Valeo Online

By Deborah Grider, CPC, CPC-I, CPC-H, CPC-P, CPMA, CEMC, COBCG, CPCD, CCS-P: Blue & Co., LLC, Senior Manager

Many physician groups, including the American Medical Association, have declared that ICD-10 will be an “onerous burden” to the industry and will cost thousands of dollars to implement during a time when physicians are facing reimbursement cuts and other changes. To the contrary, ICD-10 has many advantages for the healthcare industry and the first step in realizing these advantages is to begin the transition.

The ICD-10 mandate was finalized January 1, 2009 which gives organizations until October 1, 2013 to transition.

By Guy M. Lerner, MD: ARL Advisers

When it comes to investing and the markets, there is a lot of noise out there, and for the casual observer, it can be rather confusing.  Even professionals, with all their resources, have a difficult time beating their benchmarks.  So what makes you think you can do a better job?  As it turns out, most individual investors do not perform well in the markets.

By Mary Ann Roser: AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Does your doctor tweet?

Dr. Kurt Frederick of Premier Family Physicians in South Austin posts comments and news for patients on Twitter, but he’s one of few doctors who uses social media professionally.

Although most doctors follow the latest whiz-bang devices and other advances in medical technology, they have been slow to embrace new technologies for interacting with patients, according to experts and studies.

Frederick said they are missing a vital opportunity, not only to attract new patients who will find them online but to build deeper, lasting ties with patients.

By Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today
Published: January 09, 2012

WASHINGTON — Healthcare spending grew slowly in 2010 — at a rate of 3.9% — in part because high unemployment and reduced household income led people to scrimp on doctors’ visits and medications, new data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) show.

The slowdown in spending mirrors that seen in 2009, a year in which healthcare spending grew at 3.8%, its slowest rate in 50 years.

By Ron Cooper: Valeo Magazine

Molly, a 10-year-old Labrador retriever, occupies a soft spot in the hearts of Dr. Janine and Joe Malone. And for good reason.

The cherished pet alerted the Oldham County family to a fire in the early morning hours of November 2, 2010. That saved the lives of the Malones, their daughters Kendall, 16, and Grace, 9, and two houseguests. They quickly fled the house before it became engulfed in flames and suffered no injuries. A cause for the fire has not been determined, but electrical problems are suspected.

By Marc Jennings - Valeo Magazine

Morton Kasdan, M.D., a plastic surgeon, is one with his work, his concentration complete, controlling the instrument in his hands. The result will be beautiful.

Dr. Kasdan is turning a piece of wood on a lathe, shaping it with a sharp tool, deliberately, but also learning what visual surprises the wood holds.  He is one of a number of local physicians who make things from wood. It’s natural enough – that healers are also artists.

“You use your hands and your brain,” Dr. Kasdan says.

by Robert Hadley - Valeo Magazine

A combination of on-the-go convenience and faster access to patient data is driving the implementation of smartphone applications at several Louisville-area hospitals.

The latest generation of the technology allows doctors to consult X-rays, review patient lab results and even write electronic prescriptions for most medications. The apps are available on a variety of platforms, including BlackBerry, Android and iPhone.

Some of the apps allow access to online vendors’ web-based services, while others have been developed in-house to provide access to electronic medical records.

By: Stephen E. Fischer, Financial Advisor - Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Downtown Louisville Branch

Wealth can be a mixed blessing — one that creates great opportunity as well as weighty responsibility — especially for children. As a parent, grandparent, or concerned relative, you hope to pass on what you have learned about managing and preserving wealth to the younger generation. However, you want the family legacy to be about more than astute money management; you want it to reflect your personal values, which may include a social conscience and philanthropic ideals.

By: Nathan McNulty, MBA, CFP^®: Meritrust Wealth Management

It’s no secret that the stock market has been an overall disappointment for investors the last 12 years.  Sure, we’ve had a couple good years thrown in with the bad ones.  But for many, the prolonged bear market has shattered a belief that long-term investors will reap rewards of a buy-and-hold investment strategy.  Unfortunately, many investors lost this faith (and pulled their money) at precisely the worst time, in the trough of one of the worst bear markets in our history.  But before throwing in the towel, it helps to embark on a brief history lesson of a couple long-term “secular” markets over the last 50 years.  What you’ll find is that we’ve been here before, and strategies now exist to utilize in this type of market.

By Guy M. Lerner, MD: ARL Advisers

When speaking with potential clients about their current relationship with an investment adviser, they often describe a scenario that goes something like this:  They only hear from their adviser at the end of the year review.  Most of the time, it is steady as she goes.  But then there might be the week that the markets are down 8%.  They then get a call from their adviser asking, “what do you want to do?” We all know that the market is very uncertain, but what are you paying those fees for if you are the one having to make the tough decisions?  Or even worse, why are you paying those fees, if no decisions are being made with regards to your portfolio?