Summary A growing body of evidence shows that implementing a perioperative surgical home (PSH) can yield important quality improvements, operational efficiencies and cost savings for hospitals, including reductions in length of stay and readmissions. However, many anesthesia groups have questions regarding the payment aspects of this model. On...

Anyone who has had to leave in the middle of a family dinner because of a call from labor and delivery or tried to sleep in the call room knowing that a recently completed case is bleeding and likely to come back that night probably also wonders whether they should be working somewhere with less call responsibility.Working on call is part of the re...

Summary The California Health Care Price Relief Act (AB 3087) proposes the creation of an appointed Commission that would "control in-state health care costs and set the amounts accepted as payment by health plans, hospitals, physicians, physician groups, and other health care providers." We offer an overview of the bill as a heads up to anest...

Mark F. Weiss, JD The Mark F. Weiss Law Firm, Dallas, TX, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, CAThink back in time to a job interview. You dressed for success, put a wide smile on your face, and were on your best behavior.In the advertising world, they call them "reviews." In healthcare, we call them requests for proposal or "RFPs" for short. They're th...

Summary The second round of audits by the Office of Civil Rights of compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) may be over, but HIPAA enforcement has not subsided. Anesthesia and pain groups, and their business associates, risk exposure to civil or criminal penalties if they don't comply with the administra...