Legal considerations when making a practice change.

Changes in medical practice, such as retiring, selling a practice, and switching employment, have significant legal impacts on physicians. These decisions should be carefully analyzed prior to being made. Physicians who do not make decisions in a well-considered manner may face economic penalties, licensure sanctions, and/or other legal issues. This article explores some key legal issues including (1) timing, (2) patient care continuity, (3) medical records retention, (4) licensure and board certification, (5) professional liability insurance, and (6) postemployment restrictions on practice. Within these topics, sources of physicians' legal and ethical obligations are examined, including possible resolutions to identified issues. Not all changes affect physicians in the same manner. This article further considers how these important legal issues may impact differently situated physicians, such as retiring physicians vs transitioning physicians and physicians employed by groups or hospital systems vs physicians in solo practice.

HIPAA compliance deadline approaching: five steps to ensure you are ready.

The September 23, 2013, deadline for covered entities, business associates, and their subcontractors to comply with new HIPAA rules is fast approaching. Now is the time to ensure HIPAA compliance before the deadline arrives and avoid any penalties that could result from failure to act.

CMS final rule requires NPI submission for Medicare and Medicaid provider enrollments and orders.

Despite the recent debate in the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of the health care reform act, CMS published a final rule related to several provisions from the Affordable Care Act (the Act).