Learn how real estate investment trusts operate and provide investment advantages.

Stephan Bass, MD * Robert Gorab, MD * Don Schiller, MD * Mark Linskey, MD * Pedram Salimpour, MD * Pejman Salimpour, MD

The voluntary mechanism designed to resolve disputes between physicians and payers has organized medicine groups concerned.

The California Medical Association House of Delegates passed a resolution in late October about noncontracted billing for services rendered, also known as balance billing.

Congressional leaders reach a deal eliminating the 5 percent reduction and introducing a quality-reporting process.

Get started today in screening and vaccinating patients against human papillomavirus.

Despite an increasingly hostile practice environment, physicians can still find enjoyment and satisfaction in medicine. Meet six doctors who reveal what keeps them motivated and moving forward. Then, try a few tips to salve your soul.

When you use an outside billing company, you are putting the financial health of your practice in another's hands. Here's how to make sure you're protected if the company fails to perform.

This first detailed and authenticated medical education quality study, "The Flexner Report," became a watershed event for healthcare delivery. With ample financial and political backing, the report gained wide acceptance and drove future economic considerations in healthcare.

Los Angeles County Medical Association Districts 6 and 17 hosted an Economic Advocacy Seminar on Nov. 29 at Maggiano's Little Italy Restaurant in Woodland Hills. More than 30 doctors and office managers attended for a lively discussion on how to handle unfair insurance company payment practices and how to obtain better PPO contracts.

The Los Angeles County Medical Association held a fundraiser for new Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica) on Nov. 20 at the Santa Monica home of Howard Krauss, MD.

For organized medicine in California, 2007 will be a year filled with much change, but many of the same challenges.

Conflicts in paying for medical services relate to the terms used. Practitioners and healthcare facilities prefer to charge "usual and customary" fees for their services. Insurers and private-pay customers want to pay "fair and reasonable" prices for service. And in the for-profit environment, prices are "what the market will bear." After 30 years in healthcare, I think of these payment conflicts as locomotives of varying size and power. Each train carries a different constituency.

The current controversy regarding the right to bill for noncontracted services rendered, also known as balance billing, pits two segments of the medical profession against one another. In one corner are large organized groups with capitation contracts whose compensation is adversely affected by out-of-plan patient care. In the other corner are physicians who render care on an urgent or emergent basis and who are not in the patient's network.

I was invited to be a guest at the 2006 FREDDIE Awards in New York. This was the 32nd Annual FREDDIE Awards, a celebration of the best in health and medical media production. The host was Susan Lucci, Emmy Award-winning actress, Broadway star and philanthropist.

Organized medicine devotee Rebecca Patchin, MD, was lauded at the recent California Medical Association House of Delegates. She received the Gary Krieger Speakers' Recognition Award, which honors the outstanding contributions of a present or former member of the House of Delegates.

H.L. Mencken said, "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong." To that point, can we be sure that pay-for-performance (P4P) programs are right for patient care?

On Nov. 8, 2006, 100 physicians, hospital administrators, medical students and their guests attended the Annual High Desert General Membership Meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn in Victorville.

On Dec. 12, 2006, Sheriff Gary Penrod conducted a "swearing-in" ceremony for medical volunteers of the San Bernardino County Sheriff Medical Reserve Corps, validating the merger of our existing 202-member San Bernardino County MRC with the Sheriff's Volunteer Services Division.

Thanks to the American Medical Association, the California Medical Association and the grassroots campaign that many physicians participated in by contacting their members of Congress and senators, the 5 percent cut planned for 2007 was rescinded. However, we are not done yet.

In November, the Ventura County Medical Association Installation Banquet and Fundraiser was a high-rolling success. Attendees embraced the "Casino Blast" theme and raised more than $8,000 to benefit the VCMA Health Career Scholarship Fund and the American Cancer Society Gold Coast Region.

Try these seven tenets about ongoing training to ensure your staffers are top notch.

Gary Proffett, MD, a Ventura County hospice physician, sees patients through their final days and nurtures families during the process.