From sweeping legislative changes and consequent judicial challenges to modifications forced by the economy, the U.S. healthcare system is undergoing dramatic and surprisingly rapid changes. For the appraiser working in this, the largest sector of the U.S. economy, these changes signify both opportunity and peril.

On January 24 BVR's 2012 Online Symposium on Healthcare Valuation kicks off with "Economic & Regulatory Update," a thorough look at the state of an industry in flux, hosted by series curator and AHLA/BVR Guide to Healthcare Valuation editor Mark Dietrich. Join us to find out how healthcare is changing, where it's headed, and what it means for the valuation profession and the valuation process.

Highly regulated, highly fragmented, and uniquely nuanced, hospitals, as a group, can be surprisingly difficult to define. For the appraiser tasked with determining a value to any one of the nearly 6,000 hospitals in the United States, these and other challenges can greatly impair the valuation process, throwing a defensibility of any valuation conclusion into doubt.

In part 2 of BVR's 2012 Online Symposium on Healthcare Valuation, BVR welcomes experts Don Barbo and Robert Mundy for "The Valuation of Hospitals." Through their 100-minute presentation Barbo and Mundy will examine the valuation drivers, challenges, and nuances of hospitals, while also examining the state of the industry and how its continued evolution will affect appraisers.

Highly regulated, part of a complicated payment and insurance market, and susceptible to fluctuations in demographics, skilled nursing facilities carry with them all the challenges of other healthcare entities with the added twist of real estate ownership and regulation. In "Valuing Skilled Nursing Facilities," part 3 of Online Symposium on Healthcare Valuation, experts Dennis Perrone and Jean-Pierre LoMonaco discuss the unique complexities and challenges in valuing these businesses. Learn how to approach skilled nursing valuations and what to watch for throughout the valuation process.

In the ever-changing healthcare industry it would seem something as simple as an entity's tax-exempt status would carry some continuity and stability. But in the largest sector of the U.S. economy, even this simple characteristic can create ripples that effect the operations and value of the entity in question and others operating in the same marketplace.

This 100-minute webinar, part 5 of BVR's Online Symposium on Healthcare Valuation features expert appraiser Robert Reilly and attorney John Holdenried in an in-depth analysis of how tax-exempt status impacts a variety of medical organizations. Their presentation will address how tax-exempt status adds to the operational considerations of healthcare entities through transaction analysis, reasonableness of compensation analyses, and similar fair market value analyses; how the IRS and Congress may be reassessing the community benefits used to justify tax-exempt status; and what considerations are in order when a tax-exempt entity acquires another non-tax-exempt entity.

Love them or fear them, every appraiser knows a dentist and, chances are, they've appraised a dental practice. On one hand, with more than 150,000 dentists practicing a number of specialties in the United States alone, there is valuation work to be had. Yet on the other, capital expenses, goodwill considerations, and insurance requirements both as a payer and provider dentistry valuations present numerous challenges to the appraisal process.

In "Valuing Dental Practices," part 6 of BVR's Online Symposium on Healthcare Valuation, an all-star panel will discuss the state of the dental industry, where valuation opportunities lie, and where to be wary of valuation pitfalls. Join experts James Andersen and Ron Seigneur and Dr. Bernard Slota as they discuss how best to approach these ubiquitous, yet challenging valuation assignments.

Depending on size, organizational structure, and service offerings, lost profits and economic damages analysis for physician practices can take several forms. Whether the analysis is related to compensation streams, ancillary service revenues, or other considerations, there is no denying that lost profits claims for physician practices pose their own unique challenges.

In this webinar, BVR hosts expert Mark Dietrich for a special cross-over event: both part 7 of BVR's Online Symposium on Healthcare Valuation and part 12 of BVR's Online Symposium on Litigation & Economic Damages. Join Dietrich, curator of the healthcare Symposium for this in-depth look at the considerations of lost profits analysis in physician practices, and what consequences these decisions have on the analysis, conclusion, and defensibility of those analyses.

• Introduction to assisted living
• Historical trends
• Industry outlook
• Business structure and its affect on value
• Value drivers
• Industry valuation methods
• Sources of market data
• Handling owned and leased real estate
• Reconciling valuation methodologies