2022 ACCOMPLISHMENTS CONT.

+ Protecting reproductive health providers and their patients by supporting legislation that:

■ Prevents state licensing boards from suspending or revoking the license of someone who legally performs an abortion

■ Protects those performing, aiding in the performing, or obtaining of an abortion from arrest

■ Enacts legal protections from civil and criminal liability for clinicians that provide abortions to patients who reside in other states

■ Prevents state licensing boards from suspending or revoking the license of someone who performs an abortion in accordance with state law

Preserving Physician Practice Standards

CMA protected the safety of patients and preserved the quality of health care by pushing back against reckless scope of practice changes. This included:

+ Defeating legislation that would have allowed optometrists to perform certain surgical procedures without the same training as ophthalmologists

+ Stopping a bill that would have allowed pharmacists to order and perform more than 1,400 Clinic Laboratory Improvement Amendments-approved tests and interpret any test they ordered to “promote patient health”

Physician Workforce and Pipeline

CMA strives to retain our life-saving physicians in the practice of medicine and train and recruit the next generation of physicians who will meet California’s future health care needs. In 2022, CMA:

+ Successfully fought for full funding for Proposition 56 (Tobacco Tax) Medi-Cal supplemental payments and graduate medical education (GME) programs

+ Successfully advocated for a change to the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that will allow all eligible California physicians to receive loan forgiveness

+ Secured state funding for the following:

■ $1.3 billion for hospital health care worker retention pay, including physicians

■ $700 million in equity and practice transformation payments to better meet the needs of the Medi-Cal population and help practices as the Office of Health Care Affordability begins operating