Note 9 - Business Service Rights, Net

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Deferred Costs, Capitalized, Prepaid, and Other Assets Disclosure [Table Text Block]

NOTE 9 - BUSINESS SERVICE RIGHTS, NET:

Business Service Rights, net at December 31, 2011 and 2010 consisted of the following (000’s omitted):

	2011			2010
Business Service rights, net	$	40,249		$	37,755
Less accumulated amortization		(16,135	)		(14,840	)
Total	$	24,114		$	22,915

Business Service Rights are negotiated one-time payments we generally make to physician practices joining our fertility Partner program. These payments are made to secure the right to provide business services to the practices for contracted terms generally ranging from ten to twenty five years. Depending upon the negotiated terms, these payments may be refundable at the termination of the contract or non-refundable. We amortize our non-refundable Business Service Rights over the life of the applicable contract. Refundable Business Service Rights, which totaled approximately $12.2 million as of December 31, 2011, are not amortized because these amounts will be repaid to us upon termination of the contract.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009, amortization expense related to our Business Service Rights totaled approximately $1.3 million, respectively.

Amortization expense of our Business Service Rights in future years are as follows (000’s omitted):

2012		1,295
2013		1,295
2014		1,295
2015		1,295
2016		1,295
Thereafter		5,472
Total payments	$	11,947

We test our Business Service Rights for impairment on a regular basis in accordance with ASC 360. To date, no impairment charges have been recognized.