Italian Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Egidio Riggio's "Zenith System" For Breast Augmentation

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Dr. Egidio Riggio focuses on innovation and research related to plastic surgery, both aesthetic and reconstructive. 

Name: Egidio Riggio, M.D.
Location: Milan, Italy
Website: chirurgiaplastica.mi.it/it/home/

That's interesting: Dr. Egidio Riggio is the creator of an innovative philosophy and aesthetics of an original surgical approach to breast augmentation he calls the "Zenith System" which he claims lead to more natural breast augmentation results. He has performed mor than 100 cases and published this proceedure in the international journal of cosmetic surgery most authoritative, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery August 2012.

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Marguerite Barnett MD FACS PA - Sarasota Institute Of Plastic Surgery & Mandala Medical Spa In Florida

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Marguerite Barnett, M.D., F.A.C.S., P.A. Board Certified Florida Cosmetic SurgeonDr. Barnett has integrated her cosmetic and reconstructive techniques with the wisdom of ancient Eastern healing arts to create a new healing vision.

Name: Dr. Marguerite Barnett
Clinic: Mandala Medical Spa
Location: Sarasota, FL
Website: drmbarnett.com, mandalamedspa.com

That's interesting: Dr. Barnett is a double board-certified cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon, licensed in both Hawaii and Florida.

Giving back to the community is an integral part of Dr. Barnett’s philosophy and commitment to health and wellness. She actively participates in local charitable events year-round with the Wellness Community of Southwest Florida; United Cerebral Palsy of Sarasota; and The Women’s Resource Center. One of the most popular ways Dr. Barnett supports charitable events is through her expression of Indonesian and Balinese dance.

Can you give us a picture of how your clinic is organized and runs? 

My clinic for business accounting purposes is split into two sides. The doctor’s practice and the medical spa. The concept was to have the high-tech, scientific “western” doctor’s side balanced by the luxurious ancient rituals of the eastern spa side. Of course there’s an overlap and that’s exactly how I wanted it. If the massage therapist spots a weird mole on their client’s back, the client can run next door to have me look at it. If I encounter a patient who needs skin care for best results, I can shoot herover to the medical aesthetician. Post-op patients benefit from acupuncture to lessen pain and my employees and patients benefit from stress-reducing yoga and meditation. The overall design which has an Asian flavor is comforting and inviting to all. I was nervous at first because it was not the typical doctor’s office but on the day of moving in, I lost my fear completely when one of the movers, a Bronx native judging by his accent, dropped his box and said “Whoa! This place feels healing! You the Doc? What kinda Doc are you?” He got it! 

Hawaii Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Dr. Marguerite Barnett

You're double board certified cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon licensed in both Hawaii and Florida. How do the different states that you practice in differ in terms of medical operations? 

Well, I haven’t lived in Hawaii for almost 30 years but what my friends in the state communicate, Hawaii seems to be ahead of Florida in many aspects. They have a much lower rate of uninsured population and a more cohesive public health initiative, important when you’re dealing with an international, multi-cultural population with extreme disparities in wealth and education.

Florida has these issues as well but we’re not handling them as well as Hawaii. Maybe the fact that Hawaii consists of several small islands sharpens the sense that these issues must be addressed or the lifeboat will sink. It’s harder to ignore these problems on an island. Also they do not have a governor that turns down billions of dollars in federal aid.

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Interview With Serbian Board Certified Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Gorana Kuka.

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Gorana Kuka MD, Board Certified Serbian physician

Dr. Gorana Kuka works in private plastic surgery practice at the Colic Hospital with patients coming from around Europe.

Name: Gorana Kuka, MD
Clinic: Colic Hospital
Location: Belgrade, Serbia
Website: dr-colic.com

That's interesting: Dr. Gorana Kuka is board certified by Serbian Medical Society.
She is a member of ISHRS (International Society for Hair Restoration Surgery), IPRAS (International Confederation for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery) and a women for women organization that aims to supply help by female surgeons to patients.

Your website is translated in eight different languages including English, German, French, Russian and Italian. Where do your patients come from? Are you seeing 'medical tourism'?

Since around 60% of our patients are coming from abroad, we had to translate our webpage into different languages. Most of our patients come from Switzerland, Germany and Austria. Some of them are of Serbian origin and some of them are foreigners. They have found about us either from their Serbian friends living abroad, or looking through internet for aesthetic surgery of best quality and lower fees.

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Disability Insurance For Physicians & Medical Spas

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In a previous post I discussed the single most important feature of disability insurance for physicians—the definition of disability.

But there are multiple other features of disability insurance you need to think about before you buy additional insurance or if you are buying a policy for the first time.

Before I discuss those features, why exactly do you need disability insurance to begin with? Here are some sobering  statistics to think about:

  1. Almost 20% of working age people have a disability—half of these are severe
  2. There is a 1 in 8 chance of becoming disabled before age 65
  3. Only about 25% of working people with a severe disability are employed
  4. It is much more likely (nearly ten times more likely) that you will become disabled than die during your working years

Let’s take a look at the key features you need to think about your disability insurance policy:

Benefit Amount.  Next to the occupational definition of disability this is the next most important feature of your policy. Your benefit amount is related to your specific occupation. So higher risk specialists such as emergency medicine physicians will qualify for a lower benefit amount than lower risk physicians such as internists.

The benefit amount also depends on the income you make since the insurance company won’t pay out more benefits than your current income. Typically you won’t be able to buy insurance greater than about 60-70% of your gross income.

But one common mistake I see most financial advisors and physicians make is that your benefit amount should be correlated as close as possible to your current monthly expenses. If you don’t know what you’re spending today, then how do you know what amount of disability insurance to get? So sit down and figure out what you’re spending before you buy a policy. I know physicians who spend $20,000 per month or more and have disability policy benefits of less than $10,000 per month. Will you be able to get by on disability benefits that are significantly lower than what you’re spending right now?

Elimination Period. This is similar to a deductible in the sense that disability benefits typically don’t kick in until several months after you are totally disabled. In effect you are paying for your disability out of pocket until benefits kick in. The most common elimination periods are 90 days and 180 days. So if you become disabled today and you have a 90 day elimination you won’t receive your first check until the 4th month of being disabled (7th month for 180 day elimination period). So this again gets back to the issue of what you’re spending. How long can you get by with your current savings before you need income? If you can’t get by very long, your disability policy should have a short elimination period but if you have adequate savings, choose a longer elimination period to save on the premium.

Next time I’ll discuss other features that you need to consider in a disability insurance policy.

About: Setu Mazumdar MD is an affiliate of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and a member of the Financial Planning Association (FPA), the National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP, and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). He's the managing partner at Lotus Wealth Solutions and blogs regularly at Freelance MD.

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