THE PAIN TREATMENT CENTER of the Bluegrass

The Pain Treatment Center of the Bluegrass announces our partnership with CHI Saint Joseph Health system. As one of the oldest and largest private multidisciplinary pain centers in the region, delivering comprehensive pain care, The Pain Treatment Center of the Bluegrass will be the preferred pain management provider to all hospitals in the CHI Saint Joseph Health system. The Pain Treatment Center of the Bluegrass will now be performing its procedures at CHI Saint Joseph Health Outpatient Surgery Center.

NEUROLOGY/NEUROIMAGING

Peter D. Wright, M.D.

Medical Director Director of Neuroimaging

ANESTHESIOLOGY

Ballard D. Wright, M.D.

Founder and Medical Director

Dennis Northrip, M.D.

Karim Rasheed, M.D.

ADDICTION MEDICINE

Traci Westerfield, M.D.

FAMILY PRACTICE valuation. Hussman Strategic Advisors uses Market Capitalization to Corporate Gross Value Added (MktCap/GVA) as its preferred valuation metric. It is currently 3.6 times its historical norm. By almost any measure, the stock market is at an extreme valuation. It could remain over-valued indefinitely, but I wouldn’t count on it. It usually reverts to the mean at some point. In simple terms, a rising P/E adds to your capital gains, and a falling P/E takes them away.

Laura Hummel, M.D.

A lot rides on inflation. Inflation seems to be at the forefront of a lot of minds these days. The stock market likes stable inflation around 2 to 3%. The latest numbers (those for July 2021) showed a change of 5.4% from one year ago. But remember what was going on last summer. We have expected this and the consensus view is that it will be temporary. There is significant speculation that the money pumped into the economy by the Fed and the Federal government will cause a permanent rise to inflation. A rather significant increase is likely, but for different reasons than the increase in the money supply.

PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION

Lauren Larson, M.D.

INTERNAL MEDICINE

Anand Modadugu, M.D.

PALLIATIVE CARE

Christopher Lyon, M.D.

BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE

Narda Shipp, APRN

Kellie Dryden, LCSW

Marie Simpson, LCSW

PHYSICAL THERAPY

Jason Goumas, PT, CSAS

PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS

Lois Wright, MBA, PA-C

Celeste Christensen, PA-C

Shari Pierce, PA-C

Jing Ye, PA-C

NURSE PRACTITIONERS

Becky Moore, APRN

Teri Partin, APRN

Lynne Shockey, APRN

Dijana Duval, APRN

April Luttrell, APRN

Tabitha Knight, APRN

There are structural changes going on in our economy that will probably lead to increased inflation compared to the preCOVID era. The primary determinant of inflation is a demand curve that moves out faster than the supply curve. We see it happening on a smaller scale today. Aggregate demand for goods and services (especially healthcare) is likely to expand for a very long time. Demographics will play a big part in this story. The number of elderly Americans who will demand that their benefits be paid is growing rapidly. Life expectancies are rising. Couple this with a drop in the birth rate and you find a shrinking supply of labor. In short, the supply curve is moving out more slowly than the demand curve. That is inflationary.

What all this means for you is that you need to be on your financial toes. Paying attention to these issues is becoming more critical as time goes by—stay tuned.