[How many doctors are instituting these new fees?] We don't have any hard numbers, ... Physicians are seriously interested in this and some have implemented it, but it appears it has been implemented in a fairly limited fashion. There hasn't been any real drumbeat about it from the public. |
[Insurance] becomes a vehicle for the hospital to try to build its relationship with physicians, ... They can try to use that as a competitive advantage. |
Because of inordinate bargaining power, giant health plans have introduced an all-or-nothing mentality, which is unfair to physicians, |
It's exclusively SFA people. We're relying heavily on students. We have faculty and staff that are in the building as well helping us out and we're ready to manage this 24-7. |
The civil rights movement has been in decline for some time. The big fights on desegregation and integration have been achieved. The causes are not as large, but the issues are still there. There will be no big movement. It will be divided into small niches. |
The reason that we are starting to see this is that managed care is just squeezing physicians in a rising cost environment so they simply can't afford to perform services without charging. Physicians don't want to antagonize their patients, and they don't like pursuing these strategies, but there's no choice. |
This transaction represents an important building block in establishing the financial resources required to achieve our short- and long-term goals and objectives. Equally significant is the establishment of our relationship with Cogent Capital as an investor. |