THE NEW PRESIDENT and Executive Branch will set the general tone for business and health care policy for at least four years. They will also control and administer regulatory agencies such as the Health Care Financing Administration and the Food and Drug Administration. These agencies and their policies will have a direct effect on our business and professional lives in many areas, including competitive bidding, consolidated billing and new device approvals.

The makeup of the 107th Congress, which will also be elected next November, will likewise have a profound influence on our industry. This Congress will take on responsibility for the oversight of regulatory agencies that control our business and professional activities. More important, through the budget process, it will greatly shape the products and services allowed by Medicare, the rates at which we are reimbursed for our services, and the amount of taxes we must pay.

An intriguing but little publicized side effect of the 2000 presidential election will be its effect on the federal judiciary, whose rulings can change overnight the socioeconomic landscape of the country and our industry. The next president, because of the ages and health of the current justices, could well be called on to make at least three lifetime Supreme Court appointments in his or her first term alone.

And because the present court is well-balanced philosophically between liberals and conservatives, whoever appoints the next series of justices will establish either a liberal or conservative majority and, in so doing, set the overriding philosophy of the judiciarry well into the next century.-F.F.