This October the Attorneys of Wade, Goldstein, Landau & Abruzzo will be returning to the annual Joint Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in Chicago, Illinois to present a wide variety of courses on practice management and related issues. This will be the twelfth consecutive year the Firm has been invited to present at the AAO.

The following is a list and description of the courses and programs in which the Firm’s Attorneys participated:

"Structuring A Successful Part-Time Employment Arrangement" (Moderator, Bruce Goldstein) - (Roundtable)

 "Practice Valuation:  What’s Your Practice Worth?" (Moderator, Mark Abruzzo)  -  (Roundtable)

 Conversations with the Experts (Consultant, Bruce Goldstein)

 Conversations with the Experts (Consultant, Robert Landau)

 Conversations with the Experts (Consultant, Robert Landau)

 Conversations with the Experts (Consultant, Bruce Goldstein)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16th

 Practice Valuation: What’s Your Practice Worth? (Moderator, Mark Abruzzo) This course explores the different methods to valuing ophthalmology practices for purchases and sales, buy-ins and pay-outs, mergers, and similar purposes. Practice valuation can, sometimes, have situational aspects. Accordingly, the instructors will devote significant course time to real life examples.

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MONDAY, OCTOBER 17th

 Satellite Office Considerations (Moderator, Bruce Goldstein) Satellite offices can provide substantial benefits to a practice. They can also be a tremendous drain on, and a source of enormous problems for, an ophthalmic practice. In this course, a seasoned practice administrator and health care attorney will review all of the issues that need to be evaluated when considering opening a satellite office, from the assessment of the marketplace and competition, through the turning of the key and beyond!

 Administrator’s Symposium on Health Care Fraud and Compliance (Instructors, Bruce Goldstein, Carol Poindexter, Thomas Pheasant, Jane Palmer, David Laigaie and Wendy Weiss) This course assembles an array of panelists with varying perspectives on health care fraud and compliance that will provide Ophthalmologists and Administrators with an up-to-date, comprehensive and comprehensible examination of current issues and trends in health care fraud enforcement. The course will also focus on the practical side of the health care fraud discussion—avoiding fraud audits and responding to investigations, with particular attention being paid to managing the impact of fraud audits and investigations on the day to day operations of your practice. The panel includes a physician and an administrator who will discuss their first-hand experiences in dealing with these issues, and the lessons learned as a result. To facilitate this discussion, case studies are presented and analyzed.

 Practice Valuation: What’s Your Practice Worth? (Instructors, Mark Abruzzo, Robert Landau and Richard Koval)  This course explores the different methods to valuing ophthalmology practices for purchases and sales, buy-ins and pay-outs, mergers, and similar purposes. Practice valuation can, sometimes, have situational aspects. Accordingly, the instructors will devote significant course time to real life examples.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18th

 Litigation Survival Guide for the Ophthalmic Practice (Moderator, Bruce Goldstein) Ophthalmic practices are high profile litigation targets. And these days it's not just malpractice that you have to worry about. Disputes among partners and lawsuits from employees can be far more damaging than any malpractice case. And the experience can disrupt your entire practice. Regardless of the type of lawsuit filed against you, there are guidelines you can follow and tools you can employ to reduce the disruption and maximize your chances of surviving the process (even if you lose the lawsuit!). In this breakfast roundtable a seasoned practice administrator and healthcare attorney will provide you with those guidelines and tools for each step along the way, from service of the complaint to a verdict at trial.

 Practice Valuation: What’s Your Practice Worth?
(Moderator, Mark Abruzzo) This course explores the different methods to valuing ophthalmology practices for purchases and sales, buy-ins and pay-outs, mergers, and similar purposes. Practice valuation can, sometimes, have situational aspects. Accordingly, the instructors will devote significant course time to real life examples.

This October the Attorneys of Wade, Goldstein, Landau & Abruzzo will be returning to the annual Joint Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in New Orleans, Louisiana to present a wide variety of courses on practice management and related issues. This will be the eleventh consecutive year the Firm has been invited to present at the AAO.

The following is a list and description of the courses and programs in which the Firm’s Attorneys are participating (Click on a course title to see its description):

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24th

 Practice Exit Planning (Moderator, Rob Wade) This program (a breakfast roundtable) will explore the various ways to leave practice—retiring and getting paid out, sale to a third party (including employment of an associate with a buy-out), donation of one’s practice to charity, and simply closing one’s doors. There are a myriad of legal and business issues associated with each. In a panel format of attorneys, a financial planner and a retired ophthalmologist and his/her spouse, we will look at those options and issues as well as look at the financial planning and real life implications of the decision to exit practice.

 Buy-ins and Pay-outs (Moderator, Bob Landau) This course will examine elements of value in a practice; valuation techniques; buy-in and pay-out arrangements; impact on and terms of co-ownership, governance, income expectations, etc.; and setting realistic and fair expectations.

 Personnel Policies and Employee Handbooks for the Small Ophthalmic Practice (Moderator, Dana Holtz) In this breakfast roundtable Dana will review important personnel policy issues critical to the ongoing operations of every practice.

 Income Division: The (Not So) Simple Life (Instructors, Rob Wade and Bob Landau) This course will explore different models for dividing the income pie in a group practice, with emphasis on creating incentives, legal and regulatory concerns, and “modeling” different structures. A case study will be employed to illustrate the process. We will also present the views of physician panelists who have gone through the process of developing compensation models to make the information more concrete.

 Practice Valuation: What’s Your Practice Worth? (Instructors, Mark Abruzzo and Dana Holtz) This course explores the different methods to valuing ophthalmology practices for purchases and sales, buy-ins and pay-outs, mergers, and similar purposes. Practice valuation can, sometimes, have situational aspects. Accordingly, the instructors will devote significant course time to real life examples.

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MONDAY, OCTOBER 25th

 Negotiating Covenants Not to Compete: ‘I’ve Looked at Life From Both Sides Now’” (Moderator, Rob Wade) This breakfast roundtable will cover covenants not to compete, one of the most highly charged issues in physician employment and partnership arrangements. We will look at what they are, their place in the employment/partnership context, their enforceability, and alternatives to consider in negotiating employment and partnership arrangements. We will do so by having a lawyer “referee” between an ophthalmologist who has been on the side of negotiating for inclusion of these provisions, and one who has tried to negotiate these provisions out of their agreements.

 Litigation Survival Guide for the Ophthalmic Practice (Moderator, Bruce Goldstein) Ophthalmic practices are high profile litigation targets. And these days it's not just malpractice that you have to worry about. Disputes among partners and lawsuits from employees can be far more damaging than any malpractice case. And the experience can disrupt your entire practice. Regardless of the type of lawsuit filed against you, there are guidelines you can follow and tools you can employ to reduce the disruption and maximize your chances of surviving the process (even if you lose the lawsuit!). In this breakfast roundtable a seasoned practice administrator and healthcare attorney will provide you with those guidelines and tools for each step along the way, from service of the complaint to a verdict at trial.

 Partial Retirement in a Group Practice” (Moderator, Bob Landau) This course provides an overview of the issues involved in structuring a partial retirement arrangement within a group practice. Particular attention will be paid to (i) whether, and under what circumstances, practices should permit partial retirement, (ii) how partial retirement might impact other group practice arrangements, including governance, ownership, compensation and buy-out terms, and (iii) when and how a successful partial retirement policy should be implemented. This course will include physician panelists who will offer their practice experience and perspective on this important and sensitive issue.

 Spying, Buying, and Thriving: Identifying, Acquiring, and Growing an Ophthalmic Practice-A Course for the Entrepreneurial Young Ophthalmologist” (Instructors, Bruce Goldstein, Rob Wade; Sandra Yeh, MD and and Ron Rosenberg, PA-C) Market trends, the reimbursement climate, demographic processes and historical factors that have come together to create a climate which not only makes the establishment of a new private practice a viable option for the young physician, but also creates a large number of opportunities to acquire existing “dormant” practices and turn them into successful ventures. This course is designed to provide the entrepreneurial young Ophthalmologist with the tools necessary to identify practices that are ripe for acquisition, structure an appropriate acquisition and retool and rejuvenate them into thriving, modern practices. Practice Valuation, acquisition strategies and growth-oriented operational tools will be discussed in detail.

 Employment Discrimination: Understanding, Preventing and Responding to Potential Claims” (Moderator, Dana Holtz) This roundtable will provide the attendees with an overview of how sexual harassment is defined under the law and the necessary steps every practice must take to minimize potential liability for sexual harassment claims. Emphasis will be placed on preventative measures and methods for dealing with sexual harassment incidents. Actual cases of sexual harassment will be used as examples to help attendees better understand what sexual harassment is and how sexual harassment claims evolve.

 Hiring a Physician: From Soup to Nuts” (Instructors, Mark Abruzzo and Rob Wade)

 Personnel Policies and Employee Handbooks for the Small Ophthalmic Practice (Instructor, Dana Holtz) This course provides a review of the most pertinent personnel policies affecting today’s medical practices. This course will also address the importance of a comprehensive employee handbook to avoid exposure to employee-related claims.

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26th

 Negotiating/Evaluating Your First Employment Agreement (Moderator, Mark Abruzzo)

 Personnel Policies and Employee Handbooks for the Small Ophthalmic Practice (Moderator, Dana)

  Administrator’s Symposium on Health Care Fraud and Compliance” (Instructors, Bruce Goldstein, along with Carol Poindexter, David Laigaie, Thomas Pheasant, M.D. and Jane Palmer) This course assembles an array of panelists with varying perspectives on health care fraud and compliance that will provide Ophthalmologists and Administrators with an up-to-date, comprehensive and comprehensible examination of current issues and trends in health care fraud enforcement. The course will also focus on the practical side of the health care fraud discussion—avoiding fraud audits and responding to investigations, with particular attention being paid to managing the impact of fraud audits and investigations on the day to day operations of your practice. The panel includes a physician and an administrator who will discuss their first-hand experiences in dealing with these issues, and the lessons learned as a result. To facilitate this discussion, case studies are presented and analyzed.

  Buying and Selling Ophthalmology Practices (Instructors, Mark Abruzzo and Dana Holtz)

  Practice Exit Planning (Instructors, Rob Wade and Bob Landau)

  Establishing Satellite Offices: Evaluation, Planning and Execution” (Instructors, Bruce Goldstein and Jane Palmer) Satellite offices can provide substantial benefits to a practice. They can also be a tremendous drain on, and a source of enormous problems for, an ophthalmic practice. In this course, a seasoned practice administrator and health care attorney will review all of the issues that need to be evaluated when considering opening a satellite office, from the assessment of the marketplace and competition, through the turning of the key and beyond!

  Performance Management and Discipline of Non physician Staff (Instructors, Marcia Martinez-Helfman and Rob Wade) This course presents effective methodologies for performance management and discipline of non-physician staff. Implementingan effective performance management processes within a medical practice, utilization of processes to establish staff performance goals aligned with practice business objectives, and utilization of processes to handle problem employees while avoiding legal pitfalls will all be covered.

  Employment Discrimination: Understanding, Preventing, and Responding to Potential Claims (Instructor, Dana Holtz)