-20-initiatives

Assessment

Please contact me for more details [MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com], if interested [770.448.0769]. A best selling-book is rare; while a third-edition volume even more so. Join us in this project. Regardless, we trust you will remain apostles of our core ME-P vision, “uniting medical mission and financial profit margin”, and promoting it whenever possible.

Front Matter Link: frontmatter1advancedbusinessmedicine

Channel Surfing the ME-P

Conclusion

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

PRACTICES: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
HOSPITALS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466558731
CLINICS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439879900
ADVISORS: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org
FINANCE: Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
INSURANCE: Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors
Dictionary of Health Economics and Finance
Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security
Dictionary of Health Insurance and Managed Care

Filed under: "Advisors Only", "Doctors Only", Book Reviews, Breaking News, Career Development, Ethics, Experts Invited, Health Economics, Health Insurance, Healthcare Finance, iMBA, Inc., Information Technology, Managed Care, Media Mentions and PR, Practice Management, Professional Liability, Quality Initiatives, Recommended Books | Tagged: acountants, american medical writers association, authors, contributors, doctors, experts, JDs, journalists, lawyers, managers, MBAs, MDs, PhDs, publishers, writers | Leave a comment »

Introducing Somnath Basu; PhD MBA

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Our Newest ME-P Thought-Leader in Finance and Economics

By Ann Miller; RN, MHA

[Executive Director]

Dr. Somnath Basu is a Professor of Finance at California Lutheran University and the Director of its California Institute of Finance. Dr. Basu is also a Professor of the Helsinki School of Economics Executive MBA Program. He earned his BA in Economics, University of Delhi, MBA (Finance), Marquette University and a PhD (Finance), University of Arizona.

Publications and Experience

Dr. Basu is extensively published in the field of investments and financial planning and is an award winning teacher. He has significant consulting experience with US Fortune 100 companies, advising institutional money managers and in developing proprietary personal investment software. Dr. Basu is actively involved with financial planning organizations including the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), the CFP Board of Standards, International CFP Board and the Financial Planning Association. He coauthored the book (with Block and Hirt), “Investment Planning for Financial Professionals” McGraw Hill, May 2006 which is widely used by financial planning programs nationwide.

Assessment

To regular our ME-P readers, Dr. Basu’s opinions are well known and not without controversy. But, whether you agree with him or not, his commitment to the industry and his economics and financial planning students is solid. And, always adhering to the Socratic dialog tradition of candor intelligence and goodwill.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/i-jealously-shake-my-fist-at-somnath-basu/

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/dr-somnath-basu-replies-to-the-cfp%c2%ae-mis-trust-controversy/

Conclusion

And so, your thoughts and comments on this Medical Executive-Post are appreciated. Pleas give Somnath a warm ME-P welcome and electronic “shout-out”. Then, be sure to subscribe to the ME-P. It is fast, free and secure.

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Get our Widget: Get this widget!

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Filed under: Experts Invited, Financial Planning, Investing, Portfolio Management | Tagged: “Investment Planning for Financial Professionals”, Basu, Block, California Institute of Finance, california lutheran university, CFP, CFP Board of Standards, CMP, economics, finance, Financial Planning, financial planning association, FPA, Helsinki School of Economics, Hirt, International CFP Board, McGraw Hill, National Endowment for Financial Education, NEFE, Somnath Basu, www.certifiedmedicalplanner.com | 4 Comments »

Introducing Dr. Leila M. Hover

Posted on September 21, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Our Newest ME-P Thought-Leader

By Ann Miller; RN, MHA

[Executive-Director]

Leila M. Hover, D. Med. Hum, has a varied background having worked in OB/GYN and as a Clinic Supervisor in a Planned Parenthood Center. She served as Director of a hospital medical library, and then as Director of Scientific Information in several medical communications/advertising organizations.

Interest in Concierge Medicine

Her doctoral dissertation topic was concierge medicine, in which she has a continuing interest.

Assessment

Dr. Hover is a member of the Institutional Review Board of the Atlantic Health System in New Jersey and the Bioethics Committee of Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey. She is also a principal at Information Developers, a medical literature research and document retrieval organization.

ME-P Shout-Out

And so, please give a warn ME-P “shout-out” to Dr. Lee Hover, our newest thought-leader.

Conclusion

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

DICTIONARIES: http://www.springerpub.com/Search/marcinko
PHYSICIANS: www.MedicalBusinessAdvisors.com
PRACTICES: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
HOSPITALS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466558731
CLINICS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439879900
BLOG: www.MedicalExecutivePost.com
FINANCE: Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
INSURANCE: Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors

Filed under: Breaking News, Ethics, Experts Invited | Tagged: Atlantic Health System, bioethics, concierge medicine, Dr. Lee Hover, Information Developers, Leila M. Hover, Overlook Hospital | Leave a comment »

Reviewing the Baucus Health Care Reform Bill

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009

By ME-P Staff Reporters

Senate Finance chair Max Baucus finally unveiled his health-care bill. Baucus is the last committee chairman to weigh in on reform, largely because he has spent months wrangling with Republicans for their support.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell immediately denounced the bill, calling it a “partisan proposal” and claiming it will create “massive new tax burdens on families and small businesses.”

And, no GOPers have had a kind word to say about it; yet. Baucus is keeping his fingers crossed that Olympia Snowe will ultimately come on board, but does one GOP vote really make for a bipartisan bill?

Assessment

We ask our ME-P subscribers to read all 223 pages and decide for your self.

View Here: http://www.slideshare.net/guestd5886c3d/baucus-health-care-plan

Channel Surfing

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Get our Widget: Get this widget!

Our Other Print Books and Related Information Sources:

Practice Management: http://www.springerpub.com/prod.aspx?prod_id=23759

Physician Financial Planning: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/0763745790

Medical Risk Management: http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763733421

Healthcare Organizations: www.HealthcareFinancials.com

Health Administration Terms: www.HealthDictionarySeries.com

Physician Advisors: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.com

Link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HealthcareFinancialsthePostForcxos

Sponsors Welcomed

And, credible sponsors and like-minded advertisers are always welcomed.

Link: https://healthcarefinancials.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/advertise

Filed under: Alerts Sign-Up, Breaking News, Ethics, Experts Invited, Health Law & Policy, Quality Initiatives, Videos | Tagged: America's Healthy Future Act of 2009, Baucus Bill, healthcare reform, Max Baucus, Mitch McConnell, obama | 2 Comments »

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Modern Finance and e-Health Culture Devotees Wanted

Doctors are not always totally hip and do not always know what’s going on in popular culture. Actually, many have no idea what is going on outside of the walls of the hospital; but we’d really like to know.

Health 2.0

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