By Steven A. Eisenberg
 
“Doc are you telling me you built a time machine . . . out of a Delorean?  The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style.”  Exchange between Dr. Emmett L. Brown and Marty McFly, Back to the Future.
 
For lawyers representing health care providers, there are days where we feel like we are getting into our Delorean, ready to take a trip back in time.  Why?  Because the landscape is looking very much like …

Meeting the criteria involves more than just the care of the clinical condition of the resident. It involves every level of service delivery in the facility, including the physician.

The physician’s knowledge and ability to document a history and physical will directly determine successful reimbursement for services rendered.

Weighing the natural diminishment of vision, hearing, mobility, reaction time, etc., plus many diseases of the elderly against the importance of driver’s license to the patient such as independence always creates a difficult dilemma for practicing physicians.

During a time of shortage and changing demographics, hospitals, health systems and medical groups are competing to recruit and retain physicians who bring with them new values, needs and expectations.