Practices and hospitals, their physicians, and their noncompetes: breaking up should be hard to do.

The availability of specialty healthcare has become an issue of increasing importance. Practices and hospitals must be encouraged to assume the risk and responsibilities of expanding their fields of care. For their part, courts must give heavier weight to that aspect of the public interest in determining how their decision impacts access to specialty healthcare.

The False Claims Act: the courts move toward a rule of reason.

Physicians have been concerned that the False Claims Act may be invoked recklessly, and that they are at the mercy of whistleblowers in their own midst or from the outside who may act in revenge or pique. This article discusses the evolution of case law involving medical practices and reimbursement issues that deal with government payment regulations. It indicates the limitations that are imposed on prosecutors, as well as the liability that providers do incur under current statues.