San Diego Family Physician Elected CMA President

San Diego family physician James T. Hay, M. D., took over as the California Medical Association’s 144th president at the close of the association’s annual House of Delegates on Monday in Anaheim.

In his address to the nearly 1,000 physicians in attendance, Dr. Hay challenged the members to set out to recreate the health care marketplace "like the tech industry does."

Rather than waiting for someone to pay us for our products and services under the new health care system, he said, physicians need to be active in its creation. Physicians need to set big goals, he said. It's time to think about the end point – a better profession, a more secure economic environment, a healthier and safer public – we need to design a way to get there.

But to get there, he cautioned, physicians must stop "fighting each other for pieces of a dwindling market," and to think about enacting plans that enhance the marketplace for patients and clinicians.

Physicians know a lot about what would improve care for patients and produce cost savings, he said. For example, if we can coordinate care better and make it possible for patients to receive "treatment at home rather than in a hospital or skilled nursing facility," this would save money and help patients. "If patient care and safety were improved this way," we might be able to "capture 25 percent of the market dollars rather than the 19 percent we currently own."

"We have met the enemy and he is us," Dr. Hay said quoting Walter Crawford’s satirical cartoon character Pogo. Then he challenged CMA’s members to stop thinking like victims. "If we have the power to create our own problems, we certainly have the power to fix them."

A native of Philadelphia, Dr. Hay, has practiced in the north county area of San Diego since 1978, when he founded North Coast Family Medical Group. He received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and his B.A. from Duke University in North Carolina. He completed his residency at Naval Hospital, Camp Pendleton, and is board-certified by the American Board of Family Medicine.

Dr. Hay is a member of the San Diego County Medical Society (SDCMS) and the California Academy of Family Practice. He also has a long history of involvement in organized medicine at the local, state and national level. He is past president of SDCMS and the SDCMS Foundation and has been on the Board of Trustees of the California Medical Association (CMA) since 1994. He has been a member of CMA’s House of Delegates (HOD) since 1986, serving as vice speaker and speaker of the HOD from 2003 to 2009, and is currently concluding a one-year term as CMA president elect.

He has served as a member of the Board of the San Diego and Imperial County Red Cross for six years and on the board of 211 San Diego for four years. Since 1977, he has received the AMA Physicians Recognition Award, which is given to physicians who demonstrate a commitment to patient care through continuing medical education.

Dr. Hay is active in local and state political action and enjoys running, travel and great restaurants. Dr. Hay and his wife, Tricia, have two grown children and four grandchildren.

Also serving on CMA’s 2011-2012 Executive Committee are:

• Immediate Past President James Hinsdale, M.D., a San Jose trauma surgeon;
• President-Elect Paul Phinney, M.D., a general pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Sacramento;
• Speaker of the House Luther Cobb, M.D., a surgeon in Humboldt County;
• Vice Speaker of the House Ted Mazer, M.D., a San Diego ear, nose and throat specialist;
• Chair of the Board of Trustees, Steve Larson, M.D., an internist and  infectious diseases consultant in Riverside County; and
• Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, David Aizuss, M.D., a Los Angeles ophthalmologist.

Contact: Molly Weedn, (916) 551-2069 or mweedn@cmanet.org.