Lifestyle

Medical malpractice liability costs the U.S. healthcare system $55.6 billion a year, according to a new study. The bulk of the cost comes from "defensive medicine," such as running unnecessary tests and prescribing treatments to avoid future litigation.

Adventurous travelers really can't go much farther than this: Punta Arenas, Chile, which claims to be "the globe's most southern city."

With interest rates near rock bottom, investors need to take on a bit more risk if they want higher yields. In this environment, "junk" bond funds may help individual investors gain more income without the risk of owning individual bonds in danger of default.

Once outside the exam room, doctors spend the bulk of their time charting and returning messages. To the rescue: Two new iPhone applications that aim to facilitate medical transcription and handling phone calls -- Emdat Mobile and PerfectServe Clinician.

Baby Boomers seem to do everything a whole lot different than previous generations. Morningstar.com looks at six key reasons retirement for Boomers will be nothing like their parents' lives. For physicians in this age group, the "golden years" may look even less similar.

Genzyme's board blasted a $69-per-share offer from France's Sanofi as "unrealistic" and "opportunistic," while biotech stocks rallied in line with the rest of Wall Street on upbeat economic data.

More frequent flyers are buying into "bonus miles" rewards programs, which allow travelers to double or even triple the number of miles earned on each flight. But travel consultants warn that paying for those extra miles may not be worth the cost.

Over the last 18 months, investors turned to bond mutual funds to net higher yields -- pumping nearly $400 billion into bond funds in 2009 and another $112 million through May 5, 2010. The question is, how long will this bond-friendly, low-interest-rate environment last?

We all know, and will begrudgingly admit, that taxes have to exist to pay for key services that only some arm of government can provide. Police? Check. Fire? Check. Roads? Check. Military? Check. And so on, ad infinitum. But it is the ad infinitum that encompasses most of the conflicts. Where does the spending, and the taxing, or the indebtedness stop, and at what cost point?

After visiting a Colorado dude ranch recently, I couldn't help acknowledging the several business lessons I gained from my equestrian experience. And it was a very fun metaphor to work with!

Would you take investment advice from a cartoon character? How about the man who created him? Scott Adams, creator of cube-dweller Dilbert, has an economics degree and an MBA, and believes the average investor needs to take a simpler investing approach.

As difficult as it may be, you might want to look in the mirror when things go wrong in your practice: CEOs often blame something other than their own performance when companies go out of business, but a new study suggests they are more responsible than they like to think.

Investors now may be too risk adverse, in part because they were previously taking chances that failed when the market fall. Perhaps a better approach is an in-between course, a way to gain whether the markets rises or falls.

Doctors beware! Barred from raising rates without adequate notice and limited as to late charges and penalty interest rate increases, banks are scrambling to put new fees in place to restore lost revenues and may be targeting physicians in creative ways.

It's extremely difficult to measure how well you're communicating on an ad hoc basis, but if done right, you can get a very good picture of the level, structure and nature of communications, and some good ideas of what you can do to improve.

The University of Iowa's Health Law Colloquium will analyze legal issues presented by the country's new health care policy from such legal perspectives as economics, human rights, anti-trust, insurance, employment, poverty and constitutional.

The small towns on the river Volga that circle Moscow to the North East have been called the Golden Ring. Merchants on the river accumulated, and demonstrated, more wealth even than the country's landed gentry, and they did so by building their own churches.

When faced with unhappy or even angry patients, some doctors may try to sweep the complaints under the rug. That's a bad idea. There is a definite correlation between the number of complaints and the number of malpractice suits.

College students often worry about how best to stave off weight gain during their first year of school, but pay little attention to something even more insidious: rapid debt accumulation.

A week away at a dude ranch and then a week playing catch-up have wreaked havoc on my blogging schedule. So this is my end-of-week effort to get something useful in front of you.

While the rest of Europe was on holiday, Roche was busy in the office, acquiring California diagnostics startup BioImagene for $100 million, and striking a discovery and development deal with Aileron Therapeutics that could be worth upwards of $1 billion.

A refrigerator on the fritz and a relocating neighbor teach our blogger that there's potentially hundreds of dollars a year that can be saved, and a more orderly environment and clearer conscience to be had, by giving up our all-consuming habits.

We look at Time's 50 Best Websites for 2010 with a focus on Health & Fitness -- and throw out a couple nominees that we think should have made this year's list.

With car sales up over last year, dealers are not as desperate to "move the metal" as they used to be. That translates into fewer and smaller rebates and scarcer financing incentives. Still, savvy buyers can still drive a bargain if they are willing to put in some time and effort.

In case you missed it, download an archive of our live Webinar, where Ryan Flesher, MD, director of "The Vanishing Oath," and Paul Hochfeld, MD, director of "Health, Money and Fear," discussed how drug giants, insurance companies, and fear of liability are driving up healthcare costs and driving doctors out of medicine.

Card companies are restricted from raising interest rates on certain cards without notice under a new federal law, but -- as usual -- there are some loopholes they can and will exploit.

In this type of sideways trading, the stock market can be something of a crap shoot. Here's a new approach on how to invest for those who will need their money sooner rather than later.

Tiger Woods finalized his divorce with swimsuit model Elin Nordegren this week, coughing up a rumored $100 million. Couples who split up often trip themselves up by focusing on the cash and not looking ahead to what might make financial sense down the road. We look at the Top 5 mistakes couples make in divorce.

Relying on the stock market as your retirement investment tool of choice is a lot like using Las Vegas as your financial advisor. Here are some retirement investment options that are not contingent on stock-market performance.

Aspen Pharmacare's acquisition of the drug-making assets of Sigma Pharmaceuticals lead a busy week of deals worth up to $4.5 billion, but shares of major biotech companies were hit hard by FDA news.