The ASPR Journal - Your First Stop for News, Trends, and Tips

Every quarter, the Journal of the Association of Staff Physician Recruiters publishes a cache of valuable recruiting information for physicians seeking medical jobs, ASPR members, and our partners in the physician recruitment and retention industry.

ENTIRE CURRENT ISSUE (PDF):
ASPR Journal - Summer 2008

INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES (PDFs): Table of Contents

BACK ISSUES are available in the Member's section.

Stark Law: The Attempt at a Bright Line Rule Creates a Trap
for the Unwary

by Henry Casale, JD

Cover Image

In his introductory remarks to the Comprehensive Physician Ownership
and Referral Act of 1993 (commonly known as the “Stark Law”), Congressman Fortney Stark stated that “the only way to protect health
care consumers from unnecessary referrals is to impose a bright line rule.” In order to accomplish this intent, Representative Stark introduced a law that is easy to describe but has been exceedingly difficult to implement.

In fact, recent regulations that have attempted to provide the bright line clarity _envisioned by Rep. Stark have actually created a unique challenge to hospitals and other entities that provide designated health service (“DHS”) when amending a compensation arrangement
with a physician.

The Stark Bill has two effects: First, the Stark Law prohibits a physician
from making referrals for certain “designated health services” payable
by Medicare to an entity that the physician, or an immediate family
member of the physician, has an investment interest in or a compensation
arrangement with, unless the arrangement satisfies an exception that is described in the Act or in the regulations that have been promulgated to the Act. Secondly, the Stark Law prohibits the DHS entity from filing claims with Medicare for those referred services unless an exception applies.

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As Doctors Get a Life, Strains Show

by Jacob Goldstein

U.S. medicine is in the middle of a cultural revolution, as young physicians intent on balancing work and family challenge the assumption that a doctor should be available to treat patients around the clock.

Walter Cheng, 32 years old, is in the profession’s new guard. Upon graduating from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2004, he bristled at the notion espoused by some senior physicians that a doctor should put medicine above all else. “I thought, ‘I don’t really want to be that kind of doctor.’... My family is as important, if not more important, than my career.”

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Blogs: The Next Frontier

by Renee McGivern

At the beginning of Star Trek television programs, the captain reads aloud from his daily log: "Stardate 66590. We’ve reached the Philistine Galaxy and are settling in for routine maintenance, giving us time for much needed R & R." That log records the story of the ship’s travels, the crew’s challenges, and the captain’s armchair view of space.

A blog, the latest web-related word that’s popping up everywhere, is like that captain’s log: it is a web log of someone’s life, interests, observations, drawings, photos, and more. The author, in essence, gets to be the captain of Life and record his or her experience of it. And millions of people all over the world are launching, reading, or posting reactions on blogs every day.

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Back Issues

Back issue are available in the Member's section.

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