Americans with employer-sponsored insurance had fewer hospital stays and visited outpatient clinics less frequently from 2009 to 2010, but prices for inpatient and outpatient care rose by about 10% or more, according to a Health Care Cost Institute analysis of more than 3 billion claims for medical care. The average price of generic drugs fell over the same period, but prices for brand-name drugs rose, the ...

2013 Training Schedule and Early Registration Discount Deadlines ...

Private Equity Manager reports that with regulators looking over their shoulders, some GPs are playing it safe by hiring third-party valuation advisors to check their numbers. However not all third-party opinions are equal, warns Cindy Ma, managing director at advisory-focused investment bank Houlihan Lokey.  PE Manager's Nicholas Donato talked with her recently.  Here are excerpts:  There was a feeling of ...

The International Accounting Standards Board plans to establish a formal network to give standard-setting bodies a voice when their countries switch to International Financial Reporting Standards. There is conflict, however, over how the network will operate and whether it would dilute IFRS as a single set of reporting standards. Advocates of such a network say the U.S. will not commit to IFRS without it.   ...

This piece really has no new information in it, so if you're looking for that, you can stop reading here. Instead, it's for Anglophiles.  Observers of British culture.   The BBC recently posted rather prominently a piece pondering the tragedy of the human condition wistfully, as it so often does.   Well, that's not quite what the article was about.  Actually, it's rather hard to tell what the article is abo ...

The Wall Street Journal's Small Business Blog featured recently a guest column by Antone Johnson on the use, misuse, and misvaluation of intellectual property.  It's probably of interest to valuators and financial consultants who are working with small business owners to value and growth their businesses.   Venture capitalists, angel investors and start-up lawyers these days tend to be obsessed with "intell ...

You've probably already read this story—Facebook Co-Founder Renounces U.S. Citizenship in Advance of IPO, Saving Millions in U.S. Taxes —heard about it on the radio, or seen it on TV.   But Paul L. Caron of The TaxProf Blog has done a remarkable job of aggregating all the media responses to the story from about 20+ outlets, and linking to previous posts this week on the developing story.     On Thursday:  B ...

Bullseye Blog, A Legal Blog on Expert Topics, reports that The  Supreme Court has issued a new patent law opinion that could signal a greater need for expert testimony in patent-related civil actions in federal district courts. Bullseye's Robert Ambrogi cuts to the chase:  "The bottom line of Kappos v. Hyatt is that the court has lifted any limits on the use of new evidence in a §145 trial.  That is sure to ...

If you're been hoping to find a comprehensive source for private equity transactions and fund information, you may see a version of it as early as this fall.   Fund managers have joined limited partners and other industry players in supporting a global private equity database being developed by Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner.  Graham Winfrey at Private Equity Manager reports: A group of priva ...

Becker's ASC Review, a site that provides Practical Business, Legal, and Clinical Guidance for Ambulatory Surgery Centers, recently published an article on benchmarks that ASC administrators often neglect. These are important benchmarks not just for ASCs, but for any physician executives, healthcare practice managers, and the valuators and consultants they work and plan with. An excerpt: Chance Sherer, mana ...

In an article titled "Regulation 'Pushing Up Financial Firms' Costs" The Financial Times' chief regulation correspondent Brooke Masters  reports that extraterritorial regulations, rules that affect businesses outside the country that enacts them, are pushing up costs and driving banks, insurers and asset managers away from particular markets, a survey of global financial firms has found.   More than half th ...

You can't avoid paying taxes on assets you sell after a bankruptcy.  At least if you're a farmer.  Sally P. Schrieber at the Journal of Accountancy reports The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that farmers who sold farm assets during a bankruptcy reorganization under Chapter 12 of the Bankruptcy Code were liable for the full amount of the capital gains tax that resulted from the sale (Hall, Sup. Ct. Dkt. No. ...

If you're interested in keeping up on regulatory news in a day-to-day fashion, Financial Executives International (FEI) publishes a great news page on its own site and offers content for the FEI Financial Reporting Blog at AccountingWeb.  Both sites offer multiple monthly highlights from SEC, PCAOB, FASB, IASB, and other regulatory news, including reporting under Sarbanes-Oxley Sect 404. The FEI Financial R ...

The most highly anticipated IPO in history didn't put on much of a show. Facebook closed today within decimal points of its opening price of $38. Even so, the company's market cap is higher than McDonald's or Pepsico. Espen Robak is the president of Pluris Valuation Advisors, where he studies and values private companies trading on the secondary market. Derek Thompson at The Atlantic talked to him this morn ...

A relatively unexplored area of family business research is the role that an active, independent board of directors can play in perpetuating the family business from one generation to the next.  David Thayne Liebell reports at Trusts & Estates that a  recently published book, Building A Successful Family Business Board, seeks to close that research gap. In fact, according to the book’s authors, an activ ...

If you're still trying to figure out whether and how your practice should have a social media strategy, don't worry—lots of other folks are too.  This simple graphic should help you understand your choices:   It's really quite simple once you break it down.   . . . and we know a lot of you have spent time as expert witnesses, or doing litigation preparedness work for your clients. But are you ready to ...

One of the problems with how financial institutions assess risk is that they rely on imprecise models.  Financial News'  Shanny Basar reports that in fact, just a few days before JP Morgan announced its multi-billion dollar trading loss, James Montier,a member of the asset allocation team at fund manager GMO, gave a speech on The Flaws of Finance. In the speech, delivered on May 6 at the 65th Annual CFA Ins ...

Five Things to Watch For In Year-End Portfolio Company Fair Value Measurements Private equity fund managers—and their limited partners—cannot take fair value measurement for granted. In 2011, a number of new procedures and policies spawned by SFAS 157 (not Topic 820) have hardened into established routines. This checklist helps fund managers and consultants measure the fair value of portfolio company invest ...

Psychology Of Fraud: Why Good People Do Bad Things NPR's Chana Joffe-Walt and Alix Spiegel have put together a fascinating podcast that examines the psychology of fraud. It often isn’t as easily explained as bad people doing bad things. Ethicists and psychologists have documented an unusually high number of people who start out, in their minds, doing the right thing. The story follows the case of Toby Grove ...

Add Value to Appraisals. Ask First: “Who’s the Most Important Reader?” Rand M. Curtiss explains how appraisals have the most value when consultants have customized and focused them for their most important intended audience. In some cases, that may be a prospective buyer. In other cases, it might be a client auditor—or even the IRS. That can make quite a bit of difference. Here’s why. ...