It is a great honor to be president of the San Bernardino County Medical Society. So you may understand more about my commitment to organized medicine, I want to share my background and goals for the year.

The balance billing controversy could divide the physician community and is already beginning to drive a wedge between physicians groups and hospital-based physicians. The resolution of this issue is a major challenge facing the California Medical Association.

A combination of clinical gainsharing and P4P would motivate physicians to participate in clinical-process redesign and compliance activities.

Here is a brief update about the changes made by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) Instruction Manual.

Because the image of politics is soiled, many physicians are reluctant to become part of the political process, and they are skeptical about joining organized medicine.

Technologies such as electronic medical records, computerized order entry for prescriptions and diagnostic tests, and clinical decision-support tools may improve quality, reduce medical errors and prevent deaths.

H.L. Mencken said, "For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong." To that point, can we be sure that pay-for-performance (P4P) programs are right for patient care?

Recent studies reveal that approximately 30.3 percent of children ages 6 to 11 are overweight and 15.3 percent are obese. Moreover, the prevalence of child obesity has quadrupled over the past 25 years. A 2003 California Field Poll shows that only 23 percent of Californians count unhealthy eating and lack of physical activity as top health concerns. These are alarming numbers.