Membership Insider

CMA HOD Recap

The California Medical Association (CMA) House of Delegates (HOD) met in person from October 21st to the 23rd to convene the 151st Annual Session at the JW Marriott LA Live in Los Angeles. SCCMA is part of the District VII Delegation and was pleased to have 26 Delegates and Alternates in attendance. The major issues addressed at this meeting were: Physician Workforce, including recommendations for expanding training for abortion care in California, and protections for California physicians from civil and criminal liability related to abortion services and reproductive care; Health Care Reform, including establishing a new, ongoing revenue source to increase Medi-Cal provider reimbursement rates to meet or exceed Medicare rates; and Mental Health recommendations that support the continued expansion of the behavioral health workforce, training and expanding financial incentives for behavioral health providers practice in underserved and streamlining the financing and payments for mental health services. The full text of the major issue reports can be found at: https://www.cmadocs.org/hod/issues.

A very well-attended pre-HOD session on climate change was led by Dr. Ashley McClure, co-founder of Climate Health Now, a group of members of the California health community who advocate for climate action through a health and equity framework. Physicians who would like to participate can learn more at https://climatehealthnow.org/.

SCCMA Annual Meeting

SCCMA held its virtual Annual Meeting on November 30th. Dr. Tanya Spirtos, CMA Presidentelect and past SCCMA President, spoke to attendees about Realizing Equity and Access to Healthcare, including updates on advocacy related to increasing Medicare rates, access to reproductive healthcare, providing legal protections for clinicians who provide abortion care, and petitioning for California physicians to have access to loan forgiveness programs from which they were previously excluded. In addition, the election of 2023 SCCMA officers and councilors was held. Congratulations to the following newly elected officers and councilors:

2023 OFFICERS

Dr. Gloria Wu - President-elect Dr. Randal Pham – Secretary Dr. Anh Nguyen – Treasurer Dr. Ken Yew - VP of Community Health Dr. Christine Doyle - VP of External Affairs Dr. Sam Wald - VP of Member Services Dr. Lewis Osofsky - VP of Professional Conduct

2023 COUNCILORS

Dr. Reena Bhargava - Kaiser Santa Clara Dr. Fahd Khan - El Camino Hospital Dr. CK Park - Good Samaritan Hospital Dr. Patricia Salmon - Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Dr. Laurice Yang - Stanford