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Save the date: 2016 Leadership Academy to feature Karl Rove and Donna Brazile

Check your calendar and save the date for the 2016 Western Health Care Leadership Academy to be held in San Francisco May 13-15 at the Hilton. The opening session will feature a preview of the 2016 Presidential election and its impacts on health care. Speakers for this session include Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush, and Donna Brazile, Al Gore’s campaign manager and Democratic National Committee Vice Chair. Physicians and nurses, medical practice managers and other health care professionals will find ...

CMA and NORCAL Mutual announce expanded partnership

NORCAL Mutual Insurance Company announced this week that it would expand its long-standing relationship with the California Medical Association (CMA). NORCAL Mutual and CMA both share a commitment to protecting physicians and patients, and ensuring the viability of the health care marketplace through advocacy. This partnership will help support the work that CMA does on behalf of its members in the coming year. “NORCAL has always been a strong supporter of the California medical community in a variety of ways, and we are excited to continue and expand our partnership. ...

Dev GnanaDev M.D. reappointed to the Medical Board of California

Dev GnanaDev, M.D. of Redlands has been reappointed to the Medical Board of California, where he has served since 2011. He has been a clinical professor of surgery at the Western University for Health Sciences since 1995; an associate professor of surgery at Loma Linda University since 1993; and chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center since 1989, where he was medical director from 2000 to 2012. He has been president and chief executive officer of the California University of Science and Medicine since ...

Preview the new location of Southern California Medical Museum

The Southern California Medical Museum invites you to a preview of their new location on the Western University of Health Sciences campus at the Nursing Science Center in the heart of downtown Pomona. Thursday, June 25, 2015 from 5:00-8:00 p.m. 350 S. Garey Ave. 1st Floor, Pomona, CA  91766 RSVP:  Debbie Long at dlong@sbcms.org or 909-273-6000 Call Send SMS Call from mobile Add to Skype You'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype

CMA files amicus brief before the California Supreme Court in La Vida IPA nonpayment case

The California Medical Association (CMA) recently filed an amicus brief in the California Supreme Court in Centinela Freeman Emergency Medical Assocs. v. Health Net et al. to urge a fair and just interpretation of provisions within the Knox-Keene Act that permit health plans to delegate payment responsibility to risk-bearing organizations (RBO). CMA filed the brief to support the plaintiffs in the case, out-of-network health care providers who were left unpaid for emergency medical care when La Vida Independent Practice Association went bankrupt in 2010. Most of the major Knox-Keene ...

Malcolm Gladwell talks problem solving at Western Health Care Leadership Academy

Physicians must be mystery solvers, not puzzle solvers, to successfully deal with the problems of the modern era, said New York Times bestselling author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell in his address to hundreds of physicians at the Western Health Care Leadership Academy on Friday. Gladwell, a keynote speaker at the Hollywood event, spent his keynote illustrating the difference between two conflicting types of problems: mysteries and puzzles — a distinction originally made by national security expert Gregory Treverton. According to the theory, puzzles occur when there is not enough information to ...

IMQ offers free online course on identifying and reporting child abuse

The California Medical Association's Institute for Medical Quality (IMQ) announced that it will offer free training on ways to recognize and report child abuse and neglect. This interactive online course was produced by the Child Abuse Prevention center in Sacramento and designed for physicians who, because of their training or their practice, may not be familiar with indications of child abuse. Nurses, social workers and other health care professionals can also benefit from the training, particularly because they often have more extensive contact with patients or families. IMQ has received ...

CMA supports bill to eliminate RAC incentives that cause punitive and burdensome auditing

The California Medical Association (CMA) has announced its support of a bill introduced in Congress on May 22 that would reform the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC) system. It is titled the Fair Medical Audits Act of 2015 and was introduced by North Carolina Congressman George Holding. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 established the Medicare RAC program to combat fraud and waste in the Medicare system. Initially launched in 2005 as a demonstration project in three states (California, Florida and New York), the Centers for ...

CMA Capitol Insight: May 26, 2015

CMA Capitol Insight is a biweekly column by veteran journalist Anthony York, reporting on the inner works of the state Legislature. Only time will tell As a bill to require children to receive vaccinations before entering public school moved off the Senate floor, the tactics of the California Chiropractic Association were brought into question through a number of independent journalism reports. The California Medical Association will continue to fight hard for what we believe is good public health policy. And while we understand that there can be honest and open disagreement ...

CMS to issue new Medicaid managed care rules for comment

For the first time since 2002, the Obama administration has announced that it will propose new federal regulations for Medicaid managed care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is slated to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking sometime in 2015. Industry stakeholders have already submitted input and recommendations to CMS to consider in the final drafting of the new rules. Indications from those who have already commented on agency drafts are that the new rules will address rate setting, stronger beneficiary protections and easing beneficiary transitions between Medicaid ...