Liz O'Brien

Can the government demand access to health records usually protected under HIPAA to investigate healthcare fraud?

For the past 32 years I've been the only specialist in my field in the region. How can I break the news of my upcoming retirement without alarming my patients about the lack of care in the community?

My employer reneged on his promise to offer me a partnership after three years as an associate. Instead, he offered me a productivity bonus, and I accepted it. For the next four years I stayed with the practice, and now I want to find a new job. Am I still bound by the original noncompete agreement I signed when I joined the practice? It says I can't work in the area for two years after I leave.

Noncompete agreements; retiring from an underserved area; fraud investigations

A local hospital notifies us when they've admitted some of our patients by faxing a list of names (normally three or four names at a time) to our office. We make a copy of the page for each patient's chart and then use a marker to black out the other names on the list before filing it. Does this practice violate privacy rules?

I plan to start my own strictly fee-for-service practice but continue to work part time for my present employer. In that position, I belong to several health plans. Does being on the panels of these plans obligate me to accept their members in my own practice?

Our community hospital recently opened some offices staffed by newly-recruited family physicians. Now, some of my patients who received care at the hospital's ED say that doctors there tried to refer them to these new physicians for follow-up care. Aren't there laws against poaching another doctor's patients?

Our ten-physician multispecialty clinic is negotiating a contract with a new management company to oversee office functions, including billing and collections. Our previous management company charged 10 percent of net collections for such services. What's the going rate?

Online consults; employee credit checks; financial records

Obeying a subpoena; self-referred-patients

Weekend holidays; wet-leasing equipment; paid meet and greet visits?

Fee schedules; group visits; practice valuations

Moonlighting; breach of privacy; out-of-state Medicaid patients

Treating pregnant patients; overdue balance; reimbursement mix-up

Performance reviews; DME paperwork; part-time hours