CMA HOD Report

CMA HOUSE OF DELEGATES (HOD)

REPORT

Michael Schrader, MD, PhD and Steve Heilig, MPH

CMA policymaking is more than an academic exercise, as it guides our profession’s advocacy in Sacramento

and beyond. CMA has a broad agenda of medical and public health interests, and has a solid record of success in proposing, supporting, or fighting legislation and other health-related initiatives. You can read of recent activities elsewhere in this issue of our journal; here is a brief report on the most recent statewide annual meeting – for the first time and for obvious reason, a virtual one.

CMA’s House of Delegates, with representatives from every county in our state, convenes annually to debate the most important issues affecting members, the Association, and the practice of medicine. Reports on those topics, with proposed actions, are presented and debated, and educational speakers are invited to provide additional insight. The HOD also addresses any other issues referred to it by the Board of Trustees, including any changes to the bylaws. During Annual Session, the House elects officers, honors members for their service, and receives important updates about the activities of the Association in the past year. Some important elected officials sometimes join in to update us, this year include the Governor of California.

This year we had two timely major issues, as decided upon last year: “Pandemic Response and Preparedness” and “The Future of Medical Practice Post-Covid.” In addition, a bold amendment to the CMA’s Articles of Incorporation to include health equity and justice as core values was introduced and adopted by the HOD.

The format of the HOD was a forum led by Speaker Dr. Tanya Spirtos and Vice-Speaker Dr. Jack Chou. There were inspiring speeches by Governor Gavin Newsom, CMA President Peter Bretan, CMA CEO Dustin Corcoran, and CMA lobbyist Janus Norman. Rather than have in-person testimony and extractions to the major issues, these were done online prior to the HOD.

Dr. Peter Bretan from the SFMMS was inaugurated to a second term as CMA President due to the resignation of President-elect Dr. Lee Snook, who made a difficult decision to save his own practice in this crisis period. Dr. Bretan has led us through a tumultuous year and will continue to lead us through the difficult times ahead. The SFMMS’s own Dr. Shannon UdovicConstant was elected as chair of the CMA Board of Trustees, after serving as vice chair for the past three years.

The major issues are meant to be broad policy declarations with specifics filled in through the year-round resolution process. The “Pandemic Response and Preparedness” major issue report addressed supply chain PPE issues, coordination, protection of health officials from threats, protection of the rights of physician trainees, healthcare inequities, and physician volunteer coordination.

The “Future of Medical Practice Post-Covid" report was a collection of disparate areas related to Covid. The report opened with a call to recognize inequities in health care and social determinants that are a result of systemic racism. It addressed prison health reform and compassionate release. There was a call for support of financial viability of medical practices. The report advocated for the continuation of telemedicine and addressed the digital divide as well as barriers for patients using technology.

In terms of meeting logistics, many of our delegates, and others, were largely disappointed not to have participated in an in-person conference and felt less engaged than with previous HODs. The delegates recognized that this was probably the best we could do with the current pandemic. On the positive side, without travel and with a much-reduced meeting time—it was five hours—the time commitment this year for delegates was significantly less. But those who had attended in previous years missed the collegiality and even fun this meeting always entails in person.

The CMA HOD is constantly morphing due to our changing profession and now the Covid pandemic. As always, your SFMMS District VIII Delegation strives to represent you. We welcome your ideas and suggestions for resolutions – any issue related to medicine and public health is fair game. For a partial list of some of the topics we have addressed in the past, sometimes with local, state, national and even international impact, please see the advocacy list at the back of this journal. We have a proud tradition and plan to continue that. If you have any thoughts regarding an issue SFMMS and CMA might address, please get in touch with Steve Heilig to start: heilig@sfmms.org

Dr. Schrader, an internist now with Dignity Health, is chair of the SFMMS delegation to the CMA.

Steve Heilig, MPH is the Director of Public Health and Education for the SFMMS.